CDT Days 49-51 – High on Elevation

During this stretch of trail we joined the Colorado Trail, which shares the CDT route for the next few hundred miles. There are many more people out hiking than we have seen before now.

Day 49 – Mile 921.4 – Early rising

We camped with Dirty Money last night and decided that 6 am is generally a good starting time. Mornings are an important time to enjoy coffee and eat breakfast, so I have been worried about starting too early because I don’t want to shorten coffee time… Fortunately Renee agrees, so we solved the problem by setting the alarm very early (4:45) to make sure we still had enough morning time. We didn’t, so tomorrow it is set for 4:30. Aside from this shortcoming, 6 is a great time to start hiking. The snow is a bit firmer and easier to walk on in the early morning, and it maximizes daylight time for hiking. In other words, it was nice getting an early start. We also had a fun lunch break today. We added a ton of nutritional yeast to our couscous and bean mix because we are carrying a huge bag of it… The combination was outstanding! At the end of the day we had a very steep climb, but at the top it was so beautiful we decided to set up camp (plus, it was already past 8). For dinner we had curry rice. Yum! -T

Day 50 – Mile 948.0 – High elevation

The trail stayed high today (above 12,000 ft). We were above the trees all day, and the views were amazing. We met 6 CDT thruhikers today (Boa, Sounds Track, Cougar Bait, Just Jim, Mountain Prana, and Haiku), which was crazy because we haven’t really seen that many people in the San Juans in general. The CDT met up with the Colorado Trail (CT) today and will overlap with it for awhile, so we also met some CT hikers. We are camping above 13,000 ft, which is probably the highest we’ve ever camped. -R

Day 51 – Mile 962.6 – Lake City, CO

Last night when we were going to bed it was very windy. We expected the wind to die down–and it did–but at about 2:30 it came back with vengeance. Our tent stayed upright just fine, but it was noisy so we didn’t sleep well. We got an early start in the morning (before 6) and hiked nearly 11 miles before 10 am. “10 by 10” is always my wish, but we almost never get going fast enough for that. 11 by 10 is even better, so it was a good start to the day. Before noon we were at the highway hitchhiking into Lake City, CO to resupply. The first car that stopped was going the wrong direction, but he still hopped out and gave us beers. Yum! Not too long after that we got picked up and driven into town. Lake City is a nice town but very touristy. We completed all of our chores (including eating) and then hung out at the RV park where we will stay tonight. -T