CDT Days 68-70 – Rocky Mountain National Park

These three days took us above 13,000 feet for the last time. We enjoyed a surprising amount of trail magic, and we found ourselves surrounded by several other hikers.

Day 68 – Mile 1313.0 – Trail Magic

Today was a hard day of hiking but it was full of fun. We got an early start but after only 1.2 miles we crossed a road and the Cashmere Cat was there giving out fruit to hikers. We each had an apple and chatted for a little while. When we got back to hiking we were no longer ahead of schedule. We had only two climbs today, but they were big ones, each taking us above 13,000 feet. After the second climb we had a long and difficult stretch of cross-country travel. When we were finishing it we crossed a trailhead and two friendly guys were there getting ready to head into the wilderness for fishing. When they learned we were thruhiking all of the way to Canada, they offered us beers. Woohoo! We hiked on to the last challenge of the day: a section of blown-down trees that required a lot of climbing and crawling and balancing to get through. That was hard, but fortunately a trail maintenance crew has been working on clearing it all season, so the difficult section only lasted about half a mile before we hit the cleared portion. Finally when we got to camp it was already 9! We would have stopped earlier and done fewer miles, but we have to get to town tomorrow so we don’t run out of food, and it is still 28.2 miles ahead. -T

Day 69 – Mile 1341.7 – Grand Lake

Today we needed to make it to Grand Lake for food. We had enough snacks for the miles, but we did not have any more meals. (Lately we have each been eating about a 200 calorie snack every 5 miles plus breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hiker hunger is in full gear.) We were at lower elevations all day. It was a nice change. In the morning we hiked into and out of Indian Peaks Wilderness a few times, which had beautiful forests and meadows. At lunchtime we had some trail magic! Thank you Adam for the snacks and drinks! In the afternoon we hiked into and out of Rocky Mountain National Park a few times along some lakes and the Colorado river. It was hot, so we even went for a swim. We finally made it to town at around 7:30 pm. We hoped to get all of our chores done and leave early in the morning, but it didn’t quite happen. We got takeout burritos and did our laundry. The grocery store that was open did not quite have what we needed, so we’ll have to wait until the other one opens tomorrow at 9 am. We also did not succeed at getting a shower. Bummer. We slept outside a church with lots of other hikers. We had been noticing smoke/haze in the sky all day and found out that there is a new fire north of us near Steamboat Springs that will probably effect the CDT. We also realized that a big part of the trail in Rocky Mountain National Park is closed due to a fire last year, so we will need to detour around it tomorrow. -R

Day 70 – Mile 1374.5 – Detour Around Rocky Mountain National Park

Our plan to get out of Grand Lake early did not go well. Although our intention was to be at the grocery store right when it opened at 9, it was closer to 10 when we arrived… On the bright side, the delay was because we went out for breakfast twice at two different restaurants this morning, so at least we are doing something right. Shopping was slow and difficult. In most towns we have packages with our homemade dinners arriving by mail, so we only have to buy breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. In this town we mailed nothing, so we had to buy all of our food. Finding vegan protein options here was very difficult, so we will be eating some interesting meals for the next several nights.

After organizing our resupply we chatted with hikers and researched a fire closure in Rocky Mountain National Park. We finally got out of town at around 2 and headed for the trail. About 25 miles of trail is closed in the National Park because of a fire last fall, so instead we had to do a much shorter road walk to get to the open trail. We were bummed to miss some of the official trail, but there is nothing we could do about it. Hiking today was uneventful, but our backpacks felt very heavy due to the fresh resupply. For dinner we had spaghetti noodles flavored with French onion soup and oil, and topped with the only dry “vegetable” we could find at the store: fried onions. Yum? -T