Death by a thousand post holes

As I said earlier, leaving Pagosa Springs was difficult. Getting from scratch is always difficult. You get a taste of the good life and then come back to reality a few hours before bed, remembering that this is the last night you’ll have a bed for many days. It’s like the last day of vacation, or for people who don’t like their jobs, it’s like Sunday night. This was even worse because we had seen what the snow would be like ahead and we hated it. Walking is hard enough, post holes, scratched legs, numb toes, frozen shoes, and getting ready in the tent in the dark… that’s not what we thought we’d sign up for. We were excited about the light snow year so we wouldn’t have to do this! It was also sad that our friend Ultra took the Creed route because we didn’t know when we would see him again. We were also jealous of him and everyone else less stubborn than us who raised the white flag and cut the Creed.

However, we were three stubborn bastards. It was Hornet, Zinger and me. All students in Sierra’s annual high snow class of 2023. A month of snow? We did it in California. Six more days of snow? We can do this. Still, there was something about this snow that didn’t compare to the Sierra; it was definitely the post hole. Days 1-3 outside of Pagosa Springs were the most exhausting of all. Slipping and sliding all over the place while constantly taking the highest step out of one post hole that sometimes caused you to fall into another is kind of hell. We were so exhausted and frustrated that looking at the beauty around us became difficult. We got stressed every time we counted the miles and realized we weren’t even halfway there. We also resigned ourselves to the fact that we could only really go two miles per hour. Zinger is the king of one-liners and usually makes light of our situation with constant jokes. Laughing at our pain was the most important tactic for keeping us sane, although it usually made us seem crazier in the moment. The second day, when his mood started to fail, I got worried. Hornet had already started to crack from all the little things that were piling up. When Zinger started too, I went into positive mode. I was trying to point out all the good views and all the reasons why we hadn’t made a mistake taking the red line. I tried to highlight our moms and the advice they could give us (moms know best). I reminded everyone to eat frequently because it was actually difficult to keep up with the calorie loss. Especially when we were in the snow for a while. Stuck staring at our feet and concentrating on not falling, we didn’t leave much room for snacks. We made sure to take a break for breakfast and lunch to keep our energy up. Luckily, we packed for an extra seventh day, but made it in six. We needed extra calories.

Remember: it was only three days of this leg and four days of the previous leg. Little did we know that the last three days would be virtually snow-free. Little did we know that they would be some of the most beautiful views of our lives and that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. We just knew it was hard now, almost too hard to deal with for six days straight. Luckily for us, it got easier. The fourth day was incredible. We saw our first moose, then three more. We climbed three passes this day, so it wasn’t easy to gain elevation, but not having snow made it doable. Coming down from one of the passes in the middle of the day where we saw one of the most beautiful valleys surrounded by towering 13ers, maybe a 14er or something? This is where we saw the mother elk and her yearling. They were curious and looked at us a lot as we went a little out of the way to pass them. Unfortunately, we got to only about a mile and a half of deep snow right before camp, and it was very painful! It was a huge field of snow that was huge and difficult to navigate. The only other option was to cross a stream but walk through willows. We had already been doing this and if you ask Hornet, overgrown willows are worse than snow. It’s hard to tell, both make your legs bleed. I bought cheap leggings before this stretch so my legs wouldn’t suffer as much damage. The post holes still felt like the hit of a wooden baseball bat on your shins every time you fell. When the snow was still hard on top but soft underneath, we called it Satan’s Crème Brûlée. That was the worst thing to fail at.

Luckily, we somehow found a great off-trail campsite and headed down another trail junction. The next morning we saw the biggest, yellowest moon I have ever seen. It was magnificently arranged between two imposing mountains of the previous valley. We climbed another pass early in the morning and then descended some crunchy, hard-wearing snow. The next day we hit the Colorado Trail where things improved, with only a couple big patches of snow from there to town. The next day we saw a large bull moose near the campground, which was a location known for moose activity: Cataract Lake. As the sun set, that same moose walked right by our tents to eat some willow trees near our campsite. The next day we challenged ourselves to finish the section in six days instead of seven, making it 23 to the city. We hiked through so many valleys this day, our three-day elk count was 11 when the morning ended. We also saw dozens of moose and many pikas, marmots and ptarmigans. We hit the road to hitchhike in Lake City with 23 miles covered before 3:00 p.m.

Lake City was just what we needed.

This website contains affiliate links, which means The Trek may receive a percentage of any products or services you purchase using links in articles or advertisements. The buyer pays the same price they would otherwise pay, and their purchase helps support The Trek’s ongoing goal of bringing you quality backpacking information and advice. Thank you for your support!

For more information, visit the About page of this site.