It was probably a good idea that we took a zero in Leadville because we got a fresh 4" of snow on the ground. We stopped at a coffee shop before hitching to the trail and they had a great quote posted on the wall, "If you want to travel fast-go alone, if you want to travel far- go together." This quote fit our trip perfect as being a newbie I definitely slow the team down at times. We were making our hitching sign and got as far as "CDT Hikers to" before a women walked up and offered us a ride. The trail was difficult to hike in since the snow was wet and slushy in the sun and deep in the shade. The temperatures did warm up as promised by the weather channel and I actually hiked in shorts one day! : ) The morning and evening temperatures while setting up and breaking down camp were very cold but the temperature for hiking was nice if you were prepared with a proper layering system. I usually started my day in long sleeves, my down jacket, my down vest, and my wind jacket, shorts, workout pants, wind pants, two pairs of socks, gloves, beanie, and then frozen shoes. My pack felt a lot lighter since I was wearing my clothes not carrying them all on my back. The trail was nicely maintained since the CDT is also the Colorado Trail. The trail to Salida was mostly 4x4 Jeep roads with a few short cuts up and over the mountains instead of around them. We got to the road to hitch at a terrible bend in the road so cars wizzed past. This turned into our longest hitch waiting an hour for a ride. We got lots of waves and peace signs which is a nice gesture but unfortunately that doesn't get us into a town -you actually have to pick us up. A man in a small Ford Focus type car picked us up whom used to work for the Columbian Army doing special forces. He liked our dogs and said he used to jump from planes with German Shepherds. He offered us a ride back up the pass if we would be ready in a few hours but we heard a cold front was coming in so we wanted to stay the night. Salida was a little far apart for a thru-hiker with the post office, grocery store, and hotel a couple miles apart. After doing town chores and getting a good nights sleep we were ready to get back on trail. The weather channel warned of a cold front coming in but worried about getting too far behind schedule we decided to get back on trail. After 15 min. of hitching a man in a truck offered us a ride. Unfortunately he did not tell us he was only going part way before we were already driving. He dropped us off at his turn which was surrounded by ranches. We thanked him although we probably would have waited since we were now in the middle of no where. We froze in the wind while trying to hitch the rest of the way up the pass for about 30 min. before we decided to hitch back to Salida and wait out the cold front. We continued to freeze another 20 min. before catching a ride back into town. Spins and Baboon were still a town and were also waiting for the cold snap to pass. We hung out and ordered pizza watching Smokey and the Bandit and other old classics. The next day we got a quick hitch from a friendly fellow who happened to have some free time and had done the CT a few years earlier. We got up to Monarch Pass and it looked and felt like the middle of winter. Creede was our next town since we decided there would be too much snow to hike the San Juan mountains so the alternative is a low route to Creede. I'm very happy we took the low route because even the low route had tons of snow. Creede was a small town that was very friendly. We went to Kip's for dinner and made friends with some locals. We picked up several boxes from the post office and one of the women who worked there gave us a ride to our motel since it was snowing. Again we had a snow storm roll through covering the town with 4" of fresh snow. We looked at the weather report which said the next snow wouldn't hit until Monday, which is when we were supposed to get to the next town, Pagosa Springs CO. What should have taken 2.5 days to hike turned into a solid 4 days because of the snow. The trail was completely covered in snow with average snow coverage of 5"-6" with deep areas coming up past my knees...and the weather didn't want to wait. We got snowed on with high winds everyday excluding the first day out. Oh yeah welcome to rifle season... Bang! Bang! Bang! By 9am opening day we had already heard 3 shots. Later that day we found a huge herd hiding. A burn area about 10 miles from the road. The 40+ herd had some impressive males and a random bull moose? Everyone must have put aside their differences to hide from the hunters. That night was very loud with all the bugleing. The burn area must far enough away from the road and the snow was thick enough to deter the hunters. Seeing the herd was the best part of the section.
Stopped at the peak for a break.
Aspens when they were still yellow...
Followed some cat tracks on our way into Pagosa Springs. Grizby immediately started peeing on everything... He sure showed that cat.
We are currently in Pagosa Springs CO, next stop Chama NEW MEXICO! Last state! Mr. Ortiz has been nice enough to volunteer to pick us up at the end of this adventure. He can pick us up on Nov. 13 or 14th so we should be back in CA in about a month then back to the grind...
Ps... I will be singing THE FINAL COUNT DOWN by Europe as I jump over the state line into New Mexico
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