CDT Joy: Sobo Trail Day!

Day 79: 0 miles

The highlight: lead to Leadville. Path day.

I woke up with dawn and I could take a slow morning. Ghost Pepper and I had breakfast and then leaning for a nap. My body knew that today was a day of rest and I was sore and tired after eating food.

Then, I did some path planning logistics and went to Rei to collect a can of fuel and the Yak Trak traction devices for the snowy hiking climate in Grays Peak.

At noon, midnight, Ghost Pepper, and we headed from Silverthorne to Leadville for the days of trails. We parked and went to the zero day cafeteria and made some incredible scarves with materials of nature and UV rays called cyanotype. They took a long time to develop in the cloud and rainy weather, but they were great!

After doing pandanas, we walked to the near Melanzana store and grabbed a Yellow and Orange Mellie dress. If you are a CDT hiker, you can show your initial photo and walk to buy.

At 4 pm in the center of the Opera House there were more hikers of hikers with micro conversations, sellers and socialize with other hikers that I have met on the road. At night there was a raffle in which I won a couple of wool socks that I gave until midnight, and Ghost Pepper won a backpack meal and gave it to myself.

Hang out before a micro talk with ghost pepper

After the festivities, we had dinner at High Mountain Pizza and then Ghost Peppers and I returned to our hotel in Silverthorne. We planned to meet with midnight in Leadville the next morning at 6:30 am and we would make another Slack package from Leadville to Copper Mountain Resort, where we started yesterday.

On the way back, Ghost Pepper’s new Subaru 2019 got a punctured tire and changed it to the renovation tire to return and we discovered some alternative plans for tomorrow, since the tire store would not be open until 7 am

It was 10 pm for when I settled in the room. I gave myself a quick shower to warm up and then fainted at night.

Day 80: 16.7 miles

The highlight: tire store. Copper Mountain Resort

The benefit that the tire store did not open until 7 in the morning was that I slept almost an hour later than I originally expected. After waking up, packing and loading the car, GP and I drove Big or throw in cold and then walk towards Starbucks while looked at the car. On the walk, I also stopped in Dunkin ‘donuts for a donut.

The tire place took about an hour and a half and GP obtained 4 new land tires. From the tire store we drive to Leadville to collect midnight and then head to the Parking area of ​​Camp Hale, where it connects to the CDT. Our original plan was to make 23 miles, but with the appointment of the tires, which means that we do not reach the test until 10 am and we want to have energy for Grays Peak tomorrow morning, we find another parking area to make a shorter hiker day.

Today’s walk took us to the Kokymo pass and then about Ridgeline to another pass. As usual, in Colorado, we got some hail/ Aguanieve when we approached the pass, but stopped shortly after starting. Midnight and I ate lunch near a stream and saw the sun rise for the first time on this day cloudy, cold and stormy. I walked almost all day in my fleece, rain jacket and wind gloves to stay hot.

There is not much for opinions today in the pass

In the afternoon, GP brought us together with us on the road from where he parked in Copper Mountain Resort and brought the magic of the Midol and Beer path. There was an ongoing construction in the complex and the path was diverted, so we followed GP that had already had to discover this route and we went through the resort and back to the car.

Midnight and ghost pepper walking towards Copper Mountain Resort

We had dinner at a cold brewery before driving Georgetown at night. Georgetown is the city closest to Grays Peak and we plan to have a super early start in the morning.

Day 81: 9.6 miles (plus 6 miles of bonus to the peak of Grays)

The highlight: First 14er. Camp Hale. Tennessee Pass bypass alternative.

The alarm shot at 3 in the morning and I packed for an early morning walk to Grays Peak. This is the highest point in the red line of CDT that I lost when I took the Silverthorne alternative, so it seemed like a great opportunity to do it as a one -day walk with ghost pepper and have the experience in addition to my continuous path to the south.

The trip was fast from Georgetown to the dirt road that led to the beginning of the path was incredibly slow for the dirt road not very well maintained that we took in GPS Subaru. It was good that he obtained new land tires and tested them with the many rocks and potholes along the way.

We find a good parking space at the beginning of the path and prepare our team in the dark and start walking with headlights. The path was busy and we passed almost 20 people on the path while taking numerous breaks and we continued pushing up. About two miles from the climb, we reached more than 12,000 feet and began to see the snow that stayed on the floor.

Then, approximately 2 miles later, we arrive at a crossroads and continue to the left to Grays Peak in exposed curves. In this part of the path, still in the dark, the wind picked up and began to cool. I added my wind gloves in addition to my Manzella hiking gloves and used my little nomadix towel as an amateur to protect my wind from the wind.

At one point we began to snow and was burning our eyes as he threw us on his side while we were walking. Towards the last curves to the summit I grabbed my water bottle and I saw that the water began to freeze in the bottle. The sun was just rising and we didn’t need to walk with our headlights.

The Grays Peak’s summit was very cold and splerpy and cloud covered. We took some photos and went down the path we came again. Our original plan was to go to Torreys Peak from the summit, but with the cold and the wind, we all agreed that it would be smarter and sure to save the other 14th for another day.

Grays Peak Summit

On the way down, the sky opened a little and we could see the mountains around us. Back in the car, load our team and turn the heater in Max to heat. We conducted Frisco for a brunch and then we headed to natural supermarkets for a small replenishment.

View about the descent from Grays Peak

From there, we all return to where we leave it on the CDT near Camp Hale. It took time to reimburse our backpacks and the transition of hiking and slack packing to be completely loaded with our entire team.

Pack our team at the beginning of the path

After saying goodbye to Ghost Pepper, Midnight and I continue our road in a southern direction. It was mid -afternoon when we were judged and we had been awake for almost twelve hours. We both agreed that today’s miles would not strive to make a certain destination, but we simply wanted to stop and find a good camp.

At the beginning of the walk, I found some rooms of rooms that were part of Camp Hale and then continued up towards Tennessee Pass.

Remaining ancient buildings in Camp Hale

Instead of carrying the path of the red line to the pass, I found an alternative path that would ignore the path of the red line out and would end up near Wurts Ditch Road saving some elevation and more than 2.5 miles. The risk of an unknown alternative was that we were not sure how without delay it would be the path and how much time and energy we would really save, but in the end it worked very well. It turns out to be a popular mountain bike path and we could not easily navigate through the alternative and back to the red line.

Happy hiking day

Midnight and I made camp at this crossing and 5:30 and we took some wine and beer with dinner before addressing our tents for an early night in bed.

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