Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 5
Day 9: Shavano CG to just past Marshall Pass TH
Stats: 13.39mi Elevation Gain: 3806ft, Moving time: 3h58m, Elapsed time: 6h25m
The morning was dry but still cloudy. The ground was still wet, but we took the time to set out all of our wet gear to try to dry some things out while we ate breakfast, sipped our steaming coffee and packed. Our goal for the day was to try to get up and across Marshall Pass by the thunderstorms and then just get as far as we could, which didn’t turn out to be very far… haha Though, elevation-wise 3.8k ft in 13 miles is a pretty big feat.
So, the day started out alright, but before too long, the rain began. We began the climb up towards Fooses TH that would lead us to the top of Monarch Crest and over to Marshall Pass. I was pleasantly surprised with the climb up towards Foose’s. Aliza was not. Her legs weren’t having it, and it turned out that she was also very distracted mentally because she was going through some relationship stuff which had come to a head while she was out on the trail. So, needless to say, with her brain energy going elsewhere, she didn’t have much grit left to help push her along the relentless ascending landscape.
We arrived at the Fooses trailhead and saw her van parked. We got pretty excited because we were thinking that maybe we could get some dry socks and clothes, but alas, it was all locked up and Patty was nowhere to be seen. We knew he was out riding that morning, but didn’t know where he was at the time, so we decided not to wait for him since we needed to keep climbing to avoid any worse weather. So much of the trail was rideable, much more than I had thought, which put my spirits in top gear and propelled me forward. I kept pulling ahead a bit and then waiting for my buddy to make sure she was alright and still moving forward.
Up the trail I saw/heard some MTB brakes coming towards us and out of the forest appeared Patty and his friend Chris, who had joined him for some rainy riding. They had ridden up Foose’s Creek access road, which connected to Monarch Crest, took that over and went down Foose’s creek. So, they got to experience the epic climb going the opposite way. After experiencing the up way, I don’t know which I would have rather done. Either way is epically steep and rocky.
Anyway, we chatted for just a bit, they were just as soggy as we were. Aliza finally joined with a not so happy countenance, said hello, and then we kept trudging upwards. I was under the impression that we had done most of the climbing and I was ecstatic that I had ridden so much so far. Little did I know that the worst was yet to come.
From then on out, the trail just got steeper and more rocky. Here was the part that everyone talked about. My mental party came to a halt when I realized that this was serious business. I just needed my shoulder to hold out through all the pushing and carrying my bike and we needed to get to the top before the big storm that was rolling in. Our mentality from here on out was just to get up to the top at our own pace. I made sure to check on Aliza, especially on any of the especially steep spots where you had to hoist your bike or shove your bike inch by inch up the hill. Her knee was very tired/painful and she was not in a good head space.
Eventually after hours of pushing/hauling, I crested the very top of Monarch Crest. I thought I almost wasn’t going to be able to push my bike fully-loaded by myself up the last stretch. To say steep was an understatement. It was, by far, the steepest section of trail we had to hike up. Aliza was a ways back so I ditched my bike after a quick breather and hiked back down to help. She graciously accepted and we inched our way up to the top, her pushing from the front and me following from behind. The relief from being at the top quickly overrun by the urgency to get down off the mountain. We could see the darkness creeping in and it was freezing at the top. We managed a quick snack, a few pictures and tried to enjoy the view and kept pushing on.
Once you crest, you get to traverse the ridge and head generally downhill towards Marshall Pass and the jeep road. This section would have been fun had we not been in a hurry and not been freezing cold. The wind was whipping around us, and the rain which had started to sprinkle was feeling more like a sleet on our faces. We made it to the road without any major incidents and sat on the side of the road deciding what we wanted to do next. As we ate lunch, suddenly there was a boom of thunder and a torrential downpour began complete with wind, sleet, lightning, etc. We had missed the storm by just minutes and were glad we weren’t hadn’t spent any more time at the crest. Aliza decided that it would be best for her to call it for a while. We agreed to set up the tent and sleep/chill for a bit to see if the rain would dissipate after a few hours.
This is when the already blowing/raining chaos that was already happening got even worse. We were trying to find a spot right off the road to set up the tent. We found a bit of “dryer” ground under some trees right down from the roadside, though it was covered with cowpies. We scouted around and finally found a small space that we thought would suffice for our tent. So, now, to get the full picture - we are trying to set up a tent in a monsoon, sleeting, hailing, full wind, trying to avoid cowpies, sopping wet with freezing hands, and trying to do so as quickly as possible. We got the tent set out on the footprint, but then quickly realized that rain was getting inside the body of the tent because it was netted and the rainfly wasn’t on. We just figured that we’d hurry, but then as we were trying to get the poles out, one of the pole parts unlodged from the middle part, and looked like it broke off. AFter a bit of scrambling, we got the poles together again, and started fitting it to the tent when it came apart again. It was then, that we realized, thankfully that it wasn’t broken, but it had come unscrewed at the center joint. ONce that was fixed, the rest went quickly, but not before Aliza managed to lodge her entire foot into a thick and juicy cowpie. Ugh! I felt so bad for her! What else could go wrong!
As soon as we got the tent up, Aliza got in the tent, gear and all and got in her sleeping bag to warm up. I managed to get into some warm clothing and got in my bag as well and we sat in silence, I think somewhat in shock and somewhat just relieved that we weren’t in the rain and the cold any more. ALiza had been smart and brought hand warmers, so she shared one with me, which was a life saver.
She fell asleep instantly and I sat there wondering what I was going to do for the time being. It was still early in the day and I didn’t know whether to change my clothes to night time clothes or to make dinner or lunch or just try to fall asleep. I felt a bit claustrophobic: too cold and wet to go outside, but too restless to be sitting in a tent for the next however many hours. Eventually I dozed for a bit once I got warm, and then woke up very hungry. Now, I know that it is against the rules to eat or have food in your tent, but we agreed that this was a dire situation. After Aliza woke up I stressed to her that she needed to eat something, even though she didn’t want to, so we grabbed our goodies and made up some hot meal, keeping our food and fuel in the vestibule. We both kept our heated dehydrated meal packs in our sleeping bag as we waited for it to “cook” and I don’t think I’ve ever been so warm in such a dreary situation.
The rain didn’t let up and Aliza couldn’t bear to think of getting out of the warm, dry-ish tent to continue any further, so that was that. We slept on and off, eating when needed, only to get out of the tent to take care of business and put away food, and that was the rest of the day. We did “see” or rather hear one through-hiker that was actually hiking the CDT. We talked to him a bit through the walls of the tent. He mentioned that he had heard rumors of moose sightings right where we were camped. We hadn’t seen any, and hoped that they would just leave us alone if they came through when we were in the tent. The gentleman went on his way, I don’t know who he was or even what he looked like - but I hope he had a good rest of his rainy day hike! I think we were asleep before dark and slept through the night until morning.
Are we there yet?
Day 10: Marshall Pass to Razor Cr Trail/Lujan Creek
Stats: 21.5mi, Elevation Gain: 3829 ft, Moving Time: 5h50m, Elapsed Time: 9h22m
We woke up to glorious sun beams shooting rays through the clouds! It’s truly amazing what a little vitamin D does for the soul. Also, we had slept for probably 10 hours the night before so we were up and ready. We sprawled everything out in the meadow area to try to dry things out. We took a somewhat leisurely morning, trying to let things air out, and eventually we were on our way. Most of the next section of the CT is open to motorized traffic and eventually we would run into quite a few motos that we had to contend with. The beginning of the day went fairly quickly, open road, good weather and we made good time.
This was, until we ran into we ran into unrideable, deep, thick, peanutbutter puddles of mud. There was actually a small group of people doing trail work on the area and said that after they got done with the work, it would be mostly rideable. They were fixing the drainage on the trail so the puddling woudln’t happen. It was obvious that the moisture had just wrecked the trail so it was great to see that they were in the process of rehabilitating it. We said our thanks and proceeded to choose between whether we wanted to slosh our feet in the puddles or risk falling over on our bikes. A little of both happened as we made our way through to the other side.
From what I remember, the climb up Sargants Mesa wasn’t horrible. The trail was pretty smooth with occasional roots or rocks and the grade was more bearable. But not so horrible dissolved quickly as we navigated baby head sized rocks on a consistent false-flat ascent. Aliza’s patience for such terrain was short and she started cussing/walking quite a while before I did, which was surprising because she had the full suspension bike. Thai said, after a while, though a lot of the trail was “rideable” my butt finally got fed up and I just lost my mind a bit and had to get off my bike and walk. I just couldn’t even deal any more. You just really start to feel like all of your energy is sucked out by each baby head that your tire rolls over or bumps into. That, combined with the fact that I was on a hardtail just started to add up until I couldn’t take it any more and walking was had for a while until I could gather my wits again.
The descent from Sargents Mesa was no better. It’s always a disappointing thing when you get excited about descending because you should be able to go way faster with way less energy expenditure than all other parts of the trail, but the trail had other things in mind for us.
We came to see that instead of glorious descent as we had hoped, the trail funneled us into an un-rideable very rocky, rooty, jumble of boulders and washed away crevices of a trail, which was shared by motos. We approached a steep descent part of the trail to find a couple on motos heading the same way we were. They ended up passing us, which we were thankful for, but then we caught up to them eventually as they tried to push/navigate their machines down the narrow, steep “trail.” We waited for quit a while as they hefted and rolled and gunned their motors, slowly making progress. Finally, they let us pass. Even though we weren’t really riding the boulders, our bikes were a lot more manageable than theirs and we eventually made our way down the hill.
Our plan was to make it to Razor Creek, where we hoped there would be water somewhere near a place that we could camp.
We had run into a few people who had mentioned that there was an amazing view point that we could see if we left the trail just a bit and rode a few miles and then back. By the time we got to the turn off it was getting late so we coudln’t be bothered. Aliza was struggling again both mentally and physically and I did my best to be moral support and understanding but also had to give a bit of a pep talk to get her through the afternoon. We crested over the high point of the day and followed the Continental Divide for a short portion before descending towards Razor Creek. There were a smattering of tents at the top of the descent near Razor Creek and we started to worry a bit about the water situation because we didn’t see much as the creek trickled down the hill, disappearing into the moss and dead logs.
We finally found a place that seemed to have a bit of water and would be large enough space for our tent. Aliza started putting up the tent and I went to scout water. The water was only a trickle, but about 300 yards from camp I found a spot where it pooled. I dug a little bit into the mud and created a larger pool, waited for the sediment to dissipate and then used my mug to put water into the filter. It took quite a while, but worked in a pinch! The rain actually wasn’t so bad as we cooked our dinner and settled in for the night.
Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 3
Day 4:Jefferson Cr. CG to Miners Creek Trail just past Breckenridge
Stats: 29.25mi, Elevation Gain: 4045ft, Moving Time: 5h14m, Elapsed time: 11h47m (including dinner stop)
The morning started out beautifully. We had a lot of climbing to do in a short amount of miles, most of which were single track so we knew we were in for a big day. We were on the trail pretty early with some refreshed energy, which we would definitely need. We immediately started climbing up towards Georgia Pass. The clouds were grey and it was chilly, but not too bad as we got started. We expected that the climb would be difficult, but it was actually pretty rideable…until it wasn’t.
The trail turned from turned into baby heads, turned into goat heads, turned into boulders, even on the descent. From what I remember this didn’t last forever, though, and once started the descent proper down into Breckenridge, things turned for the better. We flew down the flowy descent, making all the switchbacks (for the most part) and had views for days. Our energy was pretty good, from what I remember, I think boosted by the fact that we’d have a good dinner in Breckenridge. At some point Aliza’s bike crank started having some issues, so we were in a rush to also get into town to make sure we could get to a bikeshop.
As we got off the trail to hop into town, it wasn’t obvious which way we needed to go right off the bat. We spent a bit of time faffing around because the bike/pedestrian path that is supposed to be the easiest way to get into town was closed for construction, so we were unsure what our options were. We connected with Patty Sag and made our way to Tiger road where he met us and we piled in the van. We were lucky that we made it when we did because sure enough, the thunderstorms moved in and the sky grew dark. We made the stops we needed for Aliza’s bike and to try to find me a handkerchief (failed attempt), and found a great spot for dinner, a couple of blocks off the main strip so it wasn’t as busy and we were able to immediately get a seat. As we were filling our bellies, the rain started to pour! I felt so glad to be inside and not shivering out there in the rain. Both Aliza and I knew, though, that from here on out we would be chasing storms for the rest of our trip, which we were not excited about!
It was getting late, so we picked up Aliza’s bike from the shop and Patty Sag took us over to the Peak’s Trailhead. He had suggested this way as the best way to get over to Miner’s trail where we would be camping. “It’ll be fun,” he said. “It’s not too climby,” he said… Half way through the up and downs of this “fun” trail, Aliza and I had cussed all the cuss words we could muster. Our legs, after spending a few hours at dinner, no longer felt the need to do what we needed them to. Plus the jump line we encountered on the trail wasn’t that spectacular on a hardtail 70lbs bike.
Either way, we finally made it to our camp just before dark. Tired, full, but warm, we set up camp quickly and fell asleep just our heads hit the pillow. The next day, we knew, would test our grit and stamina, so we needed to sleep well and get up early. As I was drifting off to la-la-land, I heard quiet voices and the sound of free-hubs next to our camp. Some of the racers who were traveling the opposite way as us were riding through the night. Glad to not be one of them, I drifted away and didn’t wake again until morning.
Day 5: Miners Crk to just below Searle Pass
Stats: 15 mi Elevation Gain: 4094ft, Moving Time: 4h32m Elapsed Time: 10hr05m
The weather had officially arrived. This day, we knew we needed to try to get over the pass and up 10-mile before the thunderstorms came in for the afternoon. We also knew that there would be much much hike-a-bike, but what we didn’t know is really how much hike-a-bike there would be. A lot of the 10-mile section is very technical and very steep. (See pictures below). At one point, there is a spot where the hill is literally straight up - I don’t even know the grade, but it was unrideable, shit it was un-hikeable unless you paperboy’d your way up.
So up we went, pushing and grunting, a tremendous heave with our loaded bikes. We saw one hiker through-hiker going the same way we were. Most of the hikers we had passed/run into along the way were generally good natured, easy to talk to and generally have a sense of the same passion that we have for being outdoors.
This one man, on the other hand, had a different countenance. From the onset, nothing but grumbles spilled out of his mouth. Grumble this, and grumble that. He was complaining about the steepness of the climb, and explained that whoever built this trail didn’t know what they were doing and that, “on the Appalachian trail, this never happened. There were always nicely cut switchbacks up the steep parts..” etc. etc. So, he didn’t appreciate the way that the trail followed basically the only way up this stretch of mountain, and he was letting everyone that passed knew about it, which at the time was only us, so we got an earful. We acknowledged that yes, it was steep, but just kept on going. Of course, we were saying all the cuss words in our minds as well and stopping to breathe every three minutes, but for me, trying to keep a positive mind about things is every bit as important as keeping my body fueled so it could push forward.
Ten-Mile section of the CT ascends 3,300 ft in 8.4 miles. It then descends 3,000 ft in 5 miles through 1.7 billion-year-old basement rocks that cover the crest as well as the valley below. As you travel along the CT on this portion of the trail, you cross under six or seven different passes and crest above the tree line for several miles of tundra riding with astounding views of the surrounding mountains below. You literally feel like you are on top of the world, surrounded by green and wildflowers and you can see for days. The riding through the tundra section wasn’t the worst, but was generally slow going at times with short technical, unrideable sections and some descent exposure (that I don’t deal well with).
Once you crest on 10-mile/Miners and head towards Wheeler, you start to descend down towards Copper Resort. We had staved off eating lunch until Copper because we wanted a proper place to sit, a cold coca-cola and any other fun munchems that the market might have. One part of the rocky descent just down from the crest got a little rowdy.
Aliza is a daredevil, and as I mentioned in a prior segment, likes to do anything she can as to not have to walk or push her bike - partly out of the condition of her knee, but I think also to do with a little with her pride. The trail was getting precariously steep and while I definitely would have ridden it with a not-fully loaded bike, with some suspension, with a dropper, I chose to get off my bike and take a look. It seemed a bit too risky to me, so I got off and started walking. But Aliza? Not to my surprise, Aliza started bumbling her way down the bumpy pathway, trying to navigate her way down without gaining too much speed and not hitting any of the human-head shaped rocks in our way. She got about a quarter of the way down when her front wheel got bumped off course and away she went like a lost cow, stampeding through the brush. I thought she was in for, but she managed to slow herself enough eventually to where she just tipped over into the brush. It was a sight to see! I had to stop hiking my bike because I was laughing so hard and was grateful that I didn’t have to pee, cause I surely would have wet myself. Needless to say, I was very satisfied with my decision to hike my bike and myself down the rest of that part of the trail.
Me, making smart decisions!
As the trail re-entered into the tree line, the descent became more rideable and more fun, flowing into a few switchbacks and more wildflowers. We were almost to the bottom when I managed to take myself out and landed on my tush off my bike. I got distracted by all the beautiful landscape and suddenly I was on the ground. I didn’t get hurt though and laughed about how ridiculous I felt for falling over on such a non-technical part of the trail.
You can see Copper Resort as you descend off the hill, but it seemed to take forever to get there. What I thought would take us just a bit of time ended up taking quite a bit longer because it was up and down and up and down. I was ready for lunch! Also, it was early afternoon and we could see the storm clouds rolling in like clock-work. It was here, on the roller coaster trail that we ran into a couple of other cyclists who were racing and going the opposite direction from us. One especially looked haggard and talked to Aliza for a bit while she waited for me to catch up. Little did I know that two years later, this guy, Mike, would become one of my good riding buddies and would ride the Kokopelli trail with me in 2023! It’s such a small world!
We arrived in Copper resort and made our way to the market just in time for it to start raining. We sat on a bench near the market and I warmed up my dehydrated refried beans for my bean burrito lunch (yay for hot lunch!) Aliza was also snacking on the smorgasbord of nom noms that she had in her pack as well as what we had picked up from the market. Our glorious lunch was brought to a halt as a raging storm blew through. Crazy hail and wind bombarded all the tourists and they scattered like sheep. We hunkered down along with a few other CT racers who had stopped for lunch and a recharge as well. They were contemplating whether and when to go back out on the trail, as they were starting to head up the mountain the other way towards 10-mile. I, personally, would not want to be up there during a thunderstorm, but some of the guys were saying they were going to risk it. All for the race, right?
Calm before the storm. CT racers had made a pitstop as well!
Aliza and I hunkered down trying to decide what to do and finally decided, after the clouds broke just a bit that we needed to make it as far as we could until the next storm system. So we bundled up in all of our warm gear, and our full tummies and started the climb up to Kokomo Pass. On our way out of the resort we ran into one other lady racer so we cheered her on with our words of awe and encouragement! The rain cleared just for a bit with only sprinkles and we were immediately too hot in all of our gear, so we had to stop and strip down. But, as nature would have it, not even 30 minutes later, it was pouring again.
We could tell that there were going to be a few storm systems rolling through, each bringing with it wind, more rain, and then ebbing just a bit before the next one, so our plan was to make it as far as we could get just below the tree line, and then call it for the day. We were wet and tired and ready to be done. On our way up, we kept looking for a site that was somewhat near water that one of our friends had mentioned on his CT trek. We even had a pin dropped where he had stayed, but when we got to that point (or what we thought was that point) there wasn’t really any where to camp, so we kept going. Finally, we found a little spot just off the trail that seemed to be a little covered by trees, which we thought might help keep things a little “dryer.” The only problem was that we weren’t near water, but we didn’t want to risk going any further up and not having a camp spot. So, we pitched the tent in the pissing rain. Aliza agreed to start some hot water if I would go on the hunt for water that was about a mile up the trail. So, I got most of the bladders so that we would have enough for the rest of the day and the next morning and went for a hike.
The hike was actually quite enjoyable. It was all uphill on the way up, but not too steep and it was absolutely beautiful in that area, overlooking meadows, a ton of trees, and even with the rain and setting sun was quite magical. I got to the water source, which was just right off the trail and easy to get to. I was just minding my own business passing the time in my own head, when guess who I would run into at the water source? Our Grumpy Curmudgeon friend from earlier that day. I said hello and at first didn’t recognize him with all his rain gear on, but as soon as he started talking, I knew his cynical voice instantly. He had a lot to say about the rain, and then asked if I knew if there was an open campsite ahead and that “there better be an open site because he’d walked all this way and wasn’t going to go over the *#$% pass tonight…” and other grumblings of the sort. If any of you have ever read Bill Bryson’s book, “A Walk in the Woods” about his Appalachian Trail experience, you could probably imagine that this person is similar to Bill’s friend that accompanied him on the majority of the trail. If you haven’t read it, you should - it’s a great read. Anyway, he trudged on and left me in peace and I hurried my way back to our camp and arrived just at dusk.
We huddled and cooked our food quickly…in fact, I’m not even sure if I ate a hot dinner that night because we had had lunch so late. Either way, our bed time could not come early enough. We planned to wake up before light the next morning and ride in the dark up the hill so that we could most assuredly get over the pass before the thunderstorms hit, which proved to be a very very smart move on our part.
PS: No matter how much I try to remember to get pictures of the grumpy/no good/rainy and cold parts of the trip, I always forget. So, pretty much we had no pictures of our trek after our rainy lunch at Copper Mt Resort. I’m sure you can use your imagination though.
Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 2
Day 2: Buffalo Creek CG to Twin Eagle CG
Stats: 43.3 mi, Elevation Gain: 5033ft, Moving time: 5h41m, Elapsed Time: 8h38m
We woke early and knew we had a pretty warm day ahead of us. I don’t remember much about this day except that I felt pretty good and Aliza didn’t. At Rolling Creek TH, the Lost Creek wilderness detour began, which meant we were on mostly paved/dirt roads for the day. You might think that sounds wonderful compared to trails, but in this case it also means sandy, non-graded roads, open treeless passages (hot), and washboard.
For me, though, with my hardtail, compared to Aliza’s full suspension trail bike, it was quite plush. My energy pedaling helped propel me forward right up the hill, where Aliza’s bike sucked a lot of energy that she was putting in. That, plus her sensitivity to heat made for a long grueling day. We rode together quite a bit, but also we rode with the understanding that we each just go at our own pace up the long ascents and then meet at turns or occasionally on the hills, just to make sure we don’t get too far apart. Eventually I realized that Aliza really was struggling and she needed more of a rest than just a quick stretch and a snack.
We stopped in some of the only shade we could find on the dirt road in the middle of the day. Ants ate our legs alive in the first couple of spots we tried, but eventually, after naming the road Ant Hill, we found a place to stretch our legs. We stripped down, doused ourselves with water, ate some snack-ums and just rested for a while. At this point we were in the heat of the day and we knew we just needed to not be in a rush and take it easy or else we could possibly get too overheated.
The road climb to the campsite was beautiful and brutal at the same time. We were literally only a few miles from camp when Aliza had to just not pedal any more. We dismounted, clamored over to a shaded rock area and laid on the cool rocks for about thirty minutes or so. We had just a bit of climbing left, so after a pep talk and some grumbling, we were on our way. We pulled into the campsites near Tarryall Reservoir and it was a busy, crowded mess. It didn’t look like there were many, if any, open spots, so we looked at the map and saw there was a smaller camp ground that we could possibly find a spot at. This was a good call! I think we ended up at Twin Eagles CG, a small spot, with maybe eight camp sites. We plopped in the first one we came to and set up camp. We arrived at about 3:30pm so we had plenty of time to rinse off and cool down in the lazy river right next to our campsite. After living and bikepacking in AZ, I will NEVER take a stream/river for granted! It is such a luxury to be ale to have an after-ride “bath” and a “wash room” for our salty, dirt-filled clothes.
Day 3: Twin Eagle CG to Jefferson Creek CG
Stats: 35.09 miles, Elevation Gain: +3802, Moving Time: 4h 55m, Elapsed Time: 8h24m
We woke up, refreshed and thankful for a cool morning. We tried to get an early start and were on the road by 7am, which all things considered with having to pack up and make breakfast and all that stuff, was a pretty great feat. We would be leaving the wilderness detour and rejoining the CT proper, which we were pretty excited about. The morning was pretty uneventful, and I thought it was pleasant, as we motored up to high alpine through the aspens, enjoying the rideable singletrack. The only drawback of getting such an early start was that we tried to stop by the well-known Lodge but it was closed when we got there. They have variable hours and we knew it probably wouldn’t be open bevcause it was early. We stopped for a quick snack and were on our way.
After gravel and aspens and wildflowers, our lunch stop was at Johnson Gulch where there was a cute little stream, and I swear we had turned into Bilbo Baggins and Frodo and had been galavanting in the Shire. Though it was a little buggy, the creekside resting place was much needed and our lunch spot gave us the energy we needed to continue on. We ran into two guys on foot (I think?) that had stopped for lunch as well and had a wee chat before they went one way and we went the other. Lunch legs hit hard when we realized we had to climb out of the gulch we were in and the long afternoon slog proved mentally (and physically) challenging.
Lunch break and stretch at Johnson Gulch
The climb up to Kenosha Pass was a bit brutal. I have pretty much blocked it from my mind. The only thing that I do recall was that, except for the two hikers in the gulch, we hadn’t seen anyone for the entire day and were just mentioning how it was something special to be able to ride to a place in the middle of nowhere that was inaccessible by anyone unless they really put the effort in when two people on horseback and their pup rounded the corner. We chatted for a bit, reveling in the beauty of where we were at on that ridgeline with views for miles and the serenity of it all. We bade each other adieu and continued toward the top. The camp area near the summit had a pump water station, so we filled our bottles, doused our heads, cleaned off a bit with our handkerchiefs readied ourselves for the final roll to Jefferson Creek CG.
At one point, we heard some noises in the trees and stopped quickly, unsure of what we would find. Suddenly, a few large quail flew out in front of us and we jumped so high! We giggled afterwards, and saw a whole family of the birds, climbing onto one of the branches that lay on the ground. They gave us quite the scare, and we were glad it wasn’t anything bigger.
Towards the end of the day, clouds blew in and started spattering sprinkles on our tired legs, shortly before we reached camp. We got a little turned around, unsure of which way the trail led to the camp vs. going through on the trail, but eventually found our way to the camp site in the late evening. We hadn’t known exactly where we would meet Patty Sag, whether it be on the road or at the campsite, but eventually we saw the van pulling into the camp just in time for dinner and just in time to get warm for the night. Aliza got a comfy bed in the camp and Patty and I slept in the tent. We dove into our resupply boxes for special treats that we had sent ahead and slipped into our dry, fresh clothing.
