Lake City

Day 42

Date: 12.06.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 961.2

Miles hiked: 17.6 miles / 28.2 km

Elevations: ascent 2'562 feet (Aufstieg 781 m) / descent 3'868 feet (Abstieg 1'179 m)

Camping at: 12'211 feet / 3'7225 m

Right out of camp a huge climb awaited us. Within less than 2 miles we climbed up to over 4'000 m. This is the first time we hiked over 4'000 m, but we hiked just below it several times already. Cool feeling though. After that really bad ass climb the trail was beautiful and the ups and downs very moderate. By 10.30 am we already hiked a little over 8 miles and that with the big climb in the morning. We stop to refill water and to eat an early lunch.

We actually planned to hike the 17.6 miles to the parking lot and Highway leading to Lake City and camp there. But now we are that early, we can make it to the Highway by 2pm or 3pm. Energized by the thought to get into town already today, we fly down the trail. It was also a very easy trail, the climbs very moderate and I reached the Highway just shortly before 2pm. So we did around 9 miles in 2.5 hours up in this altitude. Pretty good I would say! There is a privy at the parking lot, which is always a highlightR for us😁 I hear a car rolling in and manage to get a hitch to Lake City within 2 minutes. I heard it was a difficult hitch so we are so lucky to not even have to wait for a minute! By 3pm we are in town, ordering spare rips and burgers🤣😋 Lake City is a small little town, but very cute. There is no lake but a river. All the houses are very well maintained and taken care of. The towns in Colorado are so much nicer than the one's in New Mexico. At each town here I could stay a couple of days. But also in Lake City the grocery store is at the very end of the town, about 1 mile for us to walk. Then the liquor store is in the opposite direction and the camping somewhere in between. So we are busy all afternoon walking around town with our backpacks and groceries in a box. The camping however is great. 10 USD for camping including shower and a towel! And there are other CDT hikers too. Bullocks, Pocahontas and Fish are here, who I have met in Lordsburg! And Swissmonky, a guy from Obwalden I met on day 2, is also here, plus a couple of more hikers. Swiss monkey had to take a 2 week break due to shin splints and that's how we met up again. But he is flying down the trail, so I don't expect to see him soon again. We enjoy the evening with beer, wine and talking till after midnight. Not sure how I will be feeling tomorrow, as I was they only one drinking wine...😬🙈