Day 4, 22.4 miles

Guys I’m so bummed! I wrote an extensive blog post late at night but it totally got deleted! Stay tuned for that story. Therefore I’m writing this the next day. Super bummed but here’s the shortened version of what happened!

I woke up in the cold meadow and got to hiking slow and steady up a 9 mile climb towards Georgia Pass. I camped here strategically so I could knock out the climb before the heat! My plan worked as it was cool and tree covered for the first 8 or so miles.

Nice spot for a first break and stretch

I was glad when the trail finally broke out of the tress above tree line and the views opened up.

Georgia Pass at 11,879 feet, the highest point  so far

I started back down and took a break once I hit treeline as the sun was getting toasty! In front of me was a giant mountain and two runners passing by said it was a 13’er (Over 13,000 feet, below 14k). When I was in Jefferson I picked up some iced tea lemonade from a hiker box and it was a pleasant mountain top drink! 

Continuing on I soon met a bike-packer coming the opposite way named “Turtle”. Not sure how he got that name, because he was almost done with his Colorado Trail yo-yo! (He hiked to Durango like I’m doing, but then got on a bike and is headed back to Denver!) crazy!! 👏 

Soon afterwards was the junction where the Colorado Trail meets the Continental Divide Trail! The CDT guns from New Mexico to Canada. It’s like the longer, gnarlier version of the PCT, and over 3,000 miles!

I hit a huge stream with a hard walk over it and on the other side met three other hikers for the first time. One of them is named Minnie Mouse. She’s a hiker from South Korea and is sponsored by K2 this year. She did the PCT in 2019. She has a GoPro and is filming a lot; I signed her trail flag and she said I’ll be in a video later on after the hike, haha.

I opted for a full hobo bath in the ICY cold creek, and felt much better as I started up the next 9 mile waterless climb. I knew I would dry camp somewhere before the source, so I camel’ed up at the river, and I took 2 full liters out with me.

My Bathtub! 🥶 

Minnie Mouse headed out up the climb ahead

Steep!

About half way up the climb the sun was really beating down hot, It was about 4pm and I knew I wasn’t going to go all the way to Breck so I decided to stop under some shade and blog! 

A great place for a Siesta on a hot and steep afternoon 

Man, I wrote so much, you guys should’ve seen! I even re-invented the wheel in writing during that break! I’m a little fuzzy on the design details so I can’t share, but man, I’m super bummed that I lost all that writing! 

The sun angled further down around 5 (and I was getting attacked by tiny biting flies), so I decided to continue on. I knew I only had a 5ish miles before I would camp.

I love this sun-hoody you can even block the diagonal harsh rays of the afternoon.

I could see Keystone resort from trail. Claire and I will be skiing and snowboarding here this winter! 

There’s some really cool mountain biking on this trail and I was to come revisit sections of it like the one I descended today! I need to come back up here with the Quad Squad! (My local group of mountain biking friends in Colorado Springs).

Nice and flowy berms

Natural hip jumps

I was beginning to feel really slow and tired in my last mile or so, just kind of slogging along mindlessly, until I spotted my campsite for the night! 

It had a bench!! And what a view! 

This place was awesome! A bench, an amazing view, a nice breeze to keep the mosquitos away (plus no water sources nearby. I pitched my tent in the trees right behind the trail and sat back on the bench from 7:45 until about 9:30!!

Tent secured

You get the point!!

The distant wildfires in Loveland made for an epic gradient in the sky (without affecting breathing much). As I sat there I blogged the second half of the day, with (believing it or not), even more detail than you’re currently reading. 

Ok, now to finally tell you how I lost my original blog post:

So, there I was, delving deep into the intricacies of Einsteins Theory of Relativity, etc etc. Absolutely riveting stuff, wish you guys could’ve read it! All of a sudden I hear a voice signing in the distance. It’s pitch black around me mind you. The voice and song gets closer and then I see a bike-packer carefully picking his was down the hill, as to not go OTB (over the handlebars) on the rough and rocky descent. 

He seemed embarrassed when he spotted me and realized I heard his acapella, but I get it. It’s super spooky out there at night. You want to keep your mind busy and also alert huge creatures of the night of your presence on trail. 

“You need a spot to camp?” I offered, as there were at least four more spots but so far I had the place to myself. “Nah, trying to get down to Breck tonight, that lightning is sketchy (gesturing behind me).”

“What lightning?” I turn around and about 30 miles (over the town of Buena Vista), there’s an epic storm cloud just throwing lightning left and right. It was so far I couldn’t hear any thunder. 

I wished him a good trip and switched over to my camera on the phone to try and take a long exposure to capture the lighting. When I switched back over to the blog, everything was wiped! Fully white screen, everything gone :(

Here’s the pic! Hope it was worth it! Haha. Keep in mind it’s pitch black, so the lighting strike I captured in the long exposure produced all the light in the sky!! Pretty good for an iPhone mini! 

Well, there it is, blog #2 for day 4! 

Thanks for reading!