Hiking the Colorado Trail

Monday, July 15, 2013

More Wildflowers Along the Colorado Trail

These pictures were taken along Segment 10. Can you identify any of these wildflowers?

#2 Could this be a magenta form of Indian Paintbrush?

#4 Another example of magenta Indian Paintbrush?

#6 Hare Bells

#10

#11

#12 Penstamin?

#13

#14

#15

#16

#17 Hare Bells

#18

Colorado Trail, Segment 10, Day 9

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Dee was up early (about 5:30 am) on Sunday morning. After packing up and chatting with a male hiker who camped at Twin Mounds saddle (He said the mosquitoes were bad there too.) and the two female thru-hikes (Pam? and Liz), we started on the trail about 8:15 am. We learned more about Pam? and Liz. Pam will be a nursing student, and Liz just got laid off from REI. They have lots of people helping with resupply, are ahead of schedule, and planned 54 days on the trail.

Our goal was to have breakfast on the trail, probably at mile 9.0--North Willow Creek. We were kind of low on water, so we would filter water there and resupply.

As we left our campsite, we saw lots of blue trail markers. We wondered what they marked. Our guess is that they mark some kind of winter trail for snowmobiles, show shoes, or cross country skiers.

Many of these markers are diamonds, some with directional arrows. Later in the day we would also see orange diamonds, some with directional arrows as well.

At about mile 8.0 I met a guy who was training for the Leadville 100. He had thru-hiked the CT last year. He had been training near Leadville all weekend and was feeling a bit tired. He planned to run toward the Sugarloaf Saddle today and run back. As we talked we saw another hiker on the Highline Trail.

Dee waited for me at mile 9.0 North Willow Creek except she was getting attacked by mosquitoes. She also got cold.

So she headed to mile 9.5 at the top of the ridge where she meditated and called Dave. Then she got a bit worried about me and hiked back to find me. I was about a quarter of a mile from her. So we hiked to the ridge together. There we met the five CDT hikers that Flippy told us about. Their trail names were Trip, Tourist, Vergo, Nicotine, and Cactus. They were moving fast and planned to get to Tennessee Pass that evening.

We were now descending (YEA!!!). A little bit ahead is the Mount Massive Trailhead (mile 10). Mount Massive is 3.5 miles and 3180 feet of elevation gain to the summit! Then I arrived at Willow Creek (mile 10.1) and stopped there to filter water and rest. I saw lots of people here. First there were two guys from California that thought they might hike to Mt. Massive. I did not tell them that they were probably too late today since it was already after noon. As I prepared to cross the stream a big group arrived. There were probably six or seven people in this group of a couple of families. Two fathers crossed after me. They and their kids were hiking about 75 miles of the CT.

At mile 10.7 I crossed South Willow Creek. I was sure I would have to walk in the water, but I made it across dry and surprised myself by finding the right rocks.

The rest of the trail was downhill but kind of difficult. It was pretty steep and narrow and part of the trail was on the side of a steep slope. Lots of people passed me. Most were wrapping up their Mt. Massive climb. I also saw four riders on horseback that went to Willow Creek and back. They passed me both ways. Finally I also saw a couple of families with kids that were doing a short day hike. They kept one little girl motivated by letting her lead a dog. About a half mile before the end of the trail, Dee and Dave and their dog Kenoy met me to hike with me to the end of the trail.

End of Segment 10--Mt. Massive Trailhead & Half Moon Creek Campground

The trail ends at the Half Moon Creek Campground. We then drove to my car and headed to Leadville for lunch. We ate at the Silver Dollar Saloon. After lunch we caravaned to Denver. What a great trip!

One Week Later....Day 8

Saturday, July 6, 2013

I picked up Dee at her home at 6:15 am, and we headed to Leadville to hike Segment 10. From Leadville we needed to find Turquoise Lake as the trailhead was near the northwest corner of the lake. We found the trailhead of the CT as it is shared with Timberline Lake Trail and tried to park. The parking lot was very crowded, but we squeezed in beside the fence. We quickly went through our food to decide what we needed for the weekend and divided it between our two packs. Now we were ready to hit the trail!

The sign marking the start of our adventure.

The trail crossed a couple of bridges over streams. Everything seemed kind of wet. We learned later that the previous evening had seen a big storm with rain, hail, and lightning.

Glacier Creek

We saw several guys training. Dee explained that people may be training for the Leadville 100. I can't imagine running parts of this trail, although it is beautiful!

Overall this segment was pretty busy. I would estimate that we saw over 50 people throughout the weekend. Not too long on the trail we met a couple of women (Pam? and Liz) who were thru-hiking the CT. (We had actually seen them at the trailhead.) They started on June 17th and got through Segments 1 and 2 before the fire, although they smelled it in Segment 3. They were followed by a couple of guys that were hiking to Salida. Later we leapfrogged with a couple of older gentlemen (Phil and Vince) who were dayhiking this segment and expected to get to the campground where we would end on Sunday. We also met a man hiking toward us who lives in Breckenridge. He had an Australian accent and told us about the storm the previous night. He usually hikes without a tent, but his wife had told him not to complain about the conditions and luckily he brought a tent this trip.

We even met people hiking the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) for the first time. The first man we met had a long straggly beard and broken sunglasses. He said he started in April in Mexico and was hiking to Canada. He asked about getting to Leadville.

Busk Creek

Dee

At mile 1.2 we took pictures at Busk Creek.

Leigh Ann

As we climbed we approached Hagerman Pass Road which was extremely busy for a dirt road. We were both kind of surprised that we were still so close to civilization.

Hagerman Pass Road with Turquoise Lake through the trees

Once we crossed the road, we continued to climb with beautiful views of Turquoise Lake.

Looking across Hagerman Pass Road through the trees to see Turquoise Lake

Turquoise Lake is Beautiful!

We also met a couple of young kids that were backpacking but forgot their water filter. We asked where they were headed and they explained that they could only go as far as their water would last. We later saw them relaxing in a meadow....they didn't get very far! BUT...they were having fun!

At mile 3.1 we crossed a logging road at Sugarloaf Saddle and saw a mountain biker. I stopped for a quick rest after climbing more than 1000 feet. Dee suggested we move on a bit to get away from the large power lines overhead. We were pretty high and had some great vistas.

We stopped for lunch on a log awhile later and had salami sandwiches.

We entered the Mount Massive Wilderness Area and signed in. There is a $500 fine for mountain bikers and a little while later we saw.....a mountain biker. Being teachers, we both wanted to reprimand him. Neither of us did.

At mile 4.9 we passed the Twin Mounds Saddle which is an excellent place to camp with no water, but we thought it was too early to set up the tent. We also saw a sign for the fish hatchery which reminded us of Phil and Vince. Vince had said that he may leave the trail at the fish hatchery road. Just before mile 6.4 we saw the fish hatchery road and heard Rock Creek.

We saw Pam? and Liz's campsite. We stopped for a brief rest before crossing the creek and discussed where we might camp. We both agreed we didn't want to camp here.

We crossed Rock Creek and continued another half mile to cross another fork of Rock Creek. (I wonder if this is the same Rock Creek from Segment 5.) I had to take off my pack to cross this time due to the size of the rocks. In this area, the trail goes along a fairly steep slope and there were really no flat areas for camping. We continued to about mile 7 and found a few flat areas right along the trail. We were not sure what was ahead so we decided to camp. We set up the tent and made dinner. Dee called Dave.

Dee calling Dave before dinner. We were at about 10,500 feet.

As we waited for dinner, we met Flippy, another thru-hiker of the CDT. He hiked from Mexico to Salida last summer. This summer he started at Salida headed to Canada. He was aware of the other CDT hiker we saw earlier and said that he was part of a bigger group of six guys. He surmised that something was wrong, and the others must have left the guy we saw. The mosquitoes were horrible, so we got in the tent by 7:00 pm. We believed that we wouldn't see anyone else on the trail that evening, however someone did hike by while we were in the tent. In the middle of the night we awoke to a little rainstorm. How nice! All was covered so we went back to sleep.