Day 53: to the snow!

6/13: mile 863.9-872.9

Miles: 9

Total trip miles:724.2

The group staying at Let it Be's

Oh good intentions, no early start but we went out to breakfast with our trail angel host Let it Be which was great. Then he said he would drive us to a good spot to hitch and ended up taking us all the way up to the pass. What a treat. 

Rain gear scramble 

Of course the weather was great in Pagosa, pouring rain and thunder by the time we got to the pass. 

The trail started off nice, just some patchy snow. 

The group spread out and I found myself following Appa's footsteps, with no signs of Nightcrawler, Moist or Cookie Monster. 

The snow got deeper and Appa and I decided to stop messing with the trail and just follow the divide, slightly less snow up there. After one snowy traverse that had me nervous I glissaded down to the valley. Luckily Appa did the same and we cross countried back towards the trail. 

I swear it steeper than it looks

Climbing and more deep forest snow. The postholing was getting exhausting and then Appa fell. Not badly but somehow onto the bottom of his ice axe. He was fine but bruised and pretty rattled. We stopped and he iced up using the ever present snow. Nothing like falling straight onto a sharp metal tool to make you question things. 

It was getting late and there was nowhere decent to camp where we were sitting and we had no idea where the others were. In a weird clash of technology Appa was able to get ahold of Moist. They were 2 miles behind but doing fine. We decided to push a bit farther to hopefully snow free camping. 

I took off and within minutes post holed up to my waist smashing my leg against the side of a tree. So now I was rattled and done with hiking to. 

A little farther and the snow let up as I climbed. We stopped up on a saddle with great flat dry camping. Cookie ended up catching up a little after dark just to make sure everyone was okay. 

A beautiful sunset to hopefully lighten the mood a bit. 

Tomorrow is decision time. Right now I want to take the longer official route through the San Juan Mountains to Stony Pass (hitch to Silverton) which is 85 miles or push all the way to Lake City 34 miles farther. But there is a bailout option about 5 miles into tomorrow where we could switch to the Creede route. It's much shorter (saves around 4 days) and a lower route saving snow grief. But I've been hearing about the San Juans since I started planning this thing and am not ready to give up on them. It sounds like Appa is done and heading to Creede. The plan is to wait at the campsite until Moist and Nightcrawler show up and decide where everyone wants to go. I'm not sure I want to tackle this solo so I'm just crossing my fingers for now. 

The red is where I want to go, the blue is Creede

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. 

Day 46: Breaking away

6/6: mile ?-846.3 (Elwood Pass 11,645 ft)

Miles: 23?

Total trip miles: 707.7

Oh what a day. Everything this section seems so very dramatic, I guess snow does that. A late start and a long discussion about options before we got going was the start to our day. As we were looking at maps debating alternates/bailouts it started to hail. I would have killed to hike the official trail but the group was simply not feeling it. I was the sole holdout so bail it was. We headed down towards forest road 250, an option we had heard about from a few folks. I understood exactly why we were heading lower but that didn't stop me from being grumpy. The group was tired of the cold, the constant snow and the weather. Cold, unhappy and with potentially dangerous conditions up on the trail (lighting and 12000 ft along with fresh snow/ice) it was absolutely the safer choice. 

There were still a few snow patches but overall it was real trail. It was if course beautiful, nothing out here has been disappointing. 

Maybe 2 miles in we came to the Three Forks Trailhead, complete with trail register, bathroom and a friendly fly fisherman. The register was fun because it turns out a ton of thruhikers had headed this way over the last week, the bathroom is obvious and the fisherman told us a bit about the upcoming road. He mentioned that the road we were on went straight to highway 117, about 28 miles away and even passed a lodge that served food. I asked about road 380 because that was the alternate I had been considering. Basically road 250 straight to 117 would actually put you back in Chama while with 380 you could end at Wolf Creek Pass, the official exit point for this stretch. The fishermen mentioned 380 was a rough road, super steep and full of boulders and snow drifts. Hmmm food for thought. 

We headed down and past the reservoir. It was fun, the minute we had reached the parking lot everyone else had perked up. Jokes and smiles all around, except I was conflicted. The group was suddenly fun again after days of crankiness and tension it was such a relief. But I did not want to finish in the the middle of a section, that just sat completely wrong with me. 

We eventually got to the 250/380 split and I decided to head off solo. Hanitizer was actually the one who told me about the alternate (there is a ridiculous amount of texting and social media out here with the class of 2015) and he had done the route and said it was snow free except for 5-6 miles at Elwood Pass and super well marked. At Elwood Pass there would be the option to hit the real trail or continue on the road to the highway. The safe choice solo was the highway so knowing this I set off. Bittersweet because I really do enjoy the company of those guys but such a relief. 

Well I think I know where I am

250 headed uphill and of course I was immediately met with a short thunderstorm. At least it wasn't too bad. I climbed up to Stunner Pass. Enjoying the climb, road walking was so easy. Even my shin felt pretty good. After the pass it was down to the bottom of Alamosa Canyon. I was happily shocked with gorgeous views. 

Less fun were the constant thunderstorms. Sometimes I got a whole 5-10 minutes between storms but they were pretty endless. I crossed the glorious bridge (bridges are now officially one of my favorite things out here) over the Alamosa River and found my much awaited for intersection, woohoo 380. 

It was pouring rain and about lunchtime and I found this awesome lunch spot. 

I love a good roof

So pretty with the break in the rain

Thank you abandoned mining town of Stunner, lunch under a roof was such a luxury. Then it was a long steady climb up to Elwood Pass. I don't know what that fisherman was talking about, FR 380 is one of the nicest roads I've been on in ages. A nice steady grade, perfect tread and frequent water. Plus when it wasn't raining I had great views. The snow didn't even start until about a mile from the pass. Some mushy postholing but snowshoes worked and it wasn't even continuous snow!

I love culverts, no river fords for me today

Maybe a mile/mile and a half from Elwood Pass another storm cell rolled in. This was no joke, the rain started strong but it was the thunder and lightning that had me nervous. I huddled in a low protected spot surrounded by trees as the thunder and lightning cracked simultaneously above my head. Getting pelted with hail as the wind kicked up I distracted myself by eating chocolate, always a win in my book. Thankfully that was the worst and I was able to continue on not to long after my snack. 

I made it to Elwood Pass around 5. I knew the safe decision was to continue on down the road but I couldn't help myself and walked over to the parking lot. And magically there was a tent. Even more amazing I actually knew who was in it, Moist and Nightcrawler! Yay for hikers I actually know. 

I sat catching up with them for ages, I had thought to do more miles but the rain and hail seemed endless. I finally got out of their tent and set up mine in a break in the weather. The sun even came out a little, but it was just a tease. It's so cold and windy up here, but now I have people to hike the trail with and I'll only road walk tomorrow if I want to. Wolf Creek Pass is around 17 miles away. Which normally would be easy to do in a day. But in the snow at about a mile an hour it may take more. So who knows, either way the trail provides when it's most needed. 

Sidenote, today I am ever so thankful for bridges, roads and culverts, my fancy schmancy rain skirt, my umbrella and my snowshoes. Good grief they made my day so much happier. Also my feet have never been so cold in my life as they have this section, waterproof socks and ziplocks sure are a lifesaver.