With over 60 miles to town, I wanted to get an early start on the day. I hoped that with the lower elevation gain coming up I could possibly make it to Wyoming today.
The trail had other plans. For whatever reason there was still a lot of snow near where we were. This wasn’t really an issue, but it made the ground very swampy and horrible to walk through.
Very early in the day I had soaking wet feet. In some ways that’s nice because then you don’t need to tiptoe around puddles and things. In other ways it’s terrible. My feet also smell like death after being wet all day.
Despite the rough trail, today gave some spectacular views. I got to enjoy the last big mountains of Colorado and then spend a good amount of the day descending.
On the descent I met a guy from New Mexico who was just doing a section hike. Leadville to Rawlins Wyoming. He used to live in Seattle and we talked for a few hours as we descended from the mountains. It made the time pass quickly and we exchanged information so he could maybe help out when I go back down to New Mexico to finish the trail.
As we descended it got HOT. It felt like New Mexico, but with bigger climbs. The mosquitoes were horrible too. Stopping wasn’t really an option.
I did my best to beat the heat by soaking my towel and drinking lots of water. I don’t think I’ve drank this much water on any other day in CO.
As the day was coming to an end, I ran into my friends Raider and Pitch who stayed with us in the AirBnb. I had gotten pretty far ahead of everyone else so it was nice to see some familiar faces.
I got some water with them but didn’t stick around. The bugs were the worst they had been all day. Unfortunately someone had left a comment about this river saying it was great for fishing. No way was I standing there long enough to fish.
I fell short of my goal to get to the Wyoming border by about 7 miles. It was definitely ambitious. Tomorrow I have a long day to get to Encampment Wyoming. Hopefully I can make it before the restaurants close.