CDT mile 1172.8, Miles hiked 16.8
The Neversummer Wilderness
I sent Cheesy on her way up the trail before I was to leave town. To continue her continuous line of footsteps to Canada she had to hike the 7.5 miles alternate to Green Lake trailhead where I had hiked on the loop on Sunday. Once she left I headed to the Post Office with Big John. As we walked to the PO we saw Easy Rider, Nips and Soju as they were resupplying. When I arrived at the post office my good friend Zorro was there on the porch, we hadn’t seen each other since I bailed down the Creede cutoff. It was great to meet and catch up he said he was glad to hear Cheezy and I were hiking together and he would be trying to catch up to us.
Maverick showed up at the post office and the two of us walked out of town to highway 34 to hitch to the trailhead. Now it was July 5th and we were on a highway to a National Park so you would think with all the traffic someone would stop to give a ride to the two nice heavily bearded guys one of which is cross-dressed in a skirt. Much to our surprise though it took 40 minutes for someone to stop. Her name was Lia and got us to the park entrance and gave us a bunch of food. The next ride to the trailhead took some time too but we eventually found Cheezy waiting for us.
The many moose of Colorado
The three of us loaded up and walked towards the west and our destiny, the Never Summer Wilderness. A short way up the trail and we cleared treeline only to be treated to 3 moose enjoying the fresh grass in a meadow. After that, we trudged our way up and over Bowen Pass and there we met at the top to regroup.
The trail descended a nice valley and the three of us chatted on our way down. We talked about how each of us was all that was left from the groups we had been in from NM to CO and beyond, but we laughed and agreed that we are the leftovers. A huge laugh that our team name should be that was had and we all agreed that our similar paces suited us well.
We ended the day with a nice campsite near a creek. Since it was early we made a small fire and got to know eachother better. We miss our beloved Buttercup, but Maverick is a solid addition to our team and hell of great guy so we’ll see how it goes this next leg.
