Adios y hasta luego mis queridas amigos!

Day 73

Date: 13.07.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 1'469.3

Miles hiked: 15.3 miles / 24.2 km

Elevation: 3'104 feet ascent (946.8 m Aufstieg) / 2'687 feet descent (Abstieg 819.5 m)

Camping at: 10'761 feet / 3'282 m

Today I slept in till 9am. I am not in a rush, only have to hike 15 miles and then will meet up with Ducky and Vista again. As soon as everyone is up, music is put on and breakfast is being made. It's such a great and chilled atmosphere, I do love it! And I got to eat the best breakfast I ever had on trail so far! Almonds tortillas with avocado, cheese and meat left overs from yesterday 😋

As soon we were all packed up, we leave the KOA campground shortly before 11am. All 7 will bring me back to the trailhead, even if that means 45 minutes extra driving (1 way!). I can't believe the generosity of this group! After about 30 minutes driving, the road becomes a bad dirt road, with many holes and big rocks. Only one of the two cars will make this road, having a 4 wheel drive. So I say goodbye to Jorge and Adriana, while the rest of us is driving ahead. I feel bad, making them drive me up such a bad road, while the other car will have to wait here, just to drop me off at the trailhead. But they calm me down, saying they are used to such roads and like to drive them and enjoy the views. This is just amazing, I am missing words to describe how greatful I am. Saying goodbye was hard. Even though we only spend 1.5 days together, I was given so much friendship, love and joy, it feels like we know each other for much longer. I already miss the group and don't really understand my luck and how I deserved all this! How can strangers welcome me into their group, without even knowing me at all, and sharing everything with me, as if this is the most normal thing on earth to do?! That means so much to me, I will never forget these days and keep them in my heart. These days were definitely one of my highlights so far on trail! Thank you all so much for the absolutely fantastic time I could spend with you!

Due to the road being so bad, it took us much longer than expected and I only hit the trail shortly before 1pm. Having to hike 15 miles and 3'000 feet in elevation gain at this hour is a lot. I will have to speed up! The trail is beautiful with amazing views. It reminds me a lot to the end of the Sierras on the Pacific Crest Trail. It is very hot first, but the higher I climb, the cooler it gets. And suddenly there are dark clouds all around me. I can see rainy clouds in the distance and some thunder and lightening as the wind picks up. And of course it also does rain on me. Nearly no day in northern Colorado without rain! But I was lucky and it only rained shortly, I could escape the big dark clouds. And I had to cross several snow fields again, which I did not expect at all anymore.

The first couple of miles, the climb was very gradual and easy. I made more than 3 miles an hour. But then the climbs became shorter but steeper, which drained out my energy. Also I think I packed far to much yummy food and my pack is quite heavy. I couldn't keep up with the 3 miles per hour anymore. Having to climb 'Lost Ranger Peak', which is above tree line, I watched the weather carefully and finally decided to wait 20 minutes for some thunder clouds to roll over. The moskitos were bad as soon as I stopped, so I had to keep moving in circles while waiting🤣 Luckily, I was still wearing my rain gear. So far my shoes kept kinda dry, but this last mile crossing a swamp, being full of water due to the snow melt, I had no chance anymore. My shoes got super wet and muddy. Oh man, they will not dry out anymore tonight!

Shortly before 7pm I made it to camp. Ducky and Vista were already worried If I will get back on trail and meet up with them. Of course I do, I just started my hike later than expected. Due to the moskitos, one has to pitch the tent fast, get in there, kill all the mozzies which made it inside the tent and then cook dinner and eat inside. The mozzies are super annoying! And while eating and getting ready for sleep, the wind picks up again (which helps with the moskitos) and we can hear the thunder cloming closer. Looks like it's gonna rain on us then tonight! We are 29 miles away from the Wyoming boarder, so I hope to escape this weather soon! Just before falling asleep it rained heavily, thunderd and lightened all around us. I am happy I am not alone here and we are at lower elevation. There were a couple of lightning's per minute shooting out of the sky!. This whole spectacles lasted about 1.5 hours before the stars same out again.

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