CDT mile 1010.9, miles hiked 22.3
The Katabatic Gear crew out for a hike
We did it today we finally broke the 1000 mile mark, but let’s face it, this sounds way better in kilometers. It feels great to be in 1000miles, the CDT is officially 3100 miles but the route I am doing will wind up around 2800 so I am about 1/3 done. To beat the snow up north we’ll have to be disciplined the rest of the trip; up early and hike late, less time in town, and making sure that we do at least 20 miles a day.
Crossing the high country
Our day started with a mega early wake up at the CDTC WHQ, Teresa needed to get us dropped by 6:30 so she could make her trail work meet up in Grand Lake on time. She raced us up to Evergreen and dropped us at a Starbucks for our next ride to get us back to the trail.
My friends Kris and Aaron who happen to own Katabatic Gear, makers of the best sleeping quilts ever and the ones who made my sleep system, came about an hour later and picked the three of us up. The loaded us in their rig and drove us up to Copper Mountain. We talked about trail and gear on the ride and then just about life. Once at Copper, we found the spot we had ended the other day and then started out (my 1010.9 miles is still a continuous line of footsteps and one thing I’m proud of). The 5 of us hiked together for the first 5 miles. Luckily for them, we only gained 2400′.
The trails were crowded with weekend hikers but it was nice to have Kris and Aaron along to talk with and mix up the conversation. We chatted a lot about trail techniques as they’re considering thru-hiking the Colorado trail this fall. Finally, at the top of the ridge, they had to go say goodbye and get back to town.
If this trail’s name isn’t creepy my tiny hand is
The three of us continued on, below we spotted the town of Breckenridge and we worked our way down the trail to highway 9. At the parking lot trailhead we met a nice lady who had just gotten off the CT, she shared two half drank sodas with us before we hiked on, once under the highway we spotted an RV park. Now most hikers don’t see RV parks as an oasis but we do, we went to the office and bought sodas, filled up our water and then sat at their picnic table and snacked. Finally, after a bit, we started on our last leg of the day.
We climbed through a logged out area and kept flipping between public and private land, finally back on good old USFS soil we found some water and decided to push on up the next ridge for the evening. The climb was gentle and well switchbacked, we ran across many a mountain biker and Colorado Trail hiker, everyone was out enjoying the nice weather.
The snow is about gone for us, this ridge led us down to Breckenridge
When I reached camp buttercup was busy getting firewood and setting up camp. We all decided to cowboy camp and then settled in for dinner. Once done with dinner we felt a few raindrops and then a light shower came down just enough for all of us to scramble to put up our tents.
