Day 13, 14.6 miles Mt. Princeton Hot Springs

Hello there! What an interesting and unique day I had today. Maybe my favorite on the trail so far! Ace and I woke up in our cool spot by the road, we packed up and decided to head West on road 306 to see the sights at Cottonwood Pass! It’s the trailhead where the Collegiate West crosses so we were on the look out for some other hikers!

Milk Duds and M&Ms in my HOT oatmeal this morning, chocolate courtesy of Hayley (Aces fiancée) and hot water courtesy of Ace and his Jetboil! (Getting spoiled out here) haha

The Black Stallion reaches 350,000!!!

Great Pano from Ace

After hiking to a lookout summit we jumped back in the car and headed back down to Avalanche Trailhead. We hit the Colorado Trail by 9. At the first bridge crossing we met a couple Northbound hikers who were fishing, Tinman and Ranger. They are just doing the collegiate Loop but they have the bug for thru-hiking now!

Their packs are sure smaller than mine 😂 

Trail name Ace, real name Daddy Long Legs 😂 

After a couple miles in, I said by to Ace… thanks again man!! 🙌 

I only had a 4 climb and the rest was down all the way to Mt. Princeton. I got booking! Jk, o actually went really slow, taking lots of food breaks and sock changes. I really love this section of the trail. It gorgeously wet right now with not a lot of mosquitos!

At some point when I got service, I got a text from Brenda saying the West got hit hard with rain yesterday and it was not fun! Also that a marmot chewed up his trekking pole, noooo!!! Claire and I have been there before. Everything comes inside the tent now!! Soon I came to a dirt road switchback.

Right: Mt. Princeton Summit 6 miles (off CT)

Left: Mt Princeton Hot Springs 4 miles (on CT)

Hard desicion? Nah. It was nearing thunderstorm o’clock so I head left to go get pizza and a hot spring soak instead of climb another 14er in a thunderstorm hahaha.

❤️ 

Thunderstorm O’CLOCK!!

Wish I could’ve cut down but it was a private road 

What to do on a 4 mile road walk? Find the exact balance point of your trekking poles of course! 

The road walk into the Resort was not bad. There was a pretty nice shoulder for more than half of it, and during the tighter corners with no shoulder, there were not many cars and I could hear them coming and switch sides before they even saw me. At some point a car turned around just for me to come ask if I wanted a ride. I was only .7 away at that point so I said no thanks and they were like “Huh?!”. 🤣 

There it is!!! 

As I got close there was a wedding party taking pictures in a gorgeous field. They had such a picture perfect dog with them I asked if I could take a photo. The dog was sitting so still and behaving so well. Once I approached the dog ran towards me, got all excited, and started rolling in the roadside gravel and dirt!! “Ben, STOP HIM!” The bride shrieked! Oops! 😂 

When I got to the Resort the first thing I did was went to the market to get a pizza! It was only $12 for a pizza with all the toppings!! Very surprising honestly seeing all the other prices of everything else around. While it was being made, I went next door to check out the hot springs to decide if I’d soak or not. Since it was $45 for a weekend day pass the lady said I could go look around first. You’ll never guess who I saw!!

The four dudes from a few days ago who gave me their extra snacks!!

I had seen them in Twin Lakes as well. They never thought they’d see me again and neither did I honestly!  We chatted for a bit, until my pizza timer went off. We said our final goodbyes (they’re going home today), and I went to go grind! 

Mmmmm!!! I was in pizza heaven (again) 

While I was eating, I acquired a wristband, and soon after went to go enjoy the amenities! Half of the resort closes at 5, and it was 4:30, so I just went to the Historic bath house and spa. It was awesome! There were two big pools, one at 102° and one at 99°. Then there was a suuuuuuuper hot sauna, and the river flowed right by for cold plunging. (Usually there are small pools built on the side that hold hot water but it rained so much over the last few days that they are all cold and flooded by the raging river).

The 102° pool

The hot river pools not so popular today! 🥶 

The place was so awesome, I didn’t want to leave! I even wrote half of this blog while standing in the 102° pool 😂. I knew there was 2.6 miles of road to walk until the closest place to camp, but dang I sure was tempted to stay until 9pm and then try and stealth camp in some bushes… I did however listen to the will to leave and after a great shower I filled up my bottle with cucumber water and was off! 

Huge hot showers!! 😊 

This may be the cleanest I’ve ever been! Hahaha. I was sort of nervous that I made my feet too soft and that they’d hurt on the road, but honestly, it felt like I was walking on clouds once I put on my socks and shoes and hit the road! I would for sure be down to return with Claire! 

Leaving 😢 

The road was pretty sketch with no shoulders at all. I’m surprised that the CT Foundation hasn’t prioritized rerouting this section or making it safer somehow! Even though there was still an hour until sunset, the sun had already dropped behind the big mountain two photos up. The road was pretty dim. I told myself I wouldn’t stick out my thumb, but soon I heard a car slow down and Dave asked me if he could take me to the trailhead. I thought about it for a second and took him up on his offer. 

On the PCT, I was determined to keep a continuous foot path which I ended up achieving! That means I never disrupted my walking path, even if it was off trail for a fire alternate, etc. Quite honestly, on the CT, I don’t really care about walking miles on a sketchy road, and it won’t keep me up at night if I skip that. 

We zoomed the last 1.8 miles to the trailhead and I ate my last slices of pizza there before heading up to camp for the night! Bootleg Campground is pretty sweet. It’s not maintained any longer, but it’s free for day use and free to camp at. The Chalk Creek runs right by it for water, and there’s even a bear box there to store your food!

It was cool to see Chalk Creek again, about 2.5 miles upstream from where people use it as a cold plunge at the resort. It’s much cleaner up here 🤣 

Saweeeeet!!

I always pick the nice soft pine under a big live tree rather than a tent site of very hard packed ground!

This is day three of me taking it easier than I had in the start, and it’s been so fun! I got one more 15ish mile day tomorrow and then I see Claire in Salida on Monday! The goal has been to strengthen my knees and feet but not push them too hard on this section! I’m really happy I went with Collegiate East, it’s been fantastic so far! Maybe after Salida you guys will see me push 20+ average daily again instead of 15. We’ll have to see!!

-Thanks for reading!!