Favorite Day!

Day 61

Date: 01.07.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 1'253.6

Miles hiked: 20 miles / 32 km

Elevation: 5'840 feet ascent (1'781.2 m Aufstieg) / 5'256 feet descent (Abstieg 1'603 m)

Camping at: 10'906 feet / 3'326 m

It rained mostly all night but then luckily stopped in the morning. Getting up, my tent was wet but at least I could pack up with no rain. The sky is promising blue and the sun is about to come out. The weather forecast said thunderstorm and rain after lunch. So we have to make sure to dry out our tent before noon. Ducky and I started hiking at 6am. As we have hiked one climb last night, the trail starts off gently and then gradually gains in elevation. After 3 miles we leave the Colorado Trail, which we have enjoyed since Silverton. It has been a great and nice trail with hardly any blowdowns. Let's see what the CDT will be like now that we leave the CT. And as we leave the CT, there was no sign for the CDT turn off. We nearly missed it, as the trail started off on a dirt road (hello CDT!😁), but only for a very short section. Then we had to climb a wooden fence without gate and climb up a very steep path, made by the side by sides. No real trail and just straight up, as these vehicles don't need turns. We left the treeline behind, beeing above 3'700 meter for the rest of the day (I should have gone to the toilet then but I was too lazy to dig a whole! Afterwards with no trees it is quite hard to find a hidden spot🤣🙈). The wind picks up, but the views are absolutely breathtaking and we are back just slightly above 4'000 meters. I can't decide where to look as all the views around me are absolutely stunning. And who do I see when looking back? Bex from New Zealand! I thought she is far ahead of us as she left Leadville very early in the morning (we left around noon) and wasn't planing to stop in Breckenridge. But it turns out she did stop in Breckenridge too, and she only camped 0.1 mile ahead of us last night. It's so funny how we all pump into each other again on trail, sometimes not seeing each other for days, and it is always very nice too!

While Ducky and I dry out our tents, sleepingbags and whatever is a little damp around 10am, Bex hikes on. It's a nice 30 minutes break which we also use to refill our bodies with calories 😁 we get ready to hike on as an ATV drives by and I gently ask for water😁 there is a water source 0.2 miles down the trail from snow melt, but if these guys carry water I don't have to filter, even better! And they do! Again it is a long stretch without water and I get 1.5 L of water, thank you soon much! Turning around we see our first mountain goats, drinking from the water source we were supposed to get water from. Amazing animals and I was hoping a long time already to see one. There was a whole family, more than 10 goats, with baby goats too, so cute!

Hiking on we miss a turn off and luckily Ducky checked the app, otherwise I would have just hiked on for much longer. It was about 1 mile we hiked too much, that sucks and adds 2 miles extra on an anyway very long and hard day. But what can one do? Turn around and make sure you get back on the trail asap! On that little detour we get to meet Pirate, a CDT hiker who is taking this detour (a road walk into Montezuma, which is muuuuch easier than the trail and apparently many CDT hikers took this alternate. Which is a shame, as this stretch on the CDT is no doubt very though, but adventurous with amazing views!). At lunch Vista pick up and we hiked on together. The afternoon is though, often there is no trail but just cairns to lead the way along the spine of the mountain peaks, steep up/and downhills and some scramble over rocks and a knife edge hike, but very, very beautiful. This is my favorite day so far, even if it kicks my ass! In the distance we can see and hear thunder, but we seem to be very lucky, as the thunder and rain never reaches us, which would have been dangerous up in that altitude hiking all afternoon very exposed up on the spines. For camping see descend into the valley and the trail leads us over a very dangerous snow cornice. There is one small gap in the cornice off trail, which leads down a very steep mountain back. Taking our time and hike on carefully we all manage to safely traverse this section and reconnect to the official trail. Also Swisschris catches up and together we follow a dirt road along into the valley. Many cars and tents are here to enjoy the 4th of July weekend. We even got whiskey from some campers (I did 'carefully' ask for a beer 😁), which was much needed after this day and made the 1 mile hike to camp more fun🤣 and we got to see a mouse couple, which seems to life in this valley. We camped next to a river, enjoyed the last sunshine's while eating dinner and falling into our beds! I am sure I will have sore and heavy legs tomorrow after this hard but wonderful day!

Note: something wrong happened while uploading the pics, but I can't change it working on my phone...

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