CDT Days 71-73 – Smoke

We spent these three days in northern Colorado’s Rabbit Ears and Park Ranges. The air was a bit smokey due to the Morgan Creek Fire burning just north of us.

Day 71 – Mile 1397.8 – Low on water

Today we walked through a few burned areas. We also had a fair amount of down trees blocking the trail to climb around. In the morning we saw a coyote! We watched it walk through the meadow below us, which was pretty neat. We didn’t pay too much attention to water on our maps because there has been lots of water in Colorado. At lunch we used up all of our water for drinking and coffee. Peanut walked by during our lunch break and said her brother would be at a trailhead in a mile. We wrapped up lunch and headed down to the trailhead. He gave us ice cold lemonade and diet coke! It was so yummy! We kept walking and wondered where the next water would be because we were out of water and it was hot. Tim checked the maps, and we still had 8 miles and a huge climb before the next water source. Turns out we were super lucky to get the trail magic from Peanut’s brother! We started the climb and crossed a gravel road with puddles in some tire tracks (maybe from a recent rain). We each filled up half a liter of super dirty water, which clogged our filters big time. After the climb we had some cross country travel across the spine of the mountains. The views were obscured by smoke from the nearby fire, but there were lots of colorful rocks and wildflowers. We finally started descending towards water and got to a stream around 7 pm. We were sooo thirsty! Just before the stream we saw a young, boy moose! -R

Day 72 – Mile 1425.2 – Easy Afternoon

This morning we had plenty of climbing to do. We didn’t make it to a particularly high elevation (our max was about 11,500 feet), but we did many small and steep ups and downs. Right before lunch we hit a dirt road, which we assumed would quickly turn back into the regular trail… For lunch we enjoyed large potato & stuffing burritos with coffee and a cherry Hostess pie for dessert. Yum! We got back on the dirt road after lunch, and it never became a trail again! Instead it was just a steadily descending dirt road that lasted many miles and got progressively smoother and easier to walk on. We were flying! A family drove by on the dirt road looking for a place to camp. They were confused about what was public land and what was private, so we described what we understood about the area. When they found out we were thru-hiking the entire CDT they were very excited and gave us a bunch of food. Woohoo!! At the bottom of the descent there was plenty of sagebrush, a few ranches and many cattle — it feels like we are back in New Mexico again! After so much difficult terrain in Colorado, this fast dirt road was just what we needed to lift our spirits. Tomorrow this dirt road will become a paved highway walk before the usual trail resumes, and pavement won’t be as fun. It was nice to enjoy this while it lasted! Before the transition to highway, we found a nice place to camp that’s next to a stream and sheltered from the wind. Nice. -T

Day 73 – Mile 1454.1 – Pavement

This morning we had an 11-mile paved road walk. Some cyclists rode by. Then later a minivan pulled over and told us she was supporting the cyclists who were biking 750 miles in four days. That’s a lot of biking in a short time! She gave us bananas, soda, and apples! Super yummy! I guess highway walking ain’t so bad after all. We didn’t take any breaks until after we turned off the paved road, which was a long time without a break. I guess highway walking is kind of like hiking in the rain–no reason to take a break because it wouldn’t be very nice anyway. Shortly after the road we walked through a campground. We got water from a pump (no filtering required) and ate lunch at a picnic table. Crazy luxuries. The rest of the day we had an easy trail that slowly went back up to 10,000+ ft where we had trees instead of sagebrush and quite a few lakes. It rained lightly a couple of times, which is good for the fire just north of us. We are camped in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness. Tomorrow we will have to walk a detour around the Morgan Fire closure. -R