Our ride to the trailhead was picking us up at 8, so we just barely had time to stop by one of the cafes in town to get some breakfast.
He drove us up to the trailhead and we got started around 8:30. To start, we needed to do a 1400 foot climb just to get back to the trail. That went well and soon we were back on the CDT and hiking.
The next town is only about 38 miles from where we started, so no matter where we stopped it should be easy to get to town tomorrow. Someone had the crazy idea to get most of the climbing out of the way and do about 30 miles.
This would take us up over the highest point on the Colorado Trail. The CDT and Colorado Trail overlap for a few hundred miles. The highest point on the CDT is higher.
Getting up this high (over 13k feet) meant committing to hiking the full 30 mile day. Otherwise we would have to carry enough water up there to camp and deal with temperatures at that elevation.
We made it up and over and got some fantastic views as the sun set. We hiked until almost 9pm, which is the latest I’ve hiked so far. Tomorrow we’ll make it into Lake City for some more rest and relaxation.