Welp, it has been a while since my last update and a lot of things have changed. Most notably I’m now on the section of trail where the CDT and the CT (colorado trail) overlap. This means that the last two hundred miles have been relatively cruisy. I mean, it doesn’t magically take the elevation away but the trail quality has consistently been rather good.
This wasn’t true for the first little bit since I last updated. I still had to reach the CT which was some of the hardest days I’d haf on trail. From constantly waking up with frost on my tent — and one day even an inch of frozen sleet and staying high up on the ridgelines for up to fifteen miles at a time in cold wet weather it was rather tough. Luckily, my Uncle Rich was in town and picked me up a day early to spend a day with his cousin Pat. I had a lot of fun hanging out with them and was able to relax and resupply for the highest point on trail — Grays peak. Which is also my first fourteener 🙂 Unfortunately it was snowing when I reached the summit so I decided against also summiting Torreys which is connected by a saddle.
And now we are onto the colorado trail! Now admittedly it wasn’t all sunshine and roses as you can see below but I ended up meeting up again with Du Jour as we raced through the snow to Leadville.
And of course if you know anything about Leadville, then yes, I did get a Melly even if I immediately turned around and shipped it home. Because even though it is a trophy for having walked this far I neither want to carry it nor do I want for it to get all dirty from a month and a half of constant use. Now you might be thinking, but don’t they have a 9 month waitlist for appointments to shop there? Well, I’ll let you know the secret hack: walk sixteen thousand miles and they will let you in.
Otherwise, after Leadville the weather had been perfect, the views have been spectacular and the trail had been great. Currently I write to you from the butterfly house in Monarch, Co. It’s a nice little hostel just a few miles from the trail and the only thing left is for my clothes to dry before I head into Salida to get more food before hitting the trail again. Where in about 70 miles I’ll need to make the decision to go through the exposed San Juans of to take the lower and less exposed Creed cutoff. Oh, I also finally caught up with some of the sprouts so now, after being clipped around West Yellowstone, I finally get to wear a plastic little plant attached to my hat 🙂
CDT Blog 