Saturday July 10, 22.3mi/35.9km

Lake 12200 (380.7/12205ft) to Elk Creek Pond (403.0/9995ft) (CO)

I left camp at 7am, and everyone else was awake and packing up.

I climbed up out of the lake basin, to the first of many passes.

The trail stayed high on the continental divide all day, and the views were endless.

I don’t know the name of these maroon flowers, but they seem to like to grow in big clusters.

Since I’m so far above treeline, I could see many miles of the trail ahead. Here, it drops down to a saddle, and back up the next ridge.

I kept strolling thru the San Juan mountains all morning, engrossed by the scenery.

I crossed a tiny stream, flowing directly out if a snowfield. Now that’s fresh water!

Since there are no trees to put trail markers on, the trail is marked by many Cairns. Some are quite artistic.

The scenery just kept coming.

I could see all the little switchbacks in the trail up ahead, as it climbed the opposite hillside.

Once I climbed the opposite hillside, I could see down into a verdant lush valley.

I descended into that valley, and I crossed another little stream. Except this wasn’t just any stream, it was the headwaters of the Rio Grande!

KOKO caught up to me! We had camped at the same spot last night, and she was fun to talk to. We hiked together for the rest of the day. I had hiked this section before on the CDT, and I enjoyed seeing the same places again in summertime. The old mine at Stony Pass looked much the same.

The old mining cabin looked a little more dilapidated, though.

We spent most of the afternoon up on the divide, hiking thru fields of wildflowers.

And fields of snow.

Finally it was time to depart the continental divide, where the CT continues west, while the CDT goes south.

The initial descent off the divide was quick and steep, using dozens of switchbacks.

Then we followed a steep trail, with Elk Creek on one side and a rock wall on the other.

After going down a couple thousand feet, we were in the Elk Creek Valley. Some of the little streams had this cool hydrophobic green moss. The water would roll right over it, without soaking in.

Over the winter, there was an avalanche, and the snow brought down hundreds of trees, which we had to slowly climb thru.

We arrived at a campsite near a pond, and called it a day. It was almost 6pm.

Across the pond was an amazing view of Arrow Peak and Vestal Peak, which KOKO has been to before, and attempted some of the technical climbing routes. I’ll have to come back!

Our campsite was nice and flat, and sheltered by some trees. It’s nice being below treeline sometimes!

Tomorrow, I’m going into Silverton, my first town in a week! I’m pretty excited about a shower and a breakfast burrito.

Friday July 9, 22.9mi/36.9km

Spring Creek Pass (357.8/10906ft) to Lake 12200 (380.7/12205ft) (CO)

I slept in and got a late start, and enjoyed the relaxing morning cruising on old jeep roads.

The trail is up on the continental divide here, and I could see down into all the little valleys.

The trail was mostly above 12,000ft today, so I was above treeline.

The view ahead was a little interesting…I’m going to climb those things?

I briefly dropped low enough to be in the trees. The morning’s only water source was also at this low point, too.

I had a nice gradual climb back up, the trees disappeared again and I was traveling thru the willows.

Most of the day was ridge walking, with epic views.

The clouds were starting to do their usual thing, and growing as the afternoon heat took hold.

I loved seeing the contrast of the little snow patches on a green grassy hillside.

I stopped to chat with another CT hiker, Luke. He is from Missouri, and doing the trail on his summer break between college semesters. The clouds were turning rumbly, so we made haste moving down the trail. But I still stopped to get a photo of these flowers.

The final, gradual climb up to the Colorado Trail highpoint. The clouds were gathering and becoming thunder-y.

I grabbed a quick photo at the highpoint, 13,271ft, and then quickly moved to lower ground.

The trail descended precipitously on switchbacks down this ridge.

It was cool seeing old vintage signposts for the CDT, carved with “Divide Trail”.

There was an old mine ruins on the way down.

I wanted to poke around and have a look, but there were sinkholes and the ground seemed unstable.

I continued into into the Lost Trail Creek Valley, where there were plentiful water sources once again.

The trail slowly climbed up to the head of the valley, and over the pass.

These rock towers were surprising to see. I think the rock around here is volcanic.

Looking back down at the valley I had just hiked up:

I continued on down from the pass another two miles, to camp at an unnamed lake.

I got down to the lake at 5:30pm and it was really warm.

There was already a family of four there, and I setup my tent nearby. A duo of women arrived and setup their tents too, and the final camper arrived and setup her tent next to mine. Six tents, that’s the most I’ve seen yet on this trail!

All are CT thru hikers, except the family. I enjoyed chatting with them over dinner. KOKO (camped next to me) knew BluegrassHopper, small world!

Thursday July 8, 26.1mi/42.0km

Cochetopa Creek (334.7/10830ft) to Spring Creek Pass (357.8/10906ft) (CO) + 3.0mi San Luis Peak

We were awake before sunrise, and on the trail just after 6am. The valley turned orange as the sun came up.

Some of the nearby cliffs had neat formations.

Two hours later, we stood atop San Luis Pass. Looking back down the valley that we just hiked up:

We dropped our packs and took a side hike up nearby San Luis Peak, a 14er. The nice trail climbed steadily up to the summit.

The only thing that seemed to grow up here were these purple flowers.

We arrived at the summit just before 9am.

The views were incredible.

There was a father/son duo up there too, they are doing 5 summits each summer until he goes away to college, neat!

Coming back down the mountain to the Colorado trail.

The trail wove it’s way thru alpine meadows and passes all day, everything was so green.

Looking back at San Luis Peak:

On top of a pass, looking down to the next valley:

In one spot we had to cross a tiny snow patch. The cold felt good on my feet.

The constant ups and downs were exhausting, but it was cool to see each new green valley we would traverse.

BluegrassHopper coming up to a pass.

It has been a very wet summer, and the wildflowers are growing like crazy.

After all the climbs and descents over passes, we finally came to Snow Mesa. It is the large flat plateau on the right side of the photo.

We took a break at a nice rocky spot, and a pika came to say hi…or maybe ask for food.

More wildflowers! The deep red ones were a new sight.

The trail slowly made its way down to Snow Mesa.

Once we were on the Mesa we had 5 miles of flat easy walking.

There wasn’t much water up there, but this little lake was nice to look at.

The trail seemed to go on forever in the distance.

Even more wildflowers! These tiny alpine purple ones smelled really good.

Finally at 5pm we came to the edge of the Mesa, and started our descent down to Spring Creek Pass.

Most of the wildflowers we saw on the way down were columbines, Colorado’s state flower.

We got to Spring Creek past just before 6pm, and BluegrassHopper instantly got a hitch down to Lake City.

He is getting off the trail here, as his flight home is tomorrow. I’m camping at the pass and continuing on for a couple more days to Silverton.

Wednesday July 7, 23.8mi/38.3km

Archuleta Creek (310.9/9774ft) to Cochetopa Creek (334.7/10830ft) (CO)

BluegrassHopper and I departed camp pretty early, 7:15am, and enjoyed a wonderful morning of cool temperatures and easy walking.

The trail was on an old 4wd track most of the morning.

We came to a trailhead with one car parked, I loved this bumper sticker. Leg day!

There were plenty of wildflowers growing along the track, but I don’t know any of their names. Yellow, Red, Purple, and white seemed descriptive enough, ha!

We had been seeing cow pies all morning, but didn’t see the culprits until almost 10am. Hi cows!

Someone, probably a CDT northbound hiker, made some stone artwork. These are pretty common on long trails. Apparently this is 1000 miles north of the Mexican border via the CDT.

The 4wd track continued, and turned southward.

We approached Cochetopa Creek and small pond… finally, some water!

The pond was quite gross.

BluegrassHopper in the lead, with the meandering Cochetopa Creek to the right.

We hiked along the creek for a couple miles, and then crossed it. One problem, the bridge wasn’t above the water, but under it.

I forded the creek; it was only knee-deep but flowing fast. We continued south with the meandering Cochetopa Creek now on our left.

A mile later, a nice wooden sign welcomed us to the La Garita Wilderness.

The trail continued on rolling green hills beside the creek.

In the distance I could see a building, which seemed very out of place in the wilderness.

It turns out, there is a very narrow strip of non-wilderness, with a trailhead and a nearby private ranch.

We continued along Cochetopa Creek, and BGH stopped to fly fish, as he is very fond of doing.

And in only 5 minutes, he caught a trout!

We hiked on another couple miles, slowly veering west towards San Luis Peak.

We got to our planned camp at 5pm, and a couple of girls were already there. Casey and Kim were taking a break, and continued on to do a few more miles.

BGH and I setup our tents, and then went down to the creek to get water, rinse out our sweaty shirts, and of course go fishing. It will feel great tomorrow having clean-ish clothes!

Tuesday July 6, 26.2mi/42.2km

Big Bend Trail Jct (284.7/11178ft) to Archuleta Creek (310.9/9774ft) (CO)

We woke up to blue skies and warm temperatures, and got moving down the trail at 7:15am.

After about an hour of walking, we crossed paths with a familiar looking hiker. He said, “hey you guys were going south yesterday, why are you going north now?”. I told him we were indeed still going south, and double checked my GPS to be sure. He was hiking the wrong direction since leaving camp this morning! Oops. After another hour of hiking, we got to Baldy Lake, where he had camped.

It was nice to hike under blue skies all morning.

Occasionally the forest would open up into a meadow, and I could see pretty far.

Looking southwest into the San Juan mountains:

The green grassy fields were quite a change from the wet, hail-covered hillsides from yesterday.

We hiked all morning, only seeing one water source, Razor Creek. I stopped and filled up 2L of water, and dried my tent. The clouds were starting to build, but not much.

Shortly after noon, we crossed into the Gunnison NF, and followed an old dirt road downhill.

A couple of guys were working at a logging site and chatted with us for a couple of minutes. They had a huge pile of logs.

We had lunch in a shady spot on the dirt road, by Lujan Creek. It was only the second water source in 16 miles. The rest of the dirt roadwalk was nice.

And we came to a paved highway, and followed it for 5 minutes, before heading off into the forest again.

The rest of the afternoon we hiked uphill on an old dirt road, and the right back down again. The water was scarce, but the views were plentiful.

We arrived to a campsite at 6:15pm and sat down and ate right away, my feet were tired and I was so hungry.

Good views from the campsite.

Bluegrasshopper had a pretty good looking dinner too.

I ate more food in my tent, and passed out before sunset.

Monday July 5, 24.3mi/39.1km

South Fooses Creek (260.4/11125ft) to Big Bend Trail Jct (284.7/11178ft) (CO)

I had a great night’s sleep at my little trailside camp spot, and I had plenty of energy for the last steep mile to the ridgetop & CDT junction. The view from the ridge:

It was only 8:20, and I had a nice stroll on the ridge.

I saw tons of mountain bikers in this section, like a group every 10 minutes. It was a little much.

Some of last year’s cornices are still melting away. This one must’ve been huge!

After a couple miles, I came to a 3-sided shelter, much like the AT shelters, but without a floor.

I had a snack at the shelter and hiked onward, on the wonderful trail. It felt so nice being back up on the divide, and seeing all the things I missed on the low (Collegiate East) route…like talus!

More bikers came by, and I stepped off the trail to let them by. A couple curious little marmots came out of their rock den to say hi.

I dropped down to Marshall Pass, and explored the area a bit. I found the old snowmobile cabin we stayed at in 2016 on the CDT. It was, of course, surrounded by cows.

As I walked closer the cows begrudgingly moooved out of the way.

The inside, with 3 cots, woodstove, and heaps of wood:

On my departure, one cow was especially friendly.

I met a Russian couple in the Marshall Pass parking lot looking for mushrooms. The woman was very proud of the one she had already found.

I hiked on, away from the crowds of bikers and dayhikers at the pass, and had lunch at this hilarious trail junction. It sounds like either way, I starve??

I ate quickly, as an afternoon thunderstorm was building. The clouds looked ominous.

I met a couple of hikers at the next water source, and BluegrassHopper and I hiked together for the rest of the day.

A few miles later, we found a free ramen on top of a trail junction sign!

A brief walk thru an aspen forest.

The last couple of hours were spent hiking up to Sargent’s Mesa, through alpine fields.

This photo seemed especially interesting, with the clouds and curving trail.

I have no idea why someone fenced off a stump.

As we gained the top of Sargent’s Mesa, it appeared it had recently hailed, and it had accumulated.

We descended the other side, and it got warmer and the fallen hail was mostly melted. Looking behind at Sargent’s Mesa:

BluegrassHopper and I walked the last few miles to our campsite at a flat saddle. He is from North Carolina, and has also hiked the AT, John Muir Trail, and a few others. A very interesting guy to talk to! We setup camp at 6:30 and had dinner in our tents, as the clouds looked threatening again. Tomorrow will be another long mileage day!

Sunday July 4, 7.5mi/12.1km

Hwy 50 (252.9/8860ft) to South Fooses Creek (260.4/11125ft) (CO)

I was awake at 8am, and went to the store to buy the last piece of my costume. I joined Andrea and Tim for a themed rafting trip on the Arkansas River today. We went out for breakfast burritos, and then headed to the river.

Just before we launched onto the river we put our costumes on. Sebastian and King Trident, from the Little Mermaid!

Louie the dog had a costume too, he was a shark.

After an hour of some pretty fun rapids, we stopped at an eddy spot to have lunch.

Tim is a rafting guide and did all the hard work, and all three of us played the movie soundtrack while in our costumes. There were many other people on the river, and we definitely got some looks!

The Arkansas River is pretty narrow and fast in some places.

We got off the river at our takeout spot, and I went back to the house to shower and finish packing. After stopping at Amica’s Pizza, Andrea drove me back up to the trail. Super awesome! I was full of excellent pizza and ready to hike. After a mile I came to Fooses Lake.

It was pretty neat seeing it just before sunset.

The first three miles were on an old dirt road, so it was fast easy walking.

I hiked another three miles on a trail, much of it my headlamp. I love night hiking, it’s the perfect temperature to hike uphill.

I stopped at a camp spot a little after 10pm, and quickly set up and went to bed.

Saturday July 3, 11.7mi/18.8km

Fourmile Creek (241.2/9774ft) to Hwy 50 (252.9/8860ft) (CO)

I was awake at sunrise, to get into town by noon. The sunlight started filtering thru the trees by the time I got packed up.

The trail was kept its usual due south course, above the Arkansas River valley.

The view to the south, of a new set of mountains.

I descended down this valley, and ascended the other side. At the top of the climb, I was very surprised to see this animal blocking my path.

And there were more! Moo.

The trail traveled thru pasture for a mile or so.

And then thru Lipe Meadow, which had a special sign with the meadow’s name. Weird.

The birch forests are so cool and green.

And when I drop lower, I’m suddenly on sagebrush terrain.

Just before noon, I came down a hill to highway 50, which goes to Salida.

The hitchhike to town took only 3 minutes. The third car picked me up, and we went straight to Safeway, where they were heading anyway. I bought my food for the next 7-day section.

After food shopping, I walked to my friend Andrea’s place, and I got a shower and laundry done. Two other hikers, Brian and Tom, were also there and we all went out to a bar for some live music.

We stayed at Tres Litros for a couple hours, before heading out to a few other bars. It seemed like most of the town was out tonight, and there were a couple of wedding parties roaming around too. I got to bed pretty late, but it was so fun to see people!

Friday July 2, 22.5mi/36.2km

South Cottonwood TH (218.7/9005ft) to Fourmile Creek (241.2/9774ft) (CO)

I woke up to a wet tent, as usual. I packed everything up, knowing I would stop to dry it out later this morning. The weather was bright and sunny today.

I reached the top of a short 1000ft climb, and the forest opened up, with surprisingly good views of Mt Princeton ahead.

And as usual, I could see down to the Arkansas River valley below.

With all the rain last night, the little streams were gushing, even more than yesterday. This one was almost up to the bottom of the little bridge that spanned it.

Apparently the CT goes thru private property, and this was well advertised to its users.

After 10 minutes, the trail joined a dirt road, and in 10 more minutes, it passed a ranch.

At this point, the road became a wider paved road, and I was baking in the hot sun.

I could see storm clouds amassing just to the south, and hear the thunder too.

As I walked the road down into the Chalk Creek Valley, I could see down into Mt Princeton hot springs resort.

A mile later, I was walking by the entrance. Normally it would be tempting to make a visit, but with the thunder and lightning, the water attraction seemed like a bad idea.

I had just started walking down the road again when I passed two hikers, Crocs and Jibz. They each mentioned that there was possibly beer and food somewhere at the resort, and I spontaneously decided to join them. We eventually found a place with food (there were several) and a roof, to keep us dry from rain. During our meal of burgers and salad, I received this ominous warning on my phone:

We discussed all the trails we had hiked, and advice about our upcoming sections, the usual hiker stuff. They are CDT nobos, and we got a group photo before we parted ways.

There was another two miles of roadwalking, but by now the rain had stopped so it was nice walking. The dip was only a little wet.

It was scenic to walk by all the pastures along the Chalk River.

I finally got back into the forest on a trail, and it immediately climbed 1000ft to a viewpoint. Looking west up the Chalk River valley:

Then there was an hour of flat walking thru a really nice sparse pine forest, it reminded me of northern Arizona.

At the end of this nice forest, I encountered the first gate of the CT.

I climbed uphill almost another 1000ft, and stumbled upon what was apparently a quite popular camping area near Brown’s Creek. The creek was raging.

I spotted a couple of pretty old vintage CT markers, cool!

I stopped to camp just above a small creek, and enjoyed a big dinner. I’m going to town tomorrow, so I could eat all my extra food!

Thursday July 1, 22.6mi/36.4km

Waverly Mt. Ridgetop (196.1/11634ft) to South Cottonwood TH (218.7/9005ft) (CO)

I slept in a little, it was pretty cold and I wanted to wait until the day warmed a bit. The view from 11,600ft was great.

I immediately descended 1000ft down to Pine Creek valley, which was wet with morning dew.

In the valley I saw plenty of animal tracks, including these big ones.

I crossed Pine Creek, and entered the Collegiate Wilderness.

I re-climbed all 1000ft, plus a bit more up to another ridge. The trail was easy, even with the climbing.

I was surprised to see this arrangement of stones on the side of the trail, I thought hikers only did this on longer trails. Apparently I’m 200 miles into the Colorado Trail!

The clouds were starting to gather a little earlier than usual today, it was fun to watch the contrast of dark clouds and blue sky.

As I descended off the ridge, I couldn’t help but notice the hillside covered in talus.

I could see all the way down into the Arkansas River, and the town of Buena Vista.

On the descent, I followed a tiny but raging stream for a while. It was very loud, and I was relieved there was a bridge to cross it.

Probably the most surprising thing of the day was passing by a pack train of 9 horses. It didn’t seem like a trail crew, they didn’t have any gear and were dressed too nice. Maybe just a youth group out for a pleasure ride?

I crossed another stream, this time on a much less sturdy bridge. The logs appeared ancient, and bowed alarmingly under my small weight.

I love this trail name. Three elks seems like an awkward number…

I passed by the Harvard Lakes, which had a neat looking surface from the light rain.

The most confusing and disturbing thing I saw all day was definitely this severed leg.

I descended to North Cottonwood Creek on an exposed trail thru sagebrush, so the views of the valley and threatening clouds were great.

I crossed North Cottonwood Creek, which was also raging. There seems to be too much rain for this time of year, and not normal for Colorado.

I began the huge 2500ft climb up, and it started to lightly rain. I put up the umbrella, and plodded along, slowly gaining elevation. About halfway up, I was rewarded with a neat view behind me.

A mile later, I came to a high meadow, and the rain subsided.

An old cabin ruins was barely visible from the trail, so I walked over to investigate. It was strange seeing a structure inside a Wilderness area.

I crossed Silver Creek and departed the meadow, heading for the last 800ft of my climb.

I re-entered the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness… apparently I had left it?

Finally, the top of the climb. I was on a ridge of Mt. Yale, with some pretty awesome views.

The descent was quick but steep. Soon I was looking down into the next valley, where I was planning to camp for the night.

The view to the west, towards Cottonwood Pass.

The south-facing hillside was covered in all colors of wildflowers, which was one nice thing from all the rain this week.

I reached the bottom, after descending 2500ft in only 3 miles! I continued on for another flat mile until I found a campsite. Unfortunately it was near a trailhead, so there was a bit of traffic noise. I setup and ate dinner, and just as I was going to sleep a massive thunderstorm rolled thru. For 20 minutes my tent was pelted with some rain, but mostly hail. Exciting!