My Continental Divide Trail Adventure: Silverthorn and Leadville CO

Leaving Grand Lake we had a couple options, either take the official CDT and climb through a ton of blow downs or walk the road. We decided on the road walk after finding out about a breakfast joint 5 miles down the street. Full and unmotivated we walked against traffic so I wouldn't be tempted to hitch. Another 5 miles down the road we came across a convenience store and I went in to use the restroom (I take advantage of every bathroom I come across as toilets are a luxury during a thru-hike). The owner of the store offered to save us the last bit of the road walk and take us to the trail head and since he offered I didn't want to be rude so I accepted the ride (happily). The trail provides. After a 15 minute car ride that saved us an afternoon of walking we arrived at the trail head. There must have been some kind of school field trip because there was about 100 kids at different stations. I was happy to see they are getting the kids out to learn about nature but there really should be some kind of leash laws for children. We put some pep in our step and were releaved once we got far enough into the woods to escape the screaming of the kids. We hiked until dark which is now hours earlier than it was in June. The next morning we woke up to a frozen camp. Water bottles were frozen, tent was frozen, stream was frozen, everything was frozen. I take a little longer to get up and get going when it's cold or freezing out. By the time everything was broken down I was finishing my oat meal when I looked out into the meadow and saw 3 moose. We watched them graze for awhile when all of a sudden one of the moose charged another. We then realized they were two bull moose and we were in the beginning of the rut. The two exchanged looks and the larger chased off the other another time before the smaller bull retreated into the forest. I had never seen anything like that in person that display definitely made my day. The trail was frozen and the water sources remained partially frozen for the rest of the day. The day time temperatures were great for hiking but the nights got into the low 30s-20s which is way too cold for me. We had to camp high one night as we didn't have enough time to make it over James Peak. We set up camp quickly and put the dogs to bed to stay out of the wind. The sun had just set and we were eating dinner when something caught my attention. I turned and about 3 feet away was a fox! He had his nose in the snack bag when I yelled "hey, no!" He lifted his head from the bag but didn't back up more than a couple feet. I was in such shock that this little guy had the courage to just walk up to us. I threw a rock in his direction and he then backed away another 10 feet en stopped and just stared before circling the camp and wandering off. Since there were no trees to hang the food we slept with it to keep it from being eaten by the fox. The temperatures remained low at night and if layered comfortable during the day. We were almost to the highway when I checked my phone and noticed we had service. After being rained on the night before I decided to check the weather report. Shouldn't have done that. The forecast said a storm was passing through and to expect more snow. After hiking another pass and getting rained on I found a trail that went to a road to get an early hitch into town. The idea was to go to Silverthorn, wait for the storm to pass, then back track and hike Grey's (14,000 footer). After watching the mountains turn white we decided to take the alternate route around to Copper Mt. and skip Grey's Peak since we would be hiking in 2 feet of snow. Not my cup of tea. Although we stayed below 14,000ft. there was still snow. At 10,000ft. there was an average of 4" of snow with some random knee deep spots. We got into Copper Mt. and picked up some dog food we had mailed to ourselves. We ran into Baboon and Spins again in the empty ski town before hitting the trail. We took a wrong turn up the trail and took a 3 mile side trip up a ski trail. We got back on trail, the right one, and made it to a hunter's camp before calling it a day. The next morning we found out we could make it into Leadville if we jammed up some passes and peaks so we did. We got to the road around 5 and got a ride within 10 minutes. We got into town and found a cheap motel to post up in. We then again looked at the weather report which said the night low would be 19 degrees and the next day would be 50% chance of snow off and on all day. We took the zero and ran around running town errands in the snow. The weather is supposed to clear up and warm up tomorrow and the next few days so although it is currently snowing it's back to the trail in the morning. Continuing to embrace the brutality...

Leaving Grand Lake...