CDT mile 527.5, miles hiked 17
I stirred bed not wanting to wake up, I had such a great night sleep the night before dreaming of the ocean and fishing, I guess all this time in the dry Rockies has me missing the ocean a bit. I finally got up showered in the crappy low water pressure shower at the hotel and started to pack. Suzy and I chatted for a bit she had arrived in Boston on her way to Virginia To see her mom. I packed up and then a pile of us headed next door to have breakfast before hitting the trail. About 13 hikers sat together enjoying a hot breakfast and sharing tales of the trip so far.
Buttercup and Freefall battling it out
We headed down the main road and then turned onto a smaller road that would take us to the trailhead. As we walked the road it turned from pavement to dirt and there we saw a 4′ bull snake laying in the little bit of sun we had. We carried on and came to the trailhead where Greg on Wild, Cheezy, and Nessie were eating lunch. We ate and then all of us started up the climb of 2000′ we had to climb to reach the top of the mountain. We encountered some snow patches and we walked through the forest, and soon came to a meadow that was more of a marsh. For the rest of the day, we slogged through wet meadows in water and mud up past our ankles.
We met 3 ultra-runners out on a long trip from the Ghost Ranch area. The 3 of them stopped and chatted with us. One guy knew my good friend Bobcat and one other was on the Altra team with my friends Anish, Snorkel, and lint we chatted for about 10 minutes and then we all started on our way.
Back in the wilderness
We came across a snowmelt stream and gathered water before going a bit farther and setting up camp early. We had made good time so since we stopped early we gathered some dead wood and made a small fire to warm up and hang out for the evening many stores were shard and the 8 of us had some great laughs.
The group enjoying a small fire to warm up at 10,000′, From yellow ground pad, counter clockwise-Freefall, Sweet Potato, Greg in Wild, Cheezy, Bandit, Wildernessie.
The full moon is back and bathing the campsite in its soft glow. It’s cold but manageable and I am getting all tucked into my quilt for a nice nights rest. Tomorrow we plan to hike about 26 miles to set us up for a short 11-mile day into Ghost Ranch on Saturday.
The group is motivated to get Nessie to Cumbres pass and Chama by the 26th so she can get to Denver to meet her boyfriend flying in from London. The two of them plan to flip up north to East Glacier and southbound the rest of the CDT together. It will be sad to see her go as she is a great spirit to be around and keeps us all laughing during the day. Cheezy plans to keep northbound and her and Zorro will leave Chama with us on May 29 to enter the San Juans and begin the two – three-week snow adventure that awaits us.
Alright time to sign off and get some sleep, this blogging nightly on trail is tough
