Journal Entries

Here are the actual Collegiate peaks. Just as we left cottonwood pass. Very pretty.

If you do one hike this year, make it the Collegiate West route. There was a bit of thunder up the top of tincup pass when we arrived, but we had been watching it all blow through from across the valley as we descended so Bourbon and I figured it wouldn't be too bad.

It turns out it blew through, and the views up there were spectacular. It felt like we were on top of the world.

We thoroughly enjoyed the climb up from Monarch pass. The view were panoramic, and we stopped at this lovely little lake for lunch.

Colorado is definitely ramping up the challenge though. It feels as if every day there is a bigger mountain pass to climb, or more climbs that need to be done. But we are slowly getting our trail legs. We have sort of hooked back up with Maps, Coach and Obtuse, so we enjoyed their company on the climbs!

Luckily the last two days into Salida really made up for the rainstorm. We spent an hour and a half drying our sodden tent and clothes and liners and sleeping bag on Monday.

The weather really turned it on for us. Warm, sunny, slight breeze. Some intense climbs (we still did 24miles on Monday!) But some spectacular views. On the way down to Monarch pass we walked some of the most stunning trail so far. Big views, of big mountains, with sunshine and flowers and puffy little clouds. Days like this are what hiking was made for. Colorado is really turning it on for us.

Here comes another rain front. If you look in the middle of the shot you can see the perfectly straight line the rain formed.

We definitely embraced the brutality that day.

It rained on us for 12 hours on Sunday whilst we were hiking. We even stopped for an hour and a half lunch, during which it continued to rain. It rained as we climbed a mountain, it rained as we ate. It rained as we walked down a mountain. It stopped raining long enough for us to start pitching our tent, but then restarted immediately, just to ensure our entire tent became as wet as possible whilst we were pitching it. Then, it rained right on until midnight. It's just as well everyone knows bears don't go out in the rain, because we cooked in our vestibule and ate in our tent. Then we slept with our food. Because I think we might have floated away if we got out to hang up our ursack.

Here's a photo of the cloud we hiked right through at the top of the mountain. That was pretty cool.

We are now on our way out from Creede and up to Salida. There are a few thunderstorms forecast so hopefully we don't get too soggy and sorry for ourselves. The climb out of Creede is no joke. We climbed for 15 miles with only one small 3/4mile descent around mile 11. It was a very long day of climbing.

On the way out, we walked past some beautiful old mining ruins. They were quirky and cool, and helped break up the (very) steep section of climb right at the start!

This one is just to share this photo of what the views were mostly like after the blow down area at the start of the cutoff. Generally speaking, it was very pretty. If you look closely you can see Bourbon and Butterfingers in the centre of the photo.

The Sawtooth trail is... Well, "trail" is a strong term to use for the attached photo. If anyone can find the trail in that photo let me know. We certainly couldn't find it. Added to which, the fire obviously cooked all the roots so the soil had no stability. You would climb over a log, which was on the way around another 3 logs and as you stepped on the ground the dirt would give way below your feet. It was 3 miles (4.8kms) of very slow going and very hard work.

Well, after the San Juan NF was closed just before we could get in there, we managed to sneak through the Creede cutoff. This meant we got to go over a 12800ft pass that is on the official CDT route, but we turned North along the Sawtooth trail into the Weiminuche wilderness soon after that. The pass was pretty hard work, and the views were pretty good at first but became increasingly smoky. The San Juans remained hidden from view for us, which was a little sad. We definitely want to try and get back and hike the San Juans if we can at some point.