Colorado Trail Days 16-23: Salida to “Lake City”

I’m actually in Steamboat

I got off the trail on Saturday at mile 357 at Spring Creek Pass, about 17 miles from Lake City in southern Colorado. The plan was to take a nearo and head out again on Sunday. However, on the trail things (especially the weather) does not always go as planned. As I discuss in detail below, we had bad weather for the last two days of the section: heavy rain and high winds above treeline, with thunderstorms threatening. When we checked the weather in Lake City, the forecast didn’t look any better. Texas’s hurricane Hanna was sending three days of thunderstorms all through south and central Colorado.

Now, after the AT I’m no stranger to hiking in rain. Obviously it’s not preferable but I’ve learned to pack my pack to keep my important stuff dry and warm, set up my tent quickly, and generally accept being wet (my strategy is to repeat to myself “everything will dry eventually” until the weather gets better). But the final stretch of the Colorado Trail is almost entirely above 12,000 feet and thus highly exposed, so being out above the trees in thunderstorms for multiple days can be dangerous. Plus, I didn’t want to miss out on the most beautiful section of the Colorado Trail including the trail high point, with everything shrouded in clouds. So we decided we didn’t want to risk it: we would take three days off to wait for the weather to pass.

This is where serendipity came in: when I told my parents our plan, they invited us to come up to Steamboat (one of my family’s favorite mountain towns up in Northern Colorado) while we waited. They were already there on vacation, and the condo that they had rented had extra beds. We happily jumped on the offer and drove the 5 1/2 hours.

The past couple of days in Steamboat have been wonderful: we walked around the cute downtown, ate lots of ice cream and yummy home cooked food (thanks to my sister’s boyfriend!), and enjoyed lots of family time. I even got to celebrate my mom’s birthday with her!

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At first, I felt frustrated about taking time off, even just a few days. I didn’t want to disrupt my hiking routine, and the end was in sight, and I was ready to push through and accomplish my thru hiking goal. But the truth of the matter is that a major reason for hiking the Colorado Trail was to experience as much of my state as possible. Extending my adventure by a couple of days and getting to spend time in one of my favorite towns in the process only furthers that goal.

Erin came!

On Tuesday Erin met us at Marshall Pass at the end of segment 15 and we hiked together to the end of segment 21! It has been fun to add another member to our party of women hikers, and Erin has fit in perfectly! Despite the fact that Welcome and I had hiked over half the trail by the time she joined, Erin has been crushing miles—we did our longest 2 days of the trail so far with her this week!

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It’s also been an interesting experience to be thru hiking along someone who I know from a non-thru hiking context. I have to answer to 2 names now: Apple and my “real name.” It’s been fun to merge the worlds.

When Welcome and I decided to take a couple of days off to wait out the weather, Erin decided to head back to Denver to keep working on her med school apps. She’ll finish the rest of her CT hike with her mom and her sister. We’ll miss her for the last 130 miles, but it was so special to have her for the time we did.

Cows on the loose

Since we have left the Collegiate Peaks and have been working our way over to the San Juans, the trail has wound through rolling fields and pastures. These scapes are home to cows. Lots of them. And not fenced off like you often see off the highway, but milling around right on trail! They have a habit of staring us down as we approach, as if to say “this is my home, what are you doing here?” But they almost always give us space and move off the trail as we come close and pass. Despite observing their yielding behavior, I get skittish every time I see them, because they’re just so big!! I try my best to communicate that I’m docile and just want safe passage!

The real problem with the cows isn’t their presence or their tendency to act as roadblocks, though. It’s their poop. It’s been everywhere: scattered across the trail, and therefore, in the water. On Wednesday, we had sights set on a campsite near a water source called Pine Creek, which was a piped spring. When we got to the water, we saw about 50 cows milling around upstream, where our tent sites were to be, and when we filled our bottles with the water, it flowed brown. Nice and cow poop-y. For anyone nervous about what I injected, don’t worry, it filtered clear, but it was certainly a less than ideal water source. We ended up climbing 2 miles in the rain to find a cow-free camp site. Needless to say, when we entered the San Juans and left the cows behind, I was relieved.

Trial by fire in the San Juans

I had huge expectations for the San Juans: many people I’ve passed throughout the course of the thru hike have told me “the trail keeps on getting prettier and prettier…just wait for the San Juans.” I knew there would be high, dramatic peaks and sweeping vistas. But I didn’t expect the wind and the rain.

Our entrance to the San Juans was San Luis Peak: a 14er. It’s not directly on the trail, but it’s only a 3 mile round trip detour, and it felt worth the extra time and elevation, so we were planning to do it. We hiked bigger miles the days leading up to when we were planning on climbing the peak, so that we could get as close as we could the night before to avoid Colorado’s common afternoon thunderstorms.

When we woke up at 5 am on Friday morning to start climbing, though, it immediately started raining. As it became light, I saw that clouds were shrouding the mountain peaks in front of us, and only growing darker. We made it to the top of San Luis after walking through a haze of fog that barely revealed the next trail marking cairn up the trail, and didn’t linger because it was cold and windy. At least I’m used to not getting views at iconic spots (on the AT I missed views on Katahdin, McAfee’s Knob, and Franconia Ridge), so I wasn’t too disappointed. As we reached the saddle that connected us back to the Colorado Trail, the cold rain started to come.

Luckily, the rain didn’t last all day like I had expected. I was nervous to climb over the nearly 13,000 foot pass a few miles before camp, but the sky was clear. Thank goodness for small miracles. Our luck didn’t last all the way into town, though. On Saturday morning we hiked 11 miles into town, up and over a pass and then across a 6-mile exposed ridge called Snow Mesa. The wind whipped and the rain pelted us the whole time, making me freezing cold and nervous. I was very relieved to climb down from the Mesa and into the trees, where we finally got some reprieve. After the trying morning, it made the decision to wait out the prolonged thunderstorms a bit easier!

I will say though, during the breaks in the weather, I have been absolutely marveling over the San Juans. They are so stunning: it’s probably some of the most gorgeous hiking I’ve ever done. I am so excited to keep trekking through these formidable mountains in better weather!

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Favorite parts of the day

On the AT our tramily started the practice of identifying our favorite part of the day (our FPOD) at the end of each day. It’s a great practice and helps me remember all the special moments of the hike. On this trail we have been doing the same thing and while there have been unique standouts each day, I also have a couple of moments that always make me happy.

The first is that first moment each day when the sun hits my back and warms me. The mornings on trail are so cold, especially being up at high elevation. I start my day hiking in my rain jacket and gloves to build up heat, and while I’m not usually uncomfortably cold as long as I’m walking (although more on that later), there’s nothing like that first feeling of true warmth from the sun.

My second moment is when I finally crawl into my sleeping bag at the end of the day, knowing I wont be moving for the next many hours, and I get to be all snuggly and warm in my sleep clothes. I guess that’s a testament to the challenging days and a remainder of how good relaxation feels after hard work!

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Coming up next…

After our three days off we are getting back on trail! The end is in sight, we have 54 miles to Silverton and then another 75 to the trail’s southern terminus in Durango. I’m excited for the rest of the San Juans and the remainder of the journey.