Journal Entries

One of my favourite things about this trail is how clueless most people are about its existence. We climbed James Peak first thing in the morning from Loch Lomand (the trail starts right at the end of the loch wall closest to James Peak). On our way down the far side we passed a LOT of day hikers. Amusingly, several of them thought we were simply very over prepared day hikers. When we explained we had walked from the Mexico border, a few people assumed that was a Colorado town they had never heard of. Hilarious. One guy tried to tell us we weren't actually on the CDT (despite not knowing what the CDT even is) and one family spent 10 minutes explaining to us there was no way we could possibly make it to Grand Lake by the next day. Man people love to have opinions about things they have no idea about! Here is Bourbon at the summit of James Peak doing a bang up job of pointing at Mt Bancroft (we have a friend who has this as his last name- hey Row!)

We camped at Loch Lomand on July the 4th. Seriously, you need to go camping there. You can drive up, and camp in one of the prettiest spots I have camped on this trail. It is partway up the south side of James Peak, and it is so stunning.

It is one of the few spots on the trail I'd go back and camp at without any hesitation. So, so pretty. The climb up James Peak from that side is actually a pretty nice climb too, so go and stay there and day hike your way up James Peak. You can thank me later.

A decent climb, but with a frustrating false summit on the way up, Mt Flora is the mountain immediately East of Berthoud Pass. It was actually pretty well graded climb for the CDT (much better than the abysmal Hope Pass just south of Twin Lakes). The descent down the far side of Mt Flora was a nightmare. We had big grey thunderstorm clouds rolling in, and the trail was built almost entirely on a scree slope. Honestly, one of the most frustrating things on this trail is the lack of switchbacks/trail grading, but someone got seriously switchback happy on that climb down Mt Flora. I lost count but if felt like we did 1000 switchbacks to descend the first 1000 feet. Which when you are hurrying to get off a ridge in front of an impending thunderstorm is not much fun. Further down, as we came around into the valley, there had also been some rock slides that had wiped out the trail as well, so we were scrambling/climbing over unstable boulders the size of my torso/head, in the rain, above tree line. Eventually we have up and went straight down to tree line and walked up along the road. As we climbed around the next shoulder, the thunderstorm hit and we spent a fair amount of time hiding out amongst the trees waiting for the lightning to abate. Colorado had finally delivered the afternoon monsoons we had heard so much about.

We took the Dillon/Silverthorn alternate (kind of!) And the climb up out of Dillon was pretty hard work. Also, the trail kept disappearing on us (it was poorly trodden and poorly marked) and was pretty poorly graded. I can't say I enjoyed this section very much. As we climbed the switchbacks to rejoin the official trail, the Sugarloaf fire did it's "afternoon kick off" and we watched as the thin wisp of smoke turned into a billowing cloud. We had little choice but to keep climbing so we could get a better sense of the scale and risk, since from where we were on the switchbacks the fire looked as if it could have been just one valley over. Luckily we were already above treeline, so the risk was smaller for us to stay up high/keep climbing. It turned out the fire was two valleys over (past several high passes and treeless expanses Mum, don't freak out!) So we kept going. After we made it into Grand Lake we found out they had actually closed this section of trail while we were in there, so we were lucky to get through!

Kokodama pass had wildflowers for days.

The climb, although it was just over 3000ft, was well paced and manageable, and there were many spots to enjoy the view. We all climbed it much faster than we thought, just because it was so nice and steady. The valleys just below Searle pass in both directions really took my breath away in particular (and not because of the altitude!!).

There was a cabin near the top of the valley there that left me pining for a rainy winters day next to a log fire, but when I get to come out and hike everyday I really don't have too many legitimate complaints!

I turned 28 on the trail last week, just after we left Twin Lakes. It was a pretty uneventful day, but a good one nonetheless. Th climb (although not high) really aggravated my Achilles tendon, which has been extra grumpy since our monster day on the west Collegiate route. I also missed home a bit, as we all do sometimes.

It's funny, but it was good that it was an average day in some ways. The views were spectacular, the climb a little hard. It made me remind myself that you climb every mountain just one step at a time and that at any given moment, all you need is the willpower to take just one more step. I've been finding myself getting overwhelmed at the thought of getting to Canada lately (we definitely aren't winning any speed records) but really all I need to remember is that on any given day I need the willpower to get on the trail for just one more day. I love it out here, but it's hard. For every climb you get done, there is another one looming just over the ridgeline (this is especially true in Colorado!). For every meal you cook, there is another one coming that needs to be done. For every cathole you dig, there will be another one tomorrow, and the next day, and maybe tomorrow afternoon. It's easy to get bogged down in the hard stuff and forget that every step is moving us North towards Canada.

We are getting there. One step at a time.

We pushed pretty hard on some.advicw from friends further up the trail than us, and climbed Lake Ann Pass late in the afternoon so the snow at the top was nice and soft. It felt pretty exposed up there still, but the soft snow definitely helped. We crossed the snow around 7pm, met Crash up the top (another Australian hiker) and pushed down only a mile or so and made camp. Overall a huge day, but pretty rad.

In the photo you can see Lake Ann Pass on the far right (look for the low point with the crescent of snow in it).

We climbed up and over Hope Pass today to make it into Twin Lakes.

Hope pass was a brutal climb, that was totally exhausting. It was made worse by the fact that 100 runners passed us on our way up, so we kept having to step aside to let them pass (even though we had right of way because we were going up, only 3 or 4 of them yeilded to us. So annoying).

It started snowing on us just as we climbed above tree line. It was the first time I had seen proper snowfall (it snowed lightly as we left camp that morning but really very little). It was so confusing! However, I strongly feel light Snow is better than rain to hike in now as you get so much less soggy.

It seemed to have stopped halfway down to town, so we sat down and ate lunch. Naturally the snow resumed as soon as we sat to eat, and then stopped as soon as we got up to keep walking.

Here is actual Lake Ann. If you look closely there are 3 tents in the photo for perspective.

There was a refreshing abundance of water through this area, it was so nice to hike through lush forest instead of dry for a change.