Monday 7/24/2017, 14.6mi/23.5km

Big Sandy Lake (23.7/9,720ft) – Lake below Raid Peak Pass (37.0/10,650ft) (WY) +1.3mi Texas Pass alt

I woke up at 6am, ate a cold breakfast of Belvita and poptarts, and we were on trail at 6:45am. We apparently camped at a “no camping” spot…oops!

We found a climbing nut while packing up! Weird.

We hiked up the steady switchbacks, following a nice trail. Upon crossing a creek a mile later, the nice trail disappeared. We followed a series of social trails up to a lake, and saw a few other parties camping. I had a nice 2nd breakfast at a scenic spot nearby.

After we ascended above the lake, the trail looked familiar to me, but also strange since I was heading in the opposite direction from last year.

The upper trail was new to Quickham – he took a lower trail last year on the CDT. We hiked over Jackass Pass, and then descended to Lonesome Lake.

Cirque of the Towers, with Lonesome Lake in the middle. Amazing!

The alpine squirrels were watching us as we passed by.

There were many snowfields at the bottom. We met a camper who said he’s never seen this much snow or mosquitoes in his 15 years of coming here. We made our way across the outlet of the lake, which was a knee-deep ford this year. After circling the lake, we began the climb to the next pass. About 500ft up, we had a quick break to look around.

And I was apparently posing for a hiking calendar…?

Upon closer inspection and discussion, we decided that NY pass isn’t safe, as there was a huge cornice.

So, we climbed Texas Pass instead, which added just over a mile. One positive, we got to “mess with Texas”, which is always a good idea.

We descended the north side of Texas Pass, which was surprisingly mostly snow-free. It still felt weird hiking this part in reverse.

We continued past several alpine lakes, which still had a decent amount of snow cover.

We pass a group of four hikers going the opposite direction, they were out for a quick 4 day trip.

We stopped for lunch just before joining the trail by Shadow Lake. The views were great, but the mosquitoes were insane. Not surprisingly, it’s difficult to eat while wearing a headnet.

We cruised down the nice trail for 2 miles to a junction, then passed a father/daughter duo on our way to Skull Lake.

We left the trail at the north end of the Lake, just as the sky started to look ominous with dark clouds. We bushwhacked down to a stream and easily crossed it in ankle deep water.

We followed another fork upstream for a very pleasant hour – it was all open slabs and trees! It was the most amazing “bushwhacking” I’ve ever done. Then, a flat gravel/grass field lead to another easy stream crossing.

Quickham and I took turns leading the last segment, which followed a stream uphill.

We gradually climbed past several alpine lakes, the last two had some ice in them!

A marmot came by, they’re always looking for food.

We got to our intended destination, an unnamed lake below Raid Peak Pass, at 5:30pm. Nice and early! We set up camp, cooked, battled mosquitoes, and discussed the day.

The Ursacks are great! They protect your food from critters and bears, and don’t need to be hung from a tree, which is especially handy when there aren’t any trees around. I tied it around a large rock.

I was in my tent by 7:30pm, and so excited by that! My ribs still hurt from the fall yesterday, but I was asleep by 9pm.

Sunday 7/23/2017, 10.9mi/17.5km

Below Wind River Peak (12.8/10,150ft) – Big Sandy Lake (23.7/9,720ft) (WY)

We woke up at 6am, and ate a cold breakfast of bars and poptarts. We get packed up and are out of camp at 6:45am.

We soon climbed out of the trees, and into an alpine meadow next to the Deep Creek Lakes.

The trail ended apruptly at the lake outlet…time to plan a route across on rocks!

After rock-hopping halfway across the outlet, we are forced to ford the stream.

With wet feet, we continued another half mile before leaving the trail, and then bushwhacked up towards Wind River Peak.

The vegetation subsided quickly, and soon we are traveling over rocky grass fields.

Those eventually gave way to low angle snowfields, interrupted by bands of rocks every quarter-mile.

After changing in and out of our crampons 3 times, we reached the summit at 11am, and have an early lunch.

The north face of the peak is a 1,000ft vertical drop, and the west side (our descent route) also looks very steep.

Quickham is cheesin’ it up on the summit of Wind River Peak.

The Winds are now my favorite wilderness in the Lower 48!

We found an unofficial trail register (a plastic screw case), and it was fun to read the old entries (from 1988!), and then we added our own entry. As we were leaving, we met a trio of guys from Lander just arriving. We swapped photographer roles, and then started down the west side of the peak.

The first 500ft of the descent wasn’t bad, just small talus or grassy rock-fields. Then, we traversed left into the West gully. It was steep, probably a black diamond ski slope, with lots of loose small and medium talus.

Quickham went first, and we made good progress for 1000 vertical feet. I also took a video to better show the steepness of our chosen route. 

Then, the gully ended at a cliff band of black rocks, and we traversed left to get around it. Shortly after, we encountered a steep snowfield. We put on our shoe crampons (Kahtoola), and VERY carefully kicked steps and made our way down. We had no ice axes. The last section was less steep, so we moved quicker.

And then, I lost a foot placement, and started sliding faster and faster down the snow slope, with some rapidly approaching talus 200ft below. I tried to arrest (stop) with my bare hands, but it only prevented me from accelerating further. I used my feet to steer towards a lower-angled slope, and some less sharp talus. Eventually, after sliding 200 vertical feet (based on my altimeter) over snow and some rocks, I came to a stop on a large rock. I yelled to Quickham, “I’m OK, don’t hurry”, and sat on the flat rock. After a quick assessment, I determined that my camera was broken, and my ribs hurt, but I was seemingly uninjured. Quickham arrived 5 minutes later, and we took a quick 10 minute break. My hands were numb, raw, and cold. Eventually, we continued down the snow, now lower-angled and safer, to the bottom of the bowl. After a half-mile of snow walking, we got to a grassy spot with some dry rocks and took a long break.

The rest of the day we were in sneakers, descending slabs or talus down to Black Joe lake.

We bushwhacked along the north (right) shore of the lake, and then had to make an annoying/tiring 200ft climb to get around some cliffs.

We joined a maintained trail, cruised down the trail for a mile to Big Sandy Lake, and made dinner by the stream crossing. And there was just enough of a wind to keep the mosquitoes away!

Quickham did some texting (on his InReach) with our food re-supply guy, and then we hiked the final quarter-mile to a campsite at the trail junction for Jackass Pass. We setup camp by 9pm, and after some discussion about the day, we’re quickly asleep.

Saturday 7/22/2017, 12.8mi/20.6km

Bruce’s Bridge Trailhead (0.0/7,100 ft) – Below Wind River Peak (12.8/10,150 ft) (WY)

I got up at 6am, and it was perfect timing to catch the sunrise!

After an hour of driving, I came to South Pass, where the CDT crosses the highway. I decided to take a quick walk to reminisce from my hike last year. It felt more remote and lonely than I remembered it.

After another hour of driving, I got to Lander at 8:30am and met Quickham at a coffee shop. We got breakfast and drinks, charged and updated our phones, and chatted about life since our CDT hike last year. We left by 10am, and drove over to the local grocery store – Mr. D’s. It was expensive, and they didn’t carry everything that I needed, so we went to the Safeway down the street. I finished food shopping, and we drove the 1.5 hours north, almost to Dubois, to drop off a car at the finish, Trail Lakes Trailhead. The last 5 miles was on a fun dirt road, and I had fun driving it pretty fast in a rental car! We finally got back to Lander at 1pm, and then stopped at the gear shop, Wild Iris. I bought a knife (TSA confiscated mine), and Quickham got a bug headnet. I packed up in the parking lot, we filled our water, and drove to the Bruce Bridge Trailhead, arriving at 3pm.

We started hiking at 3:15pm, passing many friendly dayhikers for the first 2 miles. We got one of them to take our photo together, since it might be the only time we see other people this week!

After the Forks Park junction, we didn’t see anyone else. We hiked along a fork of the Popo Agie River, steadily climbing 2500ft.

We stopped for dinner and water at 8pm at a creek.

The mosquitoes were starting to appear…. video

We ate quickly, and started hiking again at 8:45pm.

We entered the Popo Agie Wilderness near the end of the day. So exciting!

We continued with headlamps for another 45 minutes, stopping in a meadow where another hiker is also camped. We got setup by 10:15pm, and cleverly stashed our food in trees. After a couple minutes of discussion about tomorrow’s plan, we passed out before 11pm.

Friday 7/21/2017, 0mi/0km

A few days before the flight to Utah, I went food shopping for the trip. I mailed half of it to Wyoming, where I had arranged for a horse-packer to deliver it to us, near the midpoint of the hike. This way, we wouldn’t have to carry more than 5 days’ worth of food at at time!

Friday after work, I flew to Salt Lake City, where I had a late dinner at In-N-Out burger. For some odd reason, the Barq’s root beer in this state is caffeine-free. Silly Utah.

It’s about a 4.5 hour drive from the SLC airport to Lander, WY and the trailhead. I drove about halfway, camping at a BLM recreation area. Tomorrow, I start the hike!

Day 3: (Saturday June 17th) 16.9mi/27.2km

Reed Gap/CT68 (33.4) to Snow Hill (50.3)

For this section, I planned my logistics and parking better. I drove to the starting trailhead, parked legally, and planned to get an Uber back here Sunday afternoon. I stopped for lunch on the drive out, and got on trail around 1pm. It had been a month since I was last here, and everything was so much greener!

I quickly gained a ridge, and occasionally had nice views. I could also see some wet-looking clouds moving in…

It was very humid and warm, so I was defintely looking sweaty.

Sometimes the views were just down into the suburbs below. Connecticut seems to do a terrible job at protecting open space.

After a couple miles, I hiked across the top of a small local ski hill called Powder Ridge.

Ski lifts always seem so creepy in the summertime. It kinda reminded me of a zombie movie scene.

I always appreciate a puns and clever names, though!

The views got better as I progressed north, with more fields and forests.

I believe this little body of water was Black Pond, just before the trail dropped down off the ridge to cross a highway.

The trail literally passed right thru the parking lot of a local diner, Guida’s. I just had lunch 3 hours ago, but I couldn’t resist temptation.

Hmm. Surprisingly, I found a business that still, in 2017, only accepted cash. What could I buy for $5? I took it as a sign to follow the arrow to the side window…

Ice cream and snapple! My two favorite trail treats.

After waiting out a quick 15 minute rain shower at the diner, I continued on down the trail. Everything was a little muddy, but I saw zero other people all afternoon.

An hour later, I met a deer who was not shy. It just stood there, 20 feet away, in a staring contest.

Then, the deer got tired of waiting for me to move on, and went back to eating. It was so fascinating to watch! Eventually I moved on, and the trail treated me to more views, though a little obscured by low clouds. I was a little surprised to see a strip mine across the valley, I didn’t think Connecticut had any valuable minerals.

This flower smelled just like cinnamon rolls. I wonder it’s name?

Late in the afternoon, I crossed interstate 91, which basically parallels this trail up the Connecticut river valley.

Then I ducked back into the serenity of the woods, and took a nice break at the Highland Pond Preserve.

The NET uses blue blazes to mark the trail. And there were many junctions in this section, so I’m glad it was well marked!

The trail travels a very rocky ridge above the Bradley Hubbard Reservoir. I was so engrossed by the views and watching my footing, I didn’t realize I had hiked past 7pm!

After encircling the rocky southern half of the reservoir, I was treated to a nice smooth trail in a pine foreset. Heaven!

I stopped at a scenic bench and made my dinner, as it was almost 8pm, and I was starving. It’s not quite a picnic table (which I love), but it would work!

I had some lovely scenery from my dinner bench. Hearing the frogs across the water was very peaceful too.

I had to keep hiking for another hour, to exit a “no camping” zone in this park. The NET would be a very difficult trail to thru-hike in one push, as camping options are so limited. It was getting darker…

After about 15 minutes of night hiking, I was able to reach an area where I could camp.

 

Day 4: (Sunday June 18th) 13.1mi/21.1km

Snow Hill (50.3) to Hallmere Reservoir/Edgewood Rd (63.4)

The sun rises very early in June, so I was awake at 6:00am, and hiking on the trail by 6:30am.  This section of trail followed a stream through a low-lying area, and all the trees had these huge fungus shelves! Cool.

After a mile, I exited the woods, and did the 3/4-mile roadwalk to a highway crossing. My phone needed a charge, so I stopped into an Irving convenience store for an hour and ate second breakfast. I was recording GPS tracks for this entire trail, and that process consumes battery power pretty quickly!  By 9am, I was charged enough, and hiked out. I followed paved country roads for another 45 minutes, which had almost no traffic on a Sunday morning. Finally, I re-entered the woods.

The Merimere reservoir had this strange brick building sitting in it.

I walked out on the short bridge, but everything was fenced off and locked, and no signs indicated what it was. A mystery!

I enjoyed walking along the reservior for an easy mile, and then the trail started to climb UP.

At the top of the very steep climb was East Peak. And it had a real, legit castle tower! So cool.

It’s a 32-foot tall tower, on the summit of East Peak (976ft). It has the distinction of being the highest point within 25 miles of the coast, from Maine to Florida.

There were lots of families up there on a weekend.

I’d assume it normally has a spectacular view, but the day was very foggy.

I walked away from the crowds of the castle and had lunch at a picnic area a half mile away. I had a nice afternoon of walking a wooded ridge, it didn’t have any viewpoints, but it was very relaxing. I forgot to take any photos until I had arrived at my finish trailhead! Oops.  I dispatched an Uber from the trailhead, and while I was waiting I noticed these ridiculously over-zealous “No Trespassing” signs.  Who is that tall?!

My Uber arrived 10 minutes later (it’s suburban Connecticut!), and I was back at my car 30 minutes later. Despite having hiked 30 trail miles, I actually wasn’t that far from my car, since the trail is so meandering in this section.

I have two big trips planned for July – one to climb Mt Rainier (Washington), and another to hike the Wind River Range (Wyoming) – so I won’t be back on this trail until August. Goodbye for now, New England!

 

Day 1: (Saturday May 6th) 7.0mi/11.3km

Chittenden Park (0.0) to Nut Plains Woods (7.0)

I arrived to the parking lot at 5:30pm, and made the short walk over to the Southern Terminus of the trail! From here, the trail travels north for 215 miles, which I aimed to complete over 6 weekends.

There was a trail register, and I signed in to make it feel “official”.

Then, as I was walking away up the gravel path, a friendly couple saw me with a large backpack, and asked where I’m going. I described how this path is part of a larger trail which travels all the way to New Hampshire. They’re impressed, but also advised me to move my car – there’s no overnight parking anywhere near hear. Well, crap. So, I got back in my car and drove to the other end of this trail segment (30+ trail miles away), parked my car there, and got an Uber back to the starting monument. An hour and a half later, and I was finally ready to hike. It was now 7:15pm, and sunset was at 7:55pm…

 

The view of the ocean was nice, though cloudy. I didn’t linger, darkness was coming! Interestingly, this trail uses blue blazes for markers (the AT uses white blazes).

The trailhead kiosk had these helpful maps for this section of trail. It was mostly road walking for the first 5 miles.

The trail started in a densely populated area, so it followed neighborhood roads, with the markings on utility poles.

I was moving fast, so I didn’t take any other photos except this one. I think it’s a small creek crossing in the dark, around 9pm.

The NET in connecticut has very limited camping, so I had to be creative.

 

Day 2: (Sunday May 7th) 26.4mi/42.5km

Nut Plains Woods (7.0) to Reed Gap/CT68 (33.4)

I wasn’t tired, and I was awake and 5:30am, and back on the trail by 6am. It was cool to watch the sunrise, which was about 5:45am for this area. This section of trail had both blazes and markers, and I thought the markers were a perfect representation of this trail!

This part of the world is very low elevation, so there were many bog bridges to cross this morning.

After about an hour of hiking, I stopped to eat 2nd breakfast at a nice wide bridge.

If I can’t get a picnic table, or flat rock, a bridge is a good substitute!

Of course, just a few minutes’ hike past my chosen breakfast spot was the most perfect flat rock I’ve ever seen. D’oh.

The classic hiker/backpacker sign. Their backpacks are tiny, and hiking poles are huge!

Around mid-morning, in the middle of the forest, I come across an abondoned hiking shoe. Just one shoe, not the pair…which is really strange. Onward!

This section wasn’t fun to cross, it was very deep schlup-y mud. I eventually found a detour around the temporary pond.

In the afternoon, the trail finally started to climb higher up onto a ridge, and I was able to get some views!

I’m glad it’s still early spring, the leaves don’t obsure the viewpoints yet!

I hiked thru these flowers for awhile, they were like a carpet. I wish I was better at the names of local flora.

It’s still early springtime here…

Looking down on the Ulbrich Reservoir, the water supply for Wallingford CT.

My attempted selfie with a broken phone screen…close enough!

At the end of the day, I came to the first of three official NET campsites in Connecticut.

It looked pretty nice! A couple of shelters, a fire pit, chairs, storage bins, a privy, and even some windows. If I was thru-hiking this trail, I definitely would’ve camped there. But it’s Sunday night, so instead I have to drive back home and go to work. 🙁

The shelter had this plaque on the wall, I thought it matched my sentiments exactly.

A mile later, and I was back at my car by 6pm. A local aspiring author had left their business card to promote their book.

Despite getting such a late start on Saturday, I was pretty proud that I was able to get in over 33 miles this weekend! It was a 2 hour drive back home, so naturally my thoughts wandered to planning my next section hike on this trail, which will be in June.

 

A long section, with lots of up/down every day. I’m glad the entire trail isn’t like this, I wouldn’t have any knees left! But its amazing scenery…

 

Day 81: (September 18th)  10.4 miles

I spent most of the day in town. It was a nice place to relax, they even had a park by the water. And lots of ice cream!

 

Day 82: (September 19th)  25.2 miles

 

Day 83: (September 20th)  26.7 miles

 

Day 84: (September 21st)  31.4 miles

This was a HUGE (fuccillo-sized) day. I went up a 13k ft peak, then 3500ft down to the I-70 freeway, then up & over two 14ers!

 

Day 85: (September 22nd)  25.9 miles

 

Day 86: (September 23rd)  12.5 miles

I took the free bus (thanks, Summit county) into Breckenridge and went straight to the brewery for a sandwich and a non-water beverage. By the time I finished and walked downtown to the hostel, it had started snowing. Hard. I’m glad I got into town early today! Hopefully the weather improves for the next section, down through the Sawatch Range and Collegiate Peaks.

-R

Day 74: (September 11th)  31.2 miles

 

Day 75: (September 12th)  29.1 miles

 

 

 

Day 76: (September 13th)  32.0 miles

And then, just as I came down from the ridge, a storm moved in. I was near a trailhead, so I hid in a bathroom building to stay dry. And since it was lunchtime anyway, I also ate…in the bathroom.

https://youtu.be/3NcvzHlB7jg

It started raining, then snowing, then hailing. It stopped after 20 minutes, so….onward!

 

 

 

Day 77: (September 14th)  Zero miles

A zero day! I avoided some bad weather, did some food shopping, sampled a local brewery, and had a meal at DQ*. A good day.

*not recommended.

Day 78: (September 15th)  25.0 miles

 

 

Day 79: (September 16th)  27.2 miles

Day 80: (September 17th)  27.7 miles

 

Colorado definitely has a very different feel than any previous hiking. Higher elevations, fall colors, occasional frozen precipitation, and….marmots!

In terms of route options, I skipped the RMNP loop (would’ve added 18 miles), in order to get through Colorado a little faster before winter comes. I can always come back and do it as a dayhike!

Next week – hiking the front range, and a couple of 14ers!

-R

This section couldn’t have been more different from the previous. Flat terrain, a general lack of water, and no trees. I didn’t realize how much I liked having trees around!

Day 67: (September 4th)  31.2 miles hiked

 

Day 68: (September 5th)  34.5 miles

 

Day 69: (September 6th)  33.7 miles

Day 70: (September 7th)  4.6 miles hiked

I walked into Rawlins in the morning, had breakfast, checked into a motel and got cleaned up. That GD basin was so dusty! Then around lunchtime, Aquacam came into town, and we destroyed a lunch buffet at Pizza Hut. Life is good.

 

Day 71: (September 8th)  5.8 miles hiked

Day 72: (September 9th)  38.0 miles

 

Day 73: (September 10th)  30.6 miles

It was quite an experience to hike the Great Divide Basin, but it feels good to be hiking in trees again! And very soon…in Colorado!

-R

This was a wild week, seeing so many mountains, wildlife, dayhikers, climbers, and even the elusive ranger! There were so many photos, it was hard to narrow down to just a few. I think the Winds (Wind River Range) needs a return visit for sure!

Day 60: (August 28th)

I got dropped off from Dubois by “Old Man Mason”, a local trail angel and amateur tour guide. (He also makes a mean ham& cheese sandwich).

 

Day 61: (August 29th)

 

Day 62: (August 30th)

I took way too many pictures for the next few days. These are only a small portion!

 

Day 63: (August 31st)

 

 

Day 64: (September 1st)

 

Day 65: (September 2nd)

 

Day 66: (September 3rd)

Up next, the Great Divide Basin, and southern Wyoming. It’s just as flat and dry as it sounds…

-R