Back on trail again

Day: 145

Date: 05.10.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 2'215.1

Miles hiked: 19.9 miles / 31.8 km

Elevations: 2'897 ascent (884 m Aufstieg) / 676 feet descent (206 m)

Camping at: 10'679 feet / 3'257 m

I didn't sleep the best, probably a little nervous. I picked up our new shoes we have send to the Post Office and then we went for breakfast. It is a cold and cloudy morning. I didn't expect these temperatures! I am not very hungry and try to eat as much as I can. Once our belly's are filled we hike out and dry to fetch a hitch up to Cumbress Pass. At the same time the Cumbress and Scenic Toltec Steam Trail leaves the town. So I even got to see the streamrail train😁

I remember it being quite a hard hitch up to Cumbress Pass when I was here last time in may this year. But today we are lucky. Still walking along the road the second car stops. And who do I see there a couple of hundred feet down the road?! It is Longstride! Longstride hiked out of East Glacier the day we left and reached the canadian boarder on october 1st. Now he is back to hike this section and to complete the full thru hike of the CDT. We pick him up too. He said "Mr. Freeze, how did you manage to get a ride in such a short time?! I am already trying to hitch here for an hour!". Well, I take it as a good sign to be back on trail and get a hitch in no time!

The drive up to Cumbress Pass was beautiful too. All these yellow colored aspen trees, it's gonna be a beautiful hiking day. But then just when we reached cumbress pass it started to drizzle. Changing in our rain gear, I hoped I was done with that! The trail started with a climb up to the Colorado/New Mexico boarder. I feel very tired today and the climb in high altitude feels hard. How did I do it in May? Was it as hard too? Also, it rained heavily the last week and the trail is super muddy, slippery and wet, not much fun to hike on. The views are stunning though and I am excited to be back. But after a couple of miles, we mostly climbed uphills, it started to rain and the trail being super muddy and slippery, my initial excitement was gone! I am extremely tired too, exhausted. The last couple of days in civilisation and all the socializing completely drawn me out. Don't get me wrong, they were really nice days off trail and I got to meet so many wonderful new faces and experiences (I got to watch and understand american high school football with Cheerleader's for the first time, went to an american baby shower party, got to eat delicious food, and much more!), but I am exhausted now, having no energy. Being back on trail in rain and muddy trails doesn't really rise my motivation! Still, we made good progress today for only hiking out at 10.40am and stopped for the night at 6.30pm. I hardly had energy left to change into my sleeping clothes, pitch the tent, set up camp and cook and eat my dinner! Even though it is wonderful not having to hang my food anymore and cooking in the tent, as there are no Grizzlies out here, it was very strange to cook in the pitch dark. I didn't realize that days are so much shorter now and by 6.45pm it is dark already. On the hindsight that means that I get a lot of sleep being in my sleepingbag at 7.30pm already. And I really do need that sleep, so good night!

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