Upon arriving in Colorado the talk of the trail was the late season snowfall that still hadn’t completely melted yet, and what consequences this would have for the trail. Especially through the San Juan Mountains. A lot of hikers decided to flip up to Canada or Wyoming and then start hiking south to avoid the snow. I decided to stick to the plan and continue northbound. Severe thunderstorms raging through Colorado at the time forced me to do to drop down into the valley and do a road walk from Cumbres Pass to Wolf Creek Pass. I still had a really great time and it was a lot of fun hiking with Lint, Lennon, Threshold, Trivia and Tragic. Trivia’s parents happened to be coming out from California and followed us from Cumbres to Wolf Creek and supported us from their Sportsmobile.
We all went in from Wolf Creek Pass to Pagosa Springs, CO. A really cool town with lots of hot springs, hence the name… Pagosa Springs also happens to be the home of triple triple crowner Let It Be. Yep, that’s right, he has hiked both the Continental Divide Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail 3 times! He also happens to be a really cool guy, so we ended up chillin at his place in Pagosa Springs for a couple of days.
Finally, myself, Trivia and Tragic headed back to Wolf Creek Pass and continue north. We hiked together for about a day, then split ways as Trivia and Tragic were doing the Creede cut-off. For the next 5 days I was hiking all by myself. The first two days without seeing a single person! It was a great experience though and the San Juan Mountains were awesome! The trail runs between 11.500 and 13.500 feet in the San Juans, and there was still a bit of snow, especially in the western section. And I was definitely huffing and puffing more than I do at lower elevations. The views were awesome though, and I’m glad I didn’t skip this section. In Lake City I was re-united with my hiking buddies RestStop and OD, and after a zero-day at the Ravens Rest Hostel we hiked on to Salida together. Out of of the San Juans and out of the snow. All is well on the CDT.
Photos
Click here to see the pictures (high res) on Flickr.