What a day!

Day 31

Date: 01.06.2022

CDT Mile: 841.8 Mile

Miles hiked: 21.7 miles / 34.7 km

Elevation: 3675 feet ascent (1'120 m Aufstieg) / 4301 descent (1'310 m Abstieg)

Camping at: 10'689 feet / 3'258 m

It was a freezing night next to the river. We heard the coyotes hauling all night. The tent was frozen again, so were the shoes and socks of Patches. I have waterproof socks and I am very happy with them. I pack my shoes in a plastic bag at night, so they don't freeze. My socks I pack in a ziplock bag and take them into my sleeping bag. The same I do with my electronics bag, my phone and water filter.

We get up at 5.15 am and are ready to hike at 6.20 am. It's a 1500 feet (+/- 500 m) uphill hike but it's much easier in the mornings. An hour later I'm on top. We have service and call the K2's. Luckily they have service too and answer the phone. They were trying to catch up with us all day yesterday and must have passed us around noon, when we were hiking the last sketchy section of the CDT trail, and they hiked down to the river, passing us without noticing. They hiked on for another 10 miles and then realized they must have passed us. Today they are hiking to a warming hut in about 14 miles and will wait there for us. What a mess! But I am so glad they are both doing fine that all the worries from yesterday are forgotten! That would be a 24 miles day for us if we wanna catch up with them today, and we will try to reach the hut today too or at least to get as close as possible.

The views are stunning. And once on top, the hike is cruising up and down. By lunch at 12.30pm we have already hiked 12 miles. By that time also Boss and Longstride catch up. Boss has received bad news from Dragonsky. She slipped on one of the sketchy snow traverses and had to call emergency. We don't know any more, but apparently they haven't found her by now. So she must have spend the night somewhere alone, in the cold snow. That would be a nightmare for me! (Note from 2 days later: Dragonsky didn't hurt herself badly, but couldn't get back on trail anymore. She has been rescued the next day and has been brought to hospital for check up. But it seems she is recovering well.)

After lunch the troubles started again. The blowdowns got so bad, we hardly managed to hike 1 mile per hour. It was insane. I have never seen that many and bad blowdons. Mainly we didn't hike on trail at all, but all around it. However, also the afternoon had some extremely beautiful sections and views to offer. On the last 4 miles before reaching the warming hut, also more sketchy snow sections in the forest added the blowdowns. We hardly moved on anymore. It was a struggle, specially as the snow was very slushy that late in the day. It was dangerous a couple of times and it was clear, we are not gonna reach the hut in daylight anymore. Hiking in the forest with all these blowdowns and snow section is even more dangerous. Boss and Patches were very tired and getting much slower. I don't know how, but I was still doing very well. Hiking ahead, clearing the trails for the guys behind me as far as possible, collecting water out of a very tiny melted snow stream with a leave or making good footsteps in the snow sections for them. I found an acceptable campspot just in time at a corner, as there were no flat spots otherwise at all. We just had to remove the snow. Longstride texted that he set camp

2 miles behind us already. We hiked very far today and can be proud of us. Tomorrow it's only 2 miles to the hut and 3 more miles to the Wolfs Creek Pass, from where we will hitch to Pagosa Springs. I am so looking forward to a Burger and a hot shower!