Last full day in Colorado!

Day 74

Date: 14.07.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 1'493.5

Miles hiked: 24.2 miles / 38.7 km

Elevation: 3'425 feet ascent (1'045 m Aufstieg) / 4'701 feet descent (Abstieg 1'434 m)

Camping at: 9'488 feet / 2'894 m

After the lightening and thundering last night, my tent just dried up when it started to rain again in the early morning. I was already looking forward to not dry out my tent during the day, but nope, not in Colorado. I didn't sleep well and wasn't much motivated to get out of my sleepingbag and it was still very fresh outside. The good thing about the colder mornings are, that the moskitos are not out yet. However, I waited too long and when I packed l up shortly before 6am, they were bothering me already. I headed out on trail a little after 6am. It was still cloudy and everything wet from the rain. The first 5 miles were super easy, all downhill. First through a swamp (good thing I put my waterproof socks on this morning!), then through a burned area and finally through an overgrown trail, where all the wet trees and leaves would drop its water on you while passing by. I was already thinking of putting my rain gear on, when I finally reached the bottom. I was not so motivated to hike alone today, so I stopped for a couple of times, but Ducky or Vista never caught up and due to the flies and moskitos being bad, you can't stop for that long. However, two guys I haven't yet met caught up and so we hiked on together for a little while. The sun started to come out and I stopped to dry out my gear. As I missed the last water source, I had to hike on 3.3 more miles before stopping for lunch. At 1 pm, and exactly 17 miles in (I think that's the furthest I've hiked so far before lunch), I reached a beautiful river, where already another hiker I didn't know before stopped for lunch and dryed out the gear. While having lunch the two guys from the morning caught up again end rested with us. Also Carbomb, whom I last seen in Silvercity (the second town on the CDT, so very long ago!) passed by. Wow crazy how suddenly hikers pop out of nothing. I haven't seen many other hikers for weeks, and lately I get to know new hikers every second day! I do like it a lot and it helps for my trail blues, as we call them.

All in all it was an easy day, with some steep but short uphill climbs. I stopped for 1.5 hrs for lunch, then again when catching water for nearly an hour and still reached camp before 6pm.

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