Journal Entries

Day 3 really stepped up the terrain. There were much bigger snow fields, a traverse where we even got our ice axes out, and steeper mountains.

We got lucky and hit the big snow fields on the North side of Summit Peak (mile 848 I think) just before midday and it was perfect snow. A postholed step here or there, but generally the snow was just soft enough to kick in a decent step but hard enough that you weren't sinking into it or postholing. It's pretty exhausting walking still, but we still enjoyed it. We hit a really sketchy traverse almost immediately after which caused a bit of a collective adrenaline rush. We ended up using our ice axes for that crossing and I was deeply glad we had them. They add a whole extra level of security, and every step I was glad to have it to hold onto.

The last 12 miles down to wolf creek pass had SO MANY fallen trees. A friend we were hiking with, 5 Star, counted 177 dead fall trees across the trail. It was so bad at times we were climbing over downed trees on the trail that went around the other downed trees. We were even crawling on the ground at points to make it through. Crawling with a pack on is not fun, just for the record. But, we made it to Pagosa Springs and enjoyed a day off.

We have bad news, though. The NFS has closed the San Juan NF, including the Weiminuche wilderness, which is where the next section of trail travels. We are hoping to make it through today to the Sawtooth trail, and we will head up to Creede from there. The irony of taking the Creede cut off for fires instead of high snow is not lost on us. Hopefully one day we can get back and hike this section of trail. In the meantime, I hope all the fire fighters out there are doing ok.

Well, here we are. Finally in some serious Mountains.

We were both a bit nervous coming into this section (I was much worse than Bourbon, no surprises there!) . There was a huge altitude gain, new gear (we both carried an ice axe and micro spikes in) and the element of "the unknown snow". Reports ranged from "it was worse than the bootheel, we thought we might die at least 12 times" to "there no snow, it isn't that bad".

I can report both these statements are somewhat true. Days one and two we did a respectable 16 and 21 miles respectively. Which says more than it doesn't about the snow conditions- if there was any more snow there is no way we could have done a 21 mile day. There were a few blowdowns (trees fallen across the trail) but because we mostly stayed above treeline it wasn't too bad. We camped beside Dipping lakes the first night (very buggy at the more southern lake but beautiful at the northern one).

Mostly we just walked or postholed over short patches of snow and generally felt pretty breathless because of the altitude. We also just enjoyed the heck out of the views. It is so pretty up there!

We are almost at the New Mexico/Colorado border (!!!) But we have been thwarted by an entire day of thunderstorms. We got in an early start (hiking by 5:50am!) And managed to knock out a fair few miles before the weather kicked in.

There were a few moments there where the storm was right on top of us. When we saw lightning flash without any delay before the boom and crack of the noise, it made us both feel astonishingly fragile as mere human beings out in the elements.

We even took forest road 87 rather than walking right up on the ridge, so that we were less exposed. It's cold up at 11000ft even normally, let alone when it hails and rains on you and the wind blows. We dodged rain and thunder from forest patch to forest patch and managed to pitch our tyvek ground sheet a few times for shelter when the storm really kicked up. By some miracle, we made it to our goal (10miles south of Cumbres pass) at 2:55pm, pitched our tent and climbed in right before the heaviest part of the storm set in.

It was cool being in the tent during all the hail, but also pretty frightening when the storm is happening right on top of you! It has definitely made me much more nervous for Colorado! Wish us luck!

Cuba to Ghost ranch was a beautiful section of trail. We got lucky, just a few days after we made it through the Santa Fe National Forest was closed to the public because of the extreme fire risk. I get it, even the meadows up in the San Pedro wilderness area were dry. So early in the season that must be a huge worry for the NFS.

Friends, Carson National Forest is not messing around. We climbed from the desert up to Alpine meadows in the space of a single day, and ever since then it has been all Alpine vistas and rolling mountains. We have been up above 8500ft basically since we climbed up out of Ghost Ranch and it is just like we have walked into a whole other world.

Finally we have mountains to climb! Water! Shady trees! Water! Tall trees! Water!

It has been tough don't get me wrong. There have been some climbs that were pretty hard work, and the altitude really knocked me around the first two days we were out here. Last night (the third) we slept at 10000ft. Tonight will probably be 10500ft or so. Which will probably feel like nothing once we hit the San Juan Mountains but right now feels pretty nuts. It's cold up here too. We have had a series of nights at freezing, even though we have been carefully choosing protected campsites.

In between all that, though, there are views that make you feel like you just rolled right on into a fairytale forest.

Bourbon had developed a serious limpnby the time we made it to Ghost Ranch, so we have had to part ways with Coach and Maps (aka Katie and Sam). Bourbon needed some rest days off a grumpy tendon, and Coach and Maps needed to keep pushing whilst they are able. Hopefully we catch them soon.

We had to take three zeros, but now Bourbon can walk pretty normally which is, well, pretty integral to this whole thru hiking business. Ghost Ranch is pretty cool, what with all the dinosaur bones, interesting history, and super cool movie-set rock formations... But three days was more than satisfactory. Luckily we could split our campsite with other hikers each night to keep costs down.

Finally, though, we are back on the trail (again!) And almost out of New Mexico!

Here is sunset from a cowboy camp we made near a cow pond. We were just south of Cuba. Bourbon asked me if the cows would step on us during the night. I assured him they don't wander around at night.

It was only later I realised I've never slept in the open in the paddock at home with the cows to actually verify this fact. For all I knew they spent their nights dancing the Macarena. Luckily, no cows stepped on us during the night...

Here you can see the enormous mesa we climbed down from (the topmost section). We descended just to the left of the big cliffs on the right hand side of the photo. It felt like I had noodles for legs by the time we got down.

After Mt Taylor, we spent a few days getting to Cuba, NM. It was some of the nicest trail we have walked so far. I loved this section, even including the thunderstorm we got caught in as we descended from Mt Taylor. We hiked along a mesa that was over 8500-9000ft for an entire day before we reached the edge and began to descend towards Cuba. It was just such great hiking. The photo is of the view from the edge of the mesa. Naturally, Bourbon had to sit right on the edge...

Mt Taylor was a big climb, but pretty fun.

The air is pretty bloody thin at 11301ft! I was definitely puffing and panting by the time we got to the top!

The view from the top was pretty spectacular though, and it was good to get that high for some acclimatisation.

Despite the hard work, I'd definitely take the alternate up and over Mt Taylor. It was refreshing to see the Alpine side of New Mexico.