CDT mile 707.5, miles hiked 8.7
Left to right Snorkel, Let It Be, and Allgood or the current VP of ALDHA-West, the first President of ALDHA-West and current President of ALDHA-West
We got up at Karla and Mark’s and took some time to work on my blog and eat Karla’s amazing biscuits and gravy. Karla had arranged for her friend’s rafting company to take us over the pass to Pagosa in a large van. The van picked us up and we said our goodbyes. The ride over Wolf Creek Pass is something else and the winding road made me a bit queasy as I sat in the back of the van.
The driver delivered us to my friend of 20 years Let It Be, who I hiked some of the Appalachian Trail with back in 1996. Hliveses outside of town and has a nice little hiker bunk room and a few acres to spread out on. Once there I caught a ride to town with Bug John, Cheezy and Snorkel. A final trip to the outfitter, then we enjoyed eating yak burgers and drinking flights of beers at Riff Raff Brewing.
Bad lighting for this picture, but the beer was good at least
We wrapped up the day with a trip to Springs Resort a lovely hot springs resort with multiple pools from 94-117 degrees. We soaked our weary bones and watched the storm brew on top of the pass. Afterwards we stopped by the worlds deepest hot spring right there in town and then went back for a family dinner at Let It Be’s. After dinner we talked about what to do as far as hiking the groups split. In the morning Big John, Snorkel and Cheezy would stay an extra day and then take the Creede Cut off on Monday. The rest of us decided to try the high route to Stoney Pass where we arranged a shuttle to pick us up in 6 days to resupply in Lake City.
We went to sleep and awoke in the morning to a final group breakfast, a quick resupply at Walmart and then back to the house to pack up. Let it Be had a scale and we all weighed our packs and then had a chance to rework things. With 6 days of food, snow gear and what not my pack weighed 40lbs a beast!
Winter gear is heavy
We loaded all 6 of us into his little Toyota and he whisked up the road to Wolf Creek Pass to start back on the trail. At 2:30 the sky got dark and the thunder started we waited for an hour for the storm to pass and then started our climb up. The trail was not too bad until about 5 miles in when we hit the snow line and trudged through it with our micro spikes. At 7pm we found a melted out spot and set up camp.
The ground was moist from recent snowmelt but we were able to get a small fire going to warm out cold feet and then we ate dinner and turned in for the night. All of us were wiped out from the last section and couple of busy days in town, and the warmth of my quilt was a welcome reprieve as I fell fast to sleep.
Leaving for round two in the San Juan Mountains
