CDT Days 46-48 – San Juan Mountains

We resupplied in Pagosa Springs and then continued through the San Juan Mountains through snow and thunderstorms.

Day 46 – Mile 852.9 – Pagosa Springs Resupply

This morning we only had three or four miles to Wolf Creek Pass / Highway 160. We hitched into Pagosa Springs to resupply. We thought it would be quick to hitch in because there were many, many cars, but just after we arrived at the highway a police car pulled over to check trucks. It ended up taking 1.5 hours to get a ride probably because no one wanted to pick up hitchhikers in front of a cop with his lights on. In town we ate lots of food and went grocery shopping. We also replaced our hiking socks and even bought waterproof socks too! Our feet should hopefully be much happier in the snow now! We hitched back up to the trail and hiked five more miles. We are camping with Dirty Money and Blitz again tonight. Safety in numbers out here with all the snow. – R

Day 47 – Mile 872.1 – Hiding From Hail

Today for breakfast we ate grits with gravy. We’ve never cooked that before (whether camping or at home). It was fun because we threw in a lot of ingredients: grits, gravy powder, a bullion cube, coconut milk powder, and nutritional yeast. Yum! At about 2 today it started to rain a tiny bit and then all of a sudden large painful hail started falling. We were above 12,000 feet so there wasn’t much shelter, but Renee spotted some bushes so we ran to them and crouched under the branches. We ate lunch there, and then the hail switched to rain so we decided to set up the tent and wait it out. After napping, we hit the trail again at about 4:30 and hiked until 8. We didn’t make it very far today, but sometimes that’s what the conditions dictate. Dinner was chili with noodles. Yum! -T

Day 48 – Mile 895.5 – Waterproof socks

This morning we found Dirty Money and Blitz waiting for us as their campsite 2.7 miles past ours. They were worried about us after the thunderstorm yesterday. The snow seems to be melting quick, but there is still enough around to slow us down a bit and give us wet feet. Our new waterproof socks are great though! We even got to test them out in some large stream crossings when we descended into a valley for a bit. Thunderstorms threatened again in the afternoon, but they didn’t come to fruition. The views were amazing all day — green, snowy mountains, lakes, wildflowers, waterfalls, colorful rocks. We also saw some marmots and pikas. We hear the pikas all the time too. We are camped at a beautiful spot with Dirty Money at 12,200 feet in elevation. -R