Hello! Wow, what a roller coaster of a day! On every long trip I’ve done I always have a day on trail where when I remember it back, I just go… “Man, that sucked!” I wonder if I’ll get another day to top this or if the worst is over! Today I went against all my own advice and I’m now sitting in a predicament, with a sore body, a blistered foot, and probably not enough food to get to town tomorrow… Let’s dive right in!
The gamble last night paid off, it never rained and I was just perfectly fine without my rain fly. I only slept maybe 3 hours max however.. I’m just not used to my closed cell foam pad anymore since I side sleep at home, and I could NOT get comfortable. I also have a new sleeping bag and new sleep clothes so I was always too hot or too cold, but nonetheless, I was up at 5 and started at 5:45am.
I enjoyed the morning a lot, I really liked watching all the deer bound away as I came down the trail. They jump so high and effortlessly I wonder how they don’t land on any of those tiny cacti that are everywhere out here in this burn area.
The morning was easy and rolling terrain, I made almost 10 miles by 10am. I soon came across an area that my buddy Richard and I have mountain biked before in the Buffalo Creek Wilderness. Man, it sure goes by so much faster on a bike!!
I specifically remember walking by bike up this part..
I came up to a water source and met another hiker. His name is Quinn, he’s from Durango, and as wild as the odds are he’s great friends with my wife’s cousin Sam!
Quinn!
We hiked for awhile together until a big creek just before a 10 mile climb up! It was about 11:45 and the day was really heating up, so we stopped for a foot soak and Quinn even dunked!
Braver than me!!
On second thought, I probably should’ve jumped in, I am STINK right now! We started up the long hot climb together but he soon left me in the dust as I had to make a long stop to put more tape on my feet. The hot uphills really don’t help and I was feeling a new hotspot on my right foot. Anyway, this is where my day started going downhill… or I guess technically uphill, but, you know what I mean.
So, I only took 2.5 days of food out from the trailhead, figuring I’d hitch into the town of Bailey at mile 40. I didn’t do enough research however, and Bailey turns out to be super hard to hitch to! I think I had read one persons comment early July who had no problems getting in and out of town, but today I discovered that most people struggle hard and some even end up walking 8 miles into town!
The mile 40 parking lot… no luck getting into town from here today :(
I took an (optimistic) look at my remaining food in my food bag, and decided hey, I have enough food for the next 35 miles! I’ll just crank out 15 more today and then 20 tomorrow, and then hitch to the town of either Jefferson or Fairplay from Kenosha Pass (a proper paved road) at mile 70!
Well, I continued on the long hard climb as the sun really started to peak, and then guess what? The trail turned into the steepest Jeep road that we’ve encountered yet and the next 6 miles of the climb were absolute hell!
Folks, it is really hard to tell how steep that from the picture, but trust me, it was bad! To make things worse the sun was directly overhead and since it was a wide road there was almost no shade for many parts! The new hot spot that I had taped on my right foot was screaming, so I stoped to have a looksie. Sure enough, I had put tape over a small blister earlier and now it had quickly grown into a big ole thang :(
What started out as this:
Quickly turned into miles and miles of this:
Even the scenery was failing! Haha. Anyway, with everything combined, my progress slowed significantly. Also, if you’ve even hiked straight up in the afternoon Colorado sun with no shade, you know that it totally wrecks you, requiring WAY more food and water… so yup, I had to already dip into tomorrows food supply.
Finally! The jeep road took a sharp left into a proper trail again! Only negative? It was 2.7 miles STRAIGHT UP! Really hard on the feet too with slanted rocks galore!
I did not take any pictures of that zone. I was really irritated at myself, knew I was pushing myself too hard, and yet still had to push harder with a new blister so I don’t run out of food!
Left to right, this is what today looked like… cruisy and flowy and fast while it was cool, and then a 10 mile climb in the heat of the day!! (Look how straight up the last part of that climb is) Again nearly 5,000 feet climbed.
I stopped at the top to fill up water, went about .4 down the other side, stopped for a second to change socks, and got swarmed by mosquitos barefoot even though there was no water around! I got three total on my feet, and one near my blister :(
Four miles later (of downhill thank goodness), I came upon an incredible meadow which views slightly lifted my spirits. That is until I set up my tent and got swarmed again!
I love wearing full rain gear in 80°’s!
The river I’m camped near.. I took a hobo bath 10 mins before sundown and brrr it was cold! I couldn’t get all the way in!
Anyways, it’s now 9:20pm, I think I’ll wake up a bit earlier and try and be on the trail by 5:15. I may start writing less if I’m going my to continue these big days, it’s a lot to do! Either that or I’ll start writing these posts between 2-4pm while I force shade breaks!
Tomorrow I have 2 packets of oatmeal, a mini kind bar, a mini snickers, a payday, a full sized clif bar, and about 1/2 a cup of burrito filling and a single tortilla! That has to last me 22 miles until Kenosha Pass, wish me luck!!
Thanks for reading!
