Day 47: Pagosa Springs

6/7 mile: 846.3-863.9 (Wolf Creek Pass)

Miles: 16.5?

Total trip miles: 724.2

I woke up hoping for a town day but who the heck knows out here. I woke up at 5 and just got deeper in my sleeping bag, but hey clear skies! It's still super windy but at 6 I started packing up. By 6:15 it was raining, then snowing. Joyful. Moist had checked the weather, 3% chance of rain this morning. Hah. 

Our blue sky is already gone

With the rain/hail/grauple thrown into the mix it took a bit of extra motivation to actually get going. The trail stayed mostly in the trees with plenty of minor post holing. It hasn't been freezing at night so the snow stays pretty soft. 

The sky is just teasing, gone minutes later 

There were a few short breaks in the weather but it was mostly two plus hours of poor visibility, and cold stuff dumping down. But man was it gorgeous. 

Bears like the trail too

Around Bonito Pass we ended up pretty high on a ridge line and finally took the snowshoes off and sidestepped our way down through the dirt. It's easy to end up off track out here but not to hard to make something up. 

Looking at some maps we voted on cross countrying our way towards the reservoir and Wolf Creek Pass Ski Area. Town was totally going to happen. Still plenty of snow but it was worth no snowshoes just to be able to bend my feet like a normal person. 

We finally made it down to a road and around 10000 ft it became a magical land of snow free dirt walking. It's gorgeous walking out here. 

We found a pretty rad yurt that would be a nice addition to our maps. It even had a CDT blaze on it, although it was pretty close to the pass and town. 

We waded across the reservoir and enjoyed our road walk and marmot watching. Cut across the ski area and soon enough were on the highway and at the pass. Lots of tourists and traffic, mixed bag for hitching. 

Making forward progress

It started raining but luckily enough a Durango local felt sorry for us. Originally she was only going to take one person but rearranged her whole car to get us down to Pagosa Springs. 

Then it was just finding a spot to stay, seeing who else was around and grabbing food. I got to see Funsize and crew and enjoyed catching up with everyone. Looks like we'll be hanging out for a bit again. Waiting for snow to melt and gear to arrive. I feel good and would love to leave soon but if I don't want to leave solo it looks like Thursday is going to be the day. Good thing Pagosa is a cool town.