Day 77- A Lit Fuse

Saturday June 30, 2018

Gold Hill TH(1233.5) to Georgia Pass(1252.9) 

19.4 Miles

Total Miles: 1324.5

Elevation: 11,754 feet

For reasons that I’m not going to share, I did not got much sleep last night. As a result I’m utterly exhausted tonight. I’m also camped on a windy and cold mountain side. This will be a short post. 

I managed to drag myself out of bed a little after 8:30 this morning. I went down to breakfast even though I wasn’t particularly hungry. I sipped a cup of coffee and picked at a croissant while talking to BFG. SHR showed up shortly after. They followed me to my room so I could give them a few items to take home with them. Turtle was ready to go so we went back down to the lobby. BFG and SHR had us back to the trailhead a little before ten o’clock. We took some pictures and said our goodbyes. It was a great visit and I was sad to walk away. 

Proof that they were on the cdt

Great picture 

The day started off with a 12.6 mile dry stretch and several easy climbs. Dry stretches on the Colorado Trail portion of this hike have been almost nonexistent. I loaded up with a liter and a half, but I wish I would have carried a little more. Due to my lack of sleep, I wasn’t in the greatest of moods today. I was a bomb with a lit fuse. It didn’t take long to detonate. I could have titled today’s blog, mountain bike madness part two. I shared the trail with bikers all day. I was constantly having to break my stride and/or come to a complete stop to let them go by. When I’m climbing uphill this is difficult to do and really messes with my rhythm. What was really irritating was the downhill bikers would stop and move out of the way for uphill bikers, but not hikers. This really got my goat. Technically hikers have the right of way at all times, except to horses. Everyone yields to horses. If I’m able to safely move out of their way I will, but several times it put me in a precarious position and the downhill bikers never even acknowledged my sacrifice. I really could have used the mental boost of some Harry Potter today, but there was no way I was going to decrease my hearing with all of the bikers out and about. 

First climb of the day

Enough about the bikers. Just understand that this went on for all 19 miles. Today should have been pretty easy, but the water weight slowed me down slightly. I also thought I was feeling 100%, but I guess I wasn’t. My energy level was down all day and I didn’t have much of an appetite. I also let myself get dehydrated. Not the greatest combination. I took a longer break than normal at mile 15. I tried to get myself rehydrated because I was looking at a 20 mile dry stretch ahead of me. What gives? This is only the second time of the Colorado part of the trail that I’ve had such a long waterless stretch. I wasn’t looking forward to carrying 2.5 liters up a 2,000 foot climb. Just before this area I met the guy(can’t think of his name just now) that took my trash at Tennessee Pass a few days ago. He is flip flop hiking the CT and we keep bumping into one another. He had a few friends with him that had a car. They gave me some potable water and half of a Gatorade. I definitely hope to see him again. 

Totally not hiking a trail called The Blair Witch Trail

What most of my day looked like

Last water for 20 miles

You will notice my daily mileage start to drop for the next few days. That is because of logistics and crazy amounts of elevation change. I’ll be stuck hiking less than 20 miles tomorrow, unless I want to climb the 10th highest peak in the lower 48(Greys) at the end of an already difficult day. After summiting Grey’s, I’ll probably tackle Torrey’s, even though it isn’t part of the trail. It is just traditional to summit the two peaks on the same day. After climbing Greys I will only drop down 800 feet, before starting up Torrey’s. Then I will climb up several 13er’s. This will be a fun, but challenging and tiring section. 

Sunset from my sleeping bag

“Walking: the most ancient exercise and still the best modern exercise.”
- Carrie Latet