Day 19: Hunters! Hunters! Everywhere!

September 12: I hit the trail at about 7:00--a pretty normal time for me at this point. Walking through the Marshall Pass trailhead, I met a hunter who seemed lost and confused--and kept asking me where all the elk were located. I didn't know! But I did tell him that there was a bear sighting there the evening before. He didn't care about the bear, though. "I don't have a license to shoot bear," he explained.

I'm not sure what this structure was at the Marshall Pass trailhead, but it seemed like a ramp. Did people ski off it? Snowmobile off it? No idea!

Is that all he saw in animals? Something to use as target practice? Bears are beautiful and majestic creatures! It's an honor just to see one!

The trail ahead wasn't particularly steep or rough, staying between a narrow range between 10,500 and 11,500 feet above sea level. The biggest challenge was the fact that the trail followed almost precisely on the continental divide--on or near the very top of the ridge and there's one thing you almost never find at the top of a ridge: water.

Beyond Marshall Pass, there would be just one water source on the trail for the next 22 miles--conveniently located at about the halfway mark.

Unless I wanted to carry a huge amount of water to last the night, I'd have to hike either 11 miles or 22 miles for the day. Eleven was way too short, so my goal was 22 miles. But the trail was relatively easy, so I felt good that I could make it despite my ridiculously heavy pack.

I saw surprisingly few people all day. There was that hunter at the trailhead where I started the day, and near the creek two motorbikes passed me on the trail which annoyed me to no end. They're actually legal on this section of trail, but it struck me as absurd that they would allow motorized vehicles to share a skinny, narrow trail with hikers and bikers. If it were a wide dirt road or something, that would be a different matter, but on a trail?! *shaking head* They really should reroute the Colorado Trail away from trails that allow motorized bikes. (ATVs, however, were still prohibited. I guess they were considered too wide for the narrow trails, but I would later see them on some of the road walks that followed gravel roads.)

I saw absolutely zero other hikers. Unbelievable, the day before, said that her and 2nd Lunch don't get to be early risers so I figured I started the day's hike before them, and none of them ever managed to catch up to me. I knew that they weren't far behind, but I never saw either of them (or Bushwacker for that matter).

Late in the afternoon, the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in like clockwork and I figured I'd try to wait it out under a tree. I didn't feel like setting up my tarp, but I had to walk for several minutes before finding a tree that wasn't dead and just barely large enough for me to squeeze under it for protection against the light rain. The dead trees had lost all their needles and couldn't keep the light rain off of me. I needed a live tree, and the beetle infestation had killed most of the trees in the area. It's easy to forget that the forest around you is dead--dead trees are relatively common, after all--but my difficulty in finding a live tree surprised me and reminded me that the whole forest was essentially dead. I wondered how far the blight extended and hoped it would end soon.

But eventually I found a live tree and sat out the sprinkles for about 15 minutes before continuing on my way.

The water source 22 miles at the end of the day actually wasn't on the trail at all--it was located about half a mile off trail, down a steep slope, in a stagnant pond named Baldy Lake. On my map, it looked like a pond and I hoped it wasn't stagnant--I'm not a big fan of drinking stagnant water since I don't treat my water--but it look fairly large on my map and I hoped there might still be a small spring or snow melt feeding into it helping to keep the water fresh and clean.

I hated the idea of traveling half a mile off trail to get water, but the next source was another 4 miles away and I was too tired and it was too late in the day for me to make it that far. Nope, I had to reply on Baldy Lake.

I followed the side trail down a steep slope that descended a couple of hundred feet, dreading every step of it and knowing I'd have to climb back up again in the morning. Ugh! It was the first time on the trail I had to go off trail to get water!

Down at the lake, I was disappointed again to find that the water was stagnant, and clearly shrinking in size as the season had progressed. I could see stuff floating in the water and thick mud lined the banks. Also! There was a tent set up by the lake.

"Hello!" I said, welcoming my new neighbors, but I only heard silence in reply.

"Is anyone in there?" I asked the tent, and again there was no reply.

That seemed odd. I briefly wondered what the possibility was that there was a dead person in the tent right then, but discounted it as unlikely. If I had to guess, whoever it was had set up camp then went out for a day hike and hadn't returned yet.

I laid out my groundsheet, deciding not to set up my tarp unless it actually started raining. I didn't want to bother setting up my tarp again. It seemed like I was setting it up on a daily basis. Sometimes more than once a day when I wanted to get out of an afternoon thunderstorm.

Eventually two guys on motorbikes arrived with guns slung over their shoulders. Hunters, of course. And damn it, more motorbikes? Blah. Obnoxiously loud and annoying things.

The only people I saw all day were all hunters. A couple of times I passed campsites along the trail with large tents and ATVs and although I didn't see anyone, it seemed likely that they were hunters too. The hunters seemed to outnumber the hikers by a wide margin! Seemed like forever since I had last seen a mountain bikers.

These hunters seemed nice enough, though, and we chatted for a bit telling each other about what we were doing. They seemed surprised to learn that I had walked there all the way from Denver. I was surprised that they were from West Virginia--they had all their teeth and everything! (Sorry, I couldn't resist the joke!)

I don't really know much about hunting, though, and with their undivided attention, I asked a few questions about their quest. What were they hunting? Elk. Had they shot any yet? No. Had they seen any yet? No. And they seemed very annoyed at the difficulty of finding elk telling me that they even rented a cabin, but the elk were so high in the mountains that they were camping here to get an earlier start in the high country hoping to get one. They seemed a little bitter that they had wasted money on a cabin that they weren't using and that the elk weren't more cooperative.

"They know you're out here," I told them. "I've been seeing hunters all day--and only hunters!"

Near dusk, it started sprinkling again and I reluctantly set up my tarp for the night, and the two hunters retired to their tent. I wondered what happened to Bushwacker, Unbreakable and 2nd Lunch. Surely they covered more than 11 miles to that one water source, but they obviously stopped before reaching this lake. Maybe they picked up a few liters of water at the last water source and camped somewhere in between? I half expected to see them tromp into camp late in the night, but they never arrived. I must have out-hiked them for the day, and was a little sad that I probably wouldn't see them again.

But... Another day done!

Tank Seven Creek was the only water source on the trail today!

Although I didn't see anyone in this camp, I suspect very strongly that it's another hunter camp!

My campsite, with Baldy Lake in the background. (Before it started sprinkling and I put up my tarp.)

This Steller's jay watched me setting up camp. (Glad I had my camera with the zoom lens--otherwise I'd never had gotten such a great photo of it!)

Just because you can't take too many photos of wildlife. =)

Day 18: Other thru-hikers!

September 11: I woke and packed up for the trail. I headed over to the post office where I mailed my laptop ahead to Silverton, then to the edge of Salida where I stood around trying to hitch a ride back to the trail. It was a terrible place to hitchhike since there was no real place for a car to pull over to pick me up, but I didn't see any better alternatives either and considered walking further up the road closer to Poncha Springs, but I really didn't want to walk when it wasn't going to count towards my hiking so I gave it a shot.

And, as I suspected, car after car passed me by. I stood next to an intersection, hoping that maybe if someone were willing to pick me up, they could turn off onto the less busy street, but that didn't happen. Instead, what happened was that a car about to pull out from the less busy street opened a window and said to hop in--which is exactly what I did. It took about 50 missed cars and 15 or 20 minutes, but I had my ride!

To Poncha Springs, at least, just a few miles down the road. I just couldn't seem to get a direct ride between Salida and the trail! I had the same problem when I got off the trail two days earlier!

But I was still happy for the ride to Poncha Springs. Now a larger proportion of cars would be heading in the direction I wanted to get to, and--more importantly--it was a much easier place for a car to pull over to give a ride.

It only took about five minutes when the tenth vehicle pulled over. There were already four people in the vehicle--but the two in back made room for me after I threw my pack in the back and we made introductions. The driver was Bushwacker--a thru-hiker himself! I had seen him signed into registers--dated the same day I arrived. I knew he wasn't far ahead of me, but I never seemed to quite catch up to him and this was the first time I met him. But I was a little confused about why he was driving a car if he was thru-hiking the trail, which is when I learned that the passenger was his wife who was not thru-hiking the trail. She picked him up off the trail and would drive the car after dropping him off.

The other two people in the back were also thru-hikers: Unbreakable and 2nd Lunch. I hadn't seen them in any registers and didn't have any idea of their presence on the trail until I met them. All three were headed southbound on the Colorado Trail, and all three were doing the Collegiate East route, and all three were returning to the same trailhead I had to go to. It was perfect!

From left to right, Bushwacker, Unbreakable, and 2nd Lunch
as we all head off from the trailhead on Highway 50.

Bushwacker was from Florida, concerned about his house there as Hurricane Irma bore down on Florida (his house survived) and had completed the Florida Trail multiple times, so we swapped war stories about our adventures on the Florida Trail. 2nd Lunch was from New Mexico, which I've driven through but that's about it. And Unbreakable said she was from Seattle. Really?! Another Seattlite?! So we talked a bit about exactly where in the Seattle area we lived.

Eventually, we arrived at the trailhead and I charged ahead wanting to get all the miles I could in while the day was nice.

While walking along the trail, I thought about their trailnames, thinking that Unbreakable probably had an interesting story to it. Probably fell off a cliff but came out without a scratch type of thing. But it also reminded of me the TV show on Netflix with the same name and it suddenly dawned on me that Unbreakable (the person) had a striking resemblance to the main character of that show (Kimmy Schmidt) with her narrow frame and long, red hair. Surely that couldn't be a coincidence!

Later, while taking a break, the three caught up with me again and I had a chance to ask her about her trailname, and she confirmed that it was after the character in the TV show. Ha! I love it when I can figure stuff like this out! =) She told me that while thru-hiking the PCT the year before, six different people suggested a trailname based on that character, which she resisted at first not wanting a trailname with a pop-culture reference, but her resemblance to Kimmy was too close to resist it forever. (And "Kimmy Schmidt" is a terrible trail name--because it sounds more like a real name. You can't have a trail name that sounds like a real name!) She's also been told that her personality resembles the character on the show, but I'd have to take her word for that. I didn't know her well enough to make that comparison.

The three other hikers took a rest, and I finished my break and pushed ever onward, steadily climbing about 3,000 feet to the high point of the day. The trail climbed slowly and gradually--right up to the very last part that turned annoyingly steep and difficult--but the view from the top was absolutely jaw-dropping. The trail climbed above tree line just before the pass with views of the steep, ragged peaks and ridges lining the horizon. The only thing marring the view was that almost all of the trees as far as the eye could see were dead. Not burned or charred from a wildfire, but just brown and dead. I'd heard about a beetle infestation that was killing vast forests in this area, but this was the first time I really noticed it, and it was shocking and sad to see. At least a wildfire somehow seems suited to the environment. They can be eyesores, but wildfires are essential to a healthy forest, and even a burned forest flowering with plants can still be healthy, but this forest was sick. It was palpably sick.

The views from the top of the pass were spectacular! Despite the massive forest of dead trees.

I rested at the top to admire the grand views, while trying not too think too much about the trees, and waited for the other three hikers to arrive. I rather enjoyed having company on the trail.

This point also marked the end of the Collegiate Loop. The Colorado Trail had merged back down to a single trail, and the Continental Divide Trail thru-hikers would be sharing the same path as me again.

I pushed on again, eventually reaching the Marshall Pass trailhead near dusk and called it quits. It looked like it might rain, so I set up my tarp. A day hikers passed by who I chatted with for a minute or so before he continued on towards the parking lot.

Not more than five minutes later, though, he came running back towards me.

"I just saw a bear!" he exclaimed. "Be sure to hang your food bag!"

A bear?! I missed a BEAR?!!! If only I had walked just another minute or two, I could have whipped out my camera with a zoom lens and got a photo of a BEAR!!!

The hiker said he had tried to take a photo of it (with his lame point-n-shoot camera), but it ran away scared when he tried to get a photo. I was terribly upset to have been so close to a bear but missed it. So unfair!

"Anyhow, I just wanted to make sure you knew that there was a bear in the area so you'd know to hang your food bag," he explained. (I suspect he really just wanted to brag about seeing a BEAR!!!! And I can't blame him for that!)

"Ah, right. Okay, thanks!" I told him, failing to mention that I had absolutely no intention of hanging my food bag. =) I wasn't too worried about the bear attacking me for my food bag for a couple of reasons.

First, the guy just said that the bear ran away scared just because he tried to take a photo of a bear. That's a good sign of a healthy, wild bear. He hasn't lost his fear of people--and it's the bear that's lost its fear of people that are problems. This bear won't come anywhere near me during the night.

And second, there are always bears nearby! The only thing that makes tonight different than other nights is that there was a visual confirmation of a bear. Just because there's not a visual confirmation doesn't mean that there are no bears nearby, though. I always assume there are bears nearby! Every night I've spent on the trail so far--I've assumed that there was a bear nearby. I have no proof of it, but I know they're out there. They're always out there.

But I didn't see any reason to belittle the hiker's warning, so I just thanked him for the warning and continued to set up camp.

I actually took this photo of the trailhead the next morning at sunrise, but if only I had walked a minute or two more, I might have seen a bear from here. Argh!

A short while later, Bushwacker, 2nd Lunch and Unbreakable arrived and I said there was plenty of space for more if they wanted to camp nearby, but they decided to look for another site nearby. I told them about the bear sighting (Keep your eyes open! You might see something wonderful!)

About 20 minutes later, it started sprinkling a bit--not enough to really get wet, but enough that had I not set up my tarp already, I'd frantically be trying to get it up before the downpour started. Then Unbreakable came back and said that they had found a cabin and were spending the night there. A cabin?! A person at the trailhead had told them about the nearby cabin, which apparently is primarily for people on snowmobiles to rent during the winter months, but that it was open for hikers to use and included a stove that they were lighting up for warmth and light. Unbreakable came back to tell me in case I wanted to join them--she thought it would be cruel to enjoy the comfortable cabin without at least telling me about it.

She's right too--it would have been cruel not to tell me, and I appreciated the fact that she did. But I was already so settled. I had my tarp up, I was in my sleeping bag, gear thrown all about. It would take me 20 minutes to tear it all town and carry it to the cabin.

It was tempting, though. Sleep in a cabin, with nice company of other thru-hikers. I was comfortable in my sleeping bag reading my book, though, and decided to stay put, but I thanked her for letting me know. But I was a little envious too. If only I hadn't stopped when I did! If only I walked a minute or two longer and saw the bear! If only I waited until the others arrived before setting up my camp! If only.... *sigh*

Bushwacker crossing Fosses Creek

Starting to get above tree line....

The top of the pass is near! But dang, this last bit was steep!

Unbreakable makes to the top of the pass--and she looks exhausted!

The top of the pass is also where the two paths of the Colorado Trail merge back into one. (And the CDT joins us again for another visit!)

The massive death of the forest was disheartening to see, but I found it odd that it only seemed to affect the larger, older trees. The smaller, younger ones didn't seem affected by the beetle infestation.

You'll never guess what that structure on the left is....

It's a shelter! The only AT-style shelter on the entire trail! =)

Day 17: The Salida Zero

September 10: I took another day off the trail. I wandered around town, where I discovered that I had arrived in the midst of the Salida Fiber Festival and you could buy every type of yarn imaginable--and probably types you hadn't imagined.

I will! I will!

For lunch, I walked to the other side of town where I met Ping hiking into town. He had just come off the trail that afternoon but his hitch only took him to the main highway through town rather than into the downtown core located maybe half a mile away. He was close enough that he figured it would be faster and easier to walk into town than try to hitch the last bit of the way. I didn't blame him! I gave him directions to the hostel, and we continued on our way.

I wound up eating lunch at 50 Burger Shakes and Beer, mostly because it looked interesting and gave me a nice walk around town. Great burger! I can't tell you about the beer, though, because I didn't have any. After lunch, I pulled out my guidebook and started planning the next section of the hike. Most people resupply at Lake City, about 100 miles further along the trail, but I did some math and decided that if I carried a few extra days of food, I could push on all the way to Silverton. It would mean a heavier pack to begin with, but getting into town, resupplying, then getting back to the trail would probably cost me at least a day, and I was anxious to finish the trail before any snow storms hit the trail.

I toyed around with the idea of resupplying in Lake City and skipping Silverton--Lake City was closer to the middle of what I had left of the trail so I could even my pack weight out more, but Silverton was a lot closer to the trail than Lake City and that ultimately sealed it for me. I'd rather hitch 6 miles into a town than 17 miles. And if I had trouble hitchhiking a ride (not like I was familiar with these roads), I could walk 6 miles into town in a couple of hours if it came down to it. Not that I planned to do that, but at least it was an option.

I happened to arrive in town during the great Salida Fiber Festival! Weee! =)

I figured the distance to Silverton would take 9 days to complete. Maybe carrying 10 days of food--just in case it took longer than expected. Although if I was running behind schedule, I could still go into Lake City and resupply early if needed. But I really didn't want to resupply more often than I absolutely had to.

With my plan of action, I headed back to the hostel. Along the way, I saw a deer wandering at the edge of town and walk behind a business. I followed it, putting out my camera and taking photos, and it seemed to make itself at home in a "nest" of sorts it had at the back of the building. The deer looked at me wearily, but didn't seem to bothered by my presence. After taking all the photos I wanted, I continued back to the hostel.

There I found Ping, freshly washed and cleaned and we chatted for a bit, and I told him about my learning Polish which was why I was carrying a small Polish flag. (I waved it around in the room for effect.) And he said that he had been hiking with a girl from Poland, but she had already left town.

What?! I missed a Polish-speaking person?! Nooo!!!! I was very sad about this.

Ping eventually headed downstairs, and I started emptying out my pack so I could fill it with all the groceries I'd be buying at Safeway when Ping returned and said that the Polish girl was back and downstairs right now. Really?! A real-life Polish-speaking person?! Just downstairs?

So I headed downstairs, where I saw a young girl and nobody else and assumed she must be the Polish one.

"Dzień dobry!" I said. "Mówisz po polsku? Tak?" Hello! You speak Polish? Yes?

Yep, she was the one. =) She introduced herself as Monika, and we chatted for a while--including in English when I had trouble forming a thought in Polish. She'd been in the country all summer working at a Boy Scout camp and had a little time before she had to return to Poland which she wanted to spend hiking the Colorado Trail. She was hiking in the opposite direction as I was, though--the proverbial two ships passing in the night. I jokingly tried to convince her to switch directions and hike back to Durango with me (I need to practice my Polish, I implored!), but she wasn't having any of that.

Monika poses with my Polish flag. =)

I also joked that she must have all sorts of people wanting to talk Polish with her. There's not of a lot of you Polish people out here--the supply of Polish-speaking people is limited! "You're the first," she told me. "Most people hear my accent and always want to know where I'm from, but nobody ever wants to speak Polish! Except you...."

Other people from the hostel trickled in and as part of a larger group none of which spoke any Polish at all, we started speaking exclusively in English. Which didn't interest me so much and I decided that was a good time to head to the grocery store.

The rest of the day (and evening) was uneventful, and nothing else of particular note happened. Back at the hostel I repacked all of my groceries in ZipLock bags and figured out how to fit a week-and-a-half of food into my pack. It was going to be miserably heavy my first few days back on the trail! I wrestled with whether or not I should send my big, fancy camera ahead to Silverton or just mail it home. With this much food, my pack would be setting new records for how much weight was in it. And it's not like I used the camera very often. I only pulled it out when there was wildlife I couldn't get too close to (be it birds, deer or--I still hoped--bears and moose) or for the occasional astrophotography session (which didn't happen often since most night I was either camped in the woods with little view of the sky or it was overcast and cloudy and stars weren't out). It would have been an easy thing to send home. I got great photos of pika, deer, squirrels, chipmunks and even the Milky Way. It was a good showing, and it was tempting to mail it home at this point. I didn't really need it anymore.

But what if I saw a bear?! Or a moose?! I'd be kicking myself if I didn't have the camera with me. Even when I went to sleep, I was still undecided about what to do with the camera. When I went to the post office, I picked up an extra box so I'd have the option to mail it ahead (or home). But I was torn about what to do with it.

The Arkansas River runs through the downtown area.

Home, home on the range....

This deer seems to have made a little "nest" for himself in town!

That's Monika on the right--who you've already met. Ping is in the middle. I forget the name of the woman on the left, but she was in town for the fiber festival and seemed immensely interested in all the hikers and bikers staying at the hostel who were doing the Colorado Trail and Continental Divide Trail. (Both Ping and Monika were hiking the Colorado Trail, but there were other hikers and bikers in the hostel, and some of the hikers were doing the CDT.)