The Perfect Hitch

We arrived in Leadville yesterday afternoon after hitching in from Twin Lakes, in the middle of segment 11. We are taking the eastern route through the Collegiate Peaks, the CDT would take you through the western part. We have been passing many CDT hikers in the past day and a half & ran into even more here in town. The energy & excitement they have is contagious. There are some Colorado Trail thru-hikers near us, but we haven't seen very much of them. We have heard there are a few solo hikers in front of us & have met a couple from Boulder who we've run into a few times. The trail has again been wonderful, we have passed through some snowy parts, but each has been less dangerously snowy than we originally thought. We did take out our ice axes once to use to cross a snowy goat trail with a steep slope down a few hundred feet. We have had high wind, rain & storms occasionally but only one arrived at a dangerous time, and luckily that one had no lightning or thunder in it. As we go over each pass, we get a spectacular view of what is to come & each time, we are blown away. The trail just took us near Mt. Massive & Mt. Elbert (the highest peak in CO) & we were so close to the summit, but we decided we're going to come back & make a special trip out of summitting those mountains when we find some time in our other life. After all, we're only a few hours away from home!

We saw a ptarmigan & many marmots up in the higher elevations. The ptarmigan was beautiful, half white & half brown, transitioning from snow to summer. A critter of some sort (a mouse, I am guessing) chewed into our most essential pack straps (across our chest & mine on my hip belt) so we just did our best to sew those back up, but it was difficult because they were quite frayed. I swear I heard a mouse bouncing around outside our tent that night....We have also seen a few abert squirrels, black with tufts on the tips of their ears as well as been serenaded to sleep by coyotes yipping and howling very closely nearby (these were in our last section, though).

Here is a map of the trail that might give you some insight as to how far we've come & how far we've yet to go. We are currently in the middle of segment 11.

We got the hitch dreams are made of from Twin Lakes into Leadville. I was barely a few letters into writing out our sign while Unicroc was standing there with his thumb out (on a busy road with no shade) & it didn't take long for someone to stop & pick us up. The guy knew we were CT hikers & shared that he's an ultrarunner (runs 100-mile races, only the 2nd one we've ever met, with the first being back in Breckenridge) & he has a friend who's about to begin the CT this coming week. After getting to know him during the 20-ish miles to town, he invited us to sleep on a futon in his house for free, let us shower, launder our clothes, & then handed us the keys to a 1970-something blue jeep with no top to go run our errands. This jeep is awesome, a memorable experience for sure. We had a lazy, relaxing day yesterday & then he made a vegetarian sauce for spaghetti for us to join him, his son & a friend for dinner. His friend has many stories from his days on the AT, PCT and just ran a 50-mile race the day before. Good people, good stories, and once again reminds us that humanity has so much goodness left.

We have rested up, resupplied, sent home our heavy snow gear & a few other things (ice axes, gaiters, wild edible/medicinal book, extra camera battery that dies anyway) & I just found a new book to read at the thrift store for 53 cents. Life is good!

Our next planned stop is Salida in about 75 miles so we'll touch base again once we're there!

Much love,

Scat Tracker & Unicroc

In Between some Snowy Passes

Greetings from Breckenridge! We are staying at the lovely Fireside Inn B&B/Hostel & it is a thru-hiker's dream come true with everything we could ask for right in town, including a computer where I can upload pictures. :) We made it in this morning & we have had a lovely time so far on this hike. First of all, we wish Elleot & Piper happy birthday while we were out! Also, Happy (late) Father's Day to our papas! And today-Happy Summer Solstice! Colorado is beautiful. Can't say that enough. Throughout the past week, we have hiked through what felt like a sampling of each side of the country/previous trails we have hiked & it has been amazing.

Before we left, we managed to find a piece of Tyvek in a dumpster at a construction site in Co. Springs that we could use as a groundcloth to protect the bottom or our tent. It was a major score to find the day before we left because we had searched all around town for days & couldn't find any to purchase in such a small chunk. On the morning we left, we cut off most of our hair! Unicroc is beardless & had almost no hair on his head when we left (it's growin' quick!) & my hair is again very short.

Who is this man??

Our house/cat sitter arrived & we are so thankful to her for taking that on for us while we are gone. My brother Caleb so generously drove us first to Jimmy John's to pick up subs for our first dinner (which I couldn't stop thinking about for days) and then he dropped us off at the trailhead on the southwest side of Denver, where we said our goodbyes.

Thanks brotha for delivering us to the trailhead!

About 4 miles in, Unicroc realized.....that we forgot our cooking fuel! I sat in shock for a minute & refused to believe it...& as Unicroc said we had to turn around & hitch to a gas station, I suggested we just suck it up & eat our food cold! A lot of thru-hikers we've met don't even carry stoves & just eat their food cold all of the time & so it's not that far fetched really...& luckily the food we'd packed worked well for this idea. So we did. And honestly, no complaints except that cold oatmeal gets gross after a few days...

Soaking our feet in the South Platte River

Playin' some Hive Pocket!

Colorado State Flower - Blue Columbine - so beautiful & made me think of Colleen!

Burn scar, very reminiscent of the PCT!

Moose poop!

A very lovely campsite near Lost Creek Wilderness

The snowy mountains we were going to have to climb soon!

Beautiful aspen groves, I think I am looking up at a bird?

The morning of...we were heading up to climb those snowy mountains!

We have come 104.5 miles so far out of 485 miles total but I think the next part is going to be slow-goin'. We have come over one snowy pass - Georgia Pass, at around 11,800 ft. of elevation & we got our butts kicked semi-hard with the snow up there. Postholing up to our thighs much of the way, but man, it was an adventure....quite exhausting at times because we tried to break trail through the snow for future hikers. There was one set of footprints going through before us but they had walked around a majority of the snow, which was also an exhausting option because it made it difficult to follow the trail on such steep terrain. There was also a bike track as well, which meant that person carried their bike through much of that part because the snow piles were so deep.

Mt. Guyot in the background, walking up to the pass

The posts help lead the way

A lot of this happening pretty regularly

Merging with the CDT! And snow makes a good snack!

Once we were over the pass...we thought we were through the hardest part....but no!

So we made it down with no injuries although we slipped & slided & fell many times. We ended up making it down 4 1/2 miles from the pass & as you can see in this picture, there's still snow in the background of our campsite. We are thinking of those we have met who are behind us & wishing them well as they make their way over.

The next day was HOT. Really, hot! We ran into many mountain bikers & one had just come over the pass & said he saw our tracks so he knew it was us who had gone over. Funny thing is, once we got over this pass, we saw what's next to come...

 So we're hunkering down for a day or two here in Breckenridge, going to rest, eat, & let some more of that snow melt. Our innkeeper told us he hasn't heard that anyone has made it up & over the next pass yet. We will give it a go likely on Thursday because on Wednesday we will hike up about 4.5 miles to a campsite & (weather permitting) go up the pass the next morning.

No blisters as of yet, we're not as sore as we remember being on previous trails. Unicroc has a sore left foot that will appreciate the rest & we have a bit of sun burn here & there where we didn't do so good of a job putting on sun screen. The sun is intense here in Colorado & has been brutal on our bodies, but our GoLite umbrellas have helped to protect us quite a bit, we are thankful for them! No storms as of yet, the skies have been clear so we haven't had to deal with thunderstorms yet....I say yet because I am sure that will be coming!

Much love,
Scat Tracker & Unicroc