Chapter 12
@mycrazyadventurescalledlife
Day 12, July 19, 2021
Mile Marker 159.8 to 186 (26.2 miles)
"Infamous CDT Road Walks"
A beautiful morning to start an all day road walk
I heard from SoBos the next section is fairly easy as it involves a lot of road walk with not much elevation change. Yes, one of the many infamous miles of road walks on the CDT.
However, it is also exposed and a hot day. I do fairly well in a hot environment, as long as there's a little bit of breeze. So today was an opportunity to do a 30-mile day, and therefore catch up on some of the lost miles from Day 10.
Pretty cool aspens
A long exposed road walk on a hot sunny day. CT thru hikers from Texas going SoBo.
This road walk section is fairly dry, and once leaving the shades of the aspen trees, it got hot quickly. The sun was beating on me, from above and from the ground. I put my earbuds on, turned on some upbeat jams, put up the hoodie of my Patagonia Tropic Comfort Hoodie and zoned out.
Since I didn't carry much water from Cochetopa Creek, I was glad the spring I was counting on was flowing. It was a wet winter so the seasonal streams are still flowing at this time. Also the benefits of the daily thunderstorms.
At first, from the road, it looked stagnant with a lot of algae. But once I went into the flower bed area and followed where it flowed, it looked clear. And after filtering, it tasted fresh and cold. Ah amazing! A few ladies joined me as well and we talked about travel nursing. A quick stop to grab water turned into almost an hour of resting. As soon as break time was over, time to hike fast.
Trail magic!!!
However, after 3.5 miles, I encountered trail magic! Yay! Well first of all, it is quite rude (even a bad juju) to turn down trail magic, especially on this particular section. Unfortunately I had forgotten his name as I forgot to write a note for this day but he has thruhiked the CT a few years ago and remembered this section as one of those hard days so he picked this particular section for trail magic.
And although I don't normally drink soda, I had to have a cold cola! More SoBos came in and it was just a pleasure chatting with everyone. An hour passed quickly and I just remembered I needed to dry my gear from last night. So I took my gear out of my pack. And then later remembered I really wanted some ramen for lunch so I cooked myself a hot ramen for lunch. Next thing I know it's already been two hours! Oh crap. Gotta go!
Nothing but open landscape
Road walk for miles
For the rest of the day, I spread the good news of trail magic to all the SoBo's I met on the trail. It is a great motivation, even if it is just something simple. A little goes a long way when you are hiking on a hot, dirt road with not much reward, other than getting to the next section.
And of course, the cows!
There was still plenty of daylight when I arrived at Pine Creek, though there were already plenty of hikers comfortably settled in their tents. As I was checking Guthook maps on my phone, I almost stepped on a snake crossing the trail. I think the snake and I were equally surprised. I suddenly jumped and luckily it wasn't a poisonous snake. After filtering water, I kept going and then I came into a herd of cows, going into the Pine Creek direction. I'm glad I kept moving.
After crossing Hwy 114, the road that some hitch to Gunnison, the sun set and the temperature dropped. I was fine as long as I kept moving. Actually it was great because it's still a road walk uphill. I grabbed plenty of water from a culvert, and hiked a half mile. I wanted to do another marathon day. Near the Lujan Creek Trailhead marks 26.2 miles, so I set camp. Long day indeed. The moon was already up high as I was eating dinner. A great day, a good night.
A beautiful night at camp
End of Chapter 12