I woke up, packed my tent, and checked on my friends. They were all still sleeping. I hit the trail after getting them all up since we needed to get up and over some big mountains today.
The day started by climbing up and diverging from the Colorado trail. The Colorado Trail went off down a valley and we summitted a 13er. After that, we stayed high on ridges for the rest of the day. The ridges were so big that there were 4x4 trails on them. Since it was a Saturday I saw a lot of ATVs brapping around. Even though it’s pretty easy for vehicles to reach some of these places, still no trail magic!
Along one of the roads I saw my first mountain goat of the trail. I knew Colorado had them, but I wasn’t sure if we were going to be in their habitat.
The photo is actually the second one that I saw. The first was too far away to photograph.
After leaving the Colorado Trail, it was obvious most of the trail maintenance had stopped. In fact, for most of the day, the trail was gone completely.
There was lots of cross country travel high on ridges. Having my phone was helpful, but there wasn’t really a lot of other ways you could actually go.
Along the way we climbed 4 different 13ers. Today was one of the most beautiful and most challenging days on trail.
The only thing that was a little odd was all of the ATVs and roads. It didn’t feel like too much of a wilderness, but it was still epic.
Today took us down a slope that our app marked as “Dangerous Traverse.” I had kind of assumed it wouldn’t be too bad. If it was so dangerous, people in the Facebook group would be going crazy about it right?
It actually ended up being a little sketchier than I thought it would be. I took the wrong way, but it worked!
As I got down into the valley, the storms started to roll in. Hail and light sprinkles followed me down. I made camp along a road and got my tent set up before it really started raining.
It’s supposed to rain all night. Tomorrow we’re supposed to hit the CDT high point, but if the weather is bad that might not be a good idea. I guess the backup plan would be to hitchhike back to town and wait for a nicer day.