CDT + GDT: Silverthorne / Breckenridge to Grand Lake – in the front range

Reference 12 | Silverthorne / Breckenridge A Grand Lake

Day 48, 10.2 miles.

I probably took a zero and a half. I didn’t go back to the road until much after noon. It is very hot in the next week, so I do not hope that anything freezes well and I am worried about the risk of wet avalanche avalanche as it continues to melt. I have already been causing small tritones. There are still some routes exposed in the elevation in this section and I can not always follow the early and early rule if I am trying to have a full day of walks. The slopes just beyond the city are deeply in the wild flower season, but more than 11400 feet is more or less irregular and then full of snow even in this alternative. In the pass, I followed a stream to the valley along a softer slope to avoid the steep terrain where the path was. This worked when the stream was small and the trees were open, but as it descended, the stream was extended and the densest trees. Finally, the stream was in a small cannon and it was difficult to avoid it, and it was getting dark. I really don’t like being in the field where I can’t camp at dusk. But once you start to panic, you are less careful and then things begin to go wrong and aggraves. So I kept telling myself, this is fine. There is no panic. You are not going to die, you could simply wet you. Being wet is uncomfortable, but it is surviving. I will bring out of the canyon trap and I could find a level land where I could camp.

Day 49, 15.9 miles.

This morning I could choose to join the valley or take the path to the Ridgeline. Slide took the valley, but said he was very muddy and that the last part was steep and was not sure it was better than the crest. So I tried the crest. I am not sure which one was better, but I imagine that the mud of the valley was faster than the farms and my snowy ascent and my fight for the crest. When I take an incomplete line, I like to look at the consequence and wrap it. In general, it is not as bad as you think. Here, it is steep and exposed, but the slide is not long, it is muddy, so I would not get a lot of speed, and I will not hit anything that will hurt me. He took all day connect to the CDT. From the area of ​​Vasquez Peak, I could see the peaks that I would be climbing in the Pfiffner traverse. I saw more snow than I wanted to see, even in the southwest slope of James Peak, which is supposedly the crux of transversion. He was still on the side of the union to traverse, so he would have had to climb that late in the afternoon: Aguanieve, exhibition, melting and everything, without rescue except to go back. I was starting to feel too risk, too much to try to drive in one day and go down the crest for the camp. A better option would have been to spend tomorrow making a 9 -mile approach, then get to the next morning, but I don’t have the food to support that extra day. So I will take Slide’s alternative for the Valley to Winter Park. It is not necessary to be a hero.

Day 50, 19 miles.

Even taking Slide’s alternative by the Valley from Vásquez Pass to Winter Park, he was fighting the snow up to 10,000 feet. My ankle was very unhappy with me for being loaded with snow rackets throughout the morning. I am really grateful for snow rackets, but I will be very happy to get rid of them. Slide’s track is mainly melted at this point, so I chose my own line in the least steep line I could, and behold, there were Slide clues. It is curious how the entire valley ends in the same place in the forest. While I descended, I kept taking my snow rackets and betting that I would no longer need them, but I was repeatedly wrong. This area is super snowfall. It was not a good omen to rise again to elevation. Alt de Slide avoids the path in this area above 11,000 feet. I originally wanted to return to the passes immediately north of James Peak, but I think I have to take the slide route until the end. I cannot justify further trying to squeeze 6 more miles on the CDT when I need my ankle to keep it together for another week or so in snow racks. In Winter Park I ate so much that I had to rest before walking and did not eat again for the rest of the day.

Day 51, 24.7 miles.

I’m back in the CDT today. I am definitely discouraged for having lost a lot of the path through the front range. One of my favorite things about hiking is how all those who have made the same long distance walk will have their own experience of the same places along the way. Share an immediate connection with any other person who has made the same walk. You can talk to anyone who has done the PCT and complain about that escalation of Belden or how hot it was Hat Creek or all the curves in section K. of Washington and will know. So I will return to the sections of the front range that I lost. Today I did not spend much time in snow rackets, but it was enough to strain my ankle for the rest of the day and did all the dirt slowly to minimize the impact. I walked many lakes and it occurred to me that I have not really walked through many lakes that were not frozen on this walk so far. At the lowest elevation with many charcos of thawing, mosquitoes were very present today. It is a reminder that you only change one thing along the way. Well the snow melted, and now you can deal with mosquitoes. No hard challenge forever and there is always a new one. I also spent much of the day hitting Spiderweb threads out of the way. I guess no one else has walked here since he left the slide three days ago. His are the only clues in the snow. I think many hikers are in the south or have returned to Wyoming to escape snow. So I feel that I have the whole path for myself, which is a strange but probably unique experience of CDT.

Day 52, 8.2 miles of Grand Lake.

I got into Grand Lake this morning knowing that I would need to make a more specific plan for the next section to be adequate when I hit the snow and where I could camp on land. But it was quite cautious on my ankle, which is suffering even without snow rackets now. Slide mapped an alternative in lower elevations and reported that it was mostly cruise with a little shrubs at the end. I sat at the bar in Sagebrush BBQ & Grill for so long that the lunch race left and the local happy time began. I was totally focused on investigating snow and making a daily plan. I briefly answered some questions about my walk from the place sitting next to my side. Finally, I looked up and asked the cantinero if she knew where she could shower in the city. The place sitting next to me, Gary, offered him his home. It seemed that everyone in the bar, including the cantinero knew him, and she said that the locals were happy to help. So I stayed at night in Gary’s in a guest room. I decided to try the main red line of CDT and see how I feel. So we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

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