CDT Days 35-44: Wolf Creek To Monarch Pass

From Cumbres Pass on the border of New Mexico, it did not take long to appear the great and majestic mountains of Colorado. Nor took much to produce a healthy dose of discord and adventure. The blows of the southern desert of San Juan so violent that I could not sleep or walk up, the food poisoning that I obtained in Payosa Springs, the ray in Wolf Creek Pass so thick that I returned to pay, the whole search on the side of the San Luis Valley Mountains comes a great adventure, and although I am exhausted today while I write this and I want to sleep for days, I am here for Colorado.

South San Juan Wilderness: 69 miles

With the type of alpine beauty that makes you want to cry from tears of joy, I was very grateful to have this landscape as the initial entrance door to Colorado.

Feeling at the top of the world again and ecstatic for being walking again, I initially laughed among the powerful west winds. However, I did not take thunder lightly, and on my first day I chose to fall into the trees at one point and use deer paths for approximately 1.5 miles. He slowed me a little, but it was worth the tranquility, since the ridges were so exposed. While navigating the paths made of deer, I found a small and perfect deer in the grass. My heart stopped momentarily when I was surprised both the immense tenderness that I and the threat of a parents’ deer accused me. I walked away, happy with the mental image.

Below the trees, about 4 miles where I planned to camp in Trail Lake, I met CDT Hiker Oof, who interrogated me about the snow that is coming. Based on the lack of snow so far, and seeing that it was from Alaska and had his ice ax, I told him not to worry and that the mountains that are coming were incredible. I continued up, jumping from the stream to the lake while the water spilled from the division and light of the golden hour illuminated them. Nanchando my store in a group of small trees around 9 pm, I bent to a suction cup that kept me in the twilight dream.

Tired of the cold and suction cup before starting around 8 in the morning, receiving an adequate beating for the ice cream before the path began to fall a little. Sitting in a rock for a rapid water rest, I saw me pass and jumped to follow him while we were essentially going to the crossing field at that time. It was nice to follow someone to vary; Maybe I had walked 10 miles with another hiker so far in my whole life. I reached it and talked for a while, the miles passed quickly, since once I had a distraction that is not an audiobro. When lunch against a trunk near the fireplace of a past farm in Blue Lake, Oof offered to make me coffee and offered him a vanilla cream cookie. As I usually do not wear a stove or a coffee the more, (honestly I hate backpack food and try to take caffeine breaks), it was a great pleasure! I continued alone on the path, returning to my audiobook for a moment, and I crossed without problems with snow patches that apparently had melted enough to expose the path underneath. My feet did not even get wet. We were really going through here at the perfect moment for easy hiking. And then I found my favorite transmission so far, in an exhibitionly green valley. I soaked my feet in a cold pool, lowered a large portion of fried potatoes, and took a nap in a soft and flat place next to the water.

Continuing down, down, down and then backing around 12,000 feet in a bowl under a pass, I placed myself far enough in the section so that I could arrive at Wolf Creek and Paying Springs the next day. Along the way, I heard what sounded like a very strong and strange bird somewhere near the path. Later I realized by chance that this had been the squeak of a mountain lion, when a video appeared in my feed with the sound. I don’t know how I didn’t know this after growing in Mountain Lion Country and being trained on how to deal with them since it was a girl, but this new information destroyed my whole concept of the world and I am currently rebuilding. For now, most birds are also being shown as my enemy.

The place where I climbed through an even greener valley, a quite steep part of the path during the last two miles of the day, had been marked as a source of water and tent site. But, as I discovered, the snow near the protective cliffs there had not yet melted, so there was no real protection against angry winds. Entusking at dusk, and only the highest maids ahead, I tried to accompany me to the bushes in the hope that they would provide some type of barrier. It did not work. I was awake late sitting in my store, trying to prevent my store from starting from the ground. Knowing the night before the wind would not stop at all night, I tied my tent to the bushes where I could and tried to sleep a little. Constantly being torn from the dream, when I grabbed for tent until I fell asleep again, I estimated that I had two hours of Shuteye.

I started early, around 6:30 am because it was not as if it were a real additional dream and knew that storm clouds were only being built that week. The path, so high that it somehow seemed still, and froze in time despite the winds that were hitting me almost completely from my feet. If it weren’t so magical that morning, I could have been cursing, but I was in love. Rolling the ridges, I finally took a brief detour on a road walk where the «green line» alternative began and I could breathe for a moment out of the winds so strong that they left me breathless. The path became an experience of survival instead of an excursion not long after that, since it tied the slope of the west and offered me directly to the winds. Go down, the bent knees, leaning towards the wind and towards the edge of the path with the steep scree below, I advanced. At one point, the wind shook me so hard that I stepped on the edge of a piece of rock on the path. I hit my ankle with such force that he was swollen for days. I curse that. When I finally approached the road, a car with some hikers and his dog offered me a walk before I could even hit my thumb, and I felt relieved to head towards Pagosa Springs and a very appropriate zero day.

The hiker garbage takes pay

When I finally completed the mile more or less walking to my unit from the check in, passing the supermarket and liquor shop on the road, I was surprised to see how elegant it was the place I had reserved for two nights.

For only $ 60 in total per night, I had a separate room with a comfortable King bed, a beautiful bathtub, a kitchen and laundry in the unit! And the eloquent mountains of San Juan stood in the distance to the outskirts of my window. I had not had a zero day since I returned from southern California after my father’s recent death, and I needed this escape, even on the path, desperately.

I rested and wrote vigorously, without leaving the suite for a whole day, after which I finally went through the gym to make some foam and yoga before taking the bus to the center. Kips offers a free beer for hikers who buy a meal, so I took advantage of that for lunch, going through the gear spray of bears (my mini pepper had fallen from my backpack) and then returning to the path. I looked a little stormy when I returned, but that morning I realized that I had received food poisoning from the Mexican restaurant of Beny, I thought I would only camp near the path anyway instead of in Lake five miles as I had originally planned.

Upon returning to the path, I looked in a flat place with a refuge of the trees, a difficult task in large part of Colorado with all the damage of cortex beetles. While looking, my eyes met the horizon when a fat target hit the floor in the near distance. My phone buzzed when my Lightning Tracker application notified me the strike I had just seen, about five miles away. The storm approached directly to me, so I decided to return to the beginning of the path, the lowest point I could gather here. As I descended, I could feel that the storm approached more and more while my intuition shouted and picked up my rhythm. Upon arriving to the road to jog, I looked again in the direction of the storm when I saw a screw crossing the road, perhaps a mile away. The maximum alert was now on when my mind said «bail, bond, bail!» I needed to enter a vehicle, now. I put myself to the hitch position along the road, but this time, instead of a thumb, I crossed my trekking posts towards the emergency signal that is often used in places like ski stations and stirred my arms in trouble. The first passing car, an employee of the Wolf Creek ski area for a long time, stopped and let me in. My adrenaline went and descended back to pagosa when lightning shone and the rain of floods made it difficult to see something around us. Eyes Wide, was back in the center, where I did not receive any cell service and the bus had stopped for the day, and now I was paying another night in the city. Fortunately, Motel Soco, a very nice place on the edge of the city center, offers discounts of hikers, but it was still expensive and I hoped to return to my store the next day.

San Luis Valley’s lateral search

Write in progress right now! 🙂

Hwy 114 A Monarch Pass

Write in progress right now! 🙂

My Doctor’s no collection of Border’s Thruhike funds Now it has raised about 75% of the funds so that they coincide with my miles of Colorado state!