Day 034 - Continental Divide Trail - Ghost Ranch to Mogotito

Day: 034

Date: Sunday, 09 June 2024

Start:  Ghost Ranch

Finish:  Mogotito

Daily Kilometres:  29.4

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1013.5

Weather:  Warm and sunny in the morning, mild and overcast in the afternoon with thunder about and some cold rain in the evening.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Cereal, fruit & yoghurt, eggs & sausages.

  Lunch:  Bagels & jam/peanut butter.

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals 

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  In the afternoon, we crossed some beautiful alpine meadows ablaze with blue, yellow and white wildflowers.

Lowlight:  Some cold spitting rain and wind that arrived around 5:30pm.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

It was a day of contrasts, starting out with a very civilised breakfast and a very warm and sunny morning climb out of Ghost Ranch (6500’) through orange canyons and desert vegetation, and finishing at 9200’ in grassy alpine meadows under thick cloud and occasional cold rain trying to set up camp and eat before we got too cold and wet.

Dave spent a lot of the early climb wishing we had stayed for an extra day at Ghost Ranch.  It had a nice relaxed vibe, things to do, and plentiful and wholesome food.  But, the CDT called and off we went.

Apart from the early climb, the hiking wasn't too bad and we would have got further were it not for a few navigational mishaps, one of which saw us separated from each other for a short period of time, yelling loudly to eventually find one another.

The Ghost Ranch Alternate, which we followed most of the day, was not marked.  It cobbled together a number of existing 4WD tracks and foot trails, making it easy to miss turns.  Near the end of the day we rejoined the official CDT and we are hoping that will be easier to follow.

With a break in the spitting rain soon after 6pm we found a sheltered spot, not far from a herd of grazing cattle, and quickly set up camp.  It was one of those nights when we were very glad to get into our tent.  Let's hope we don't get trampled by cattle during the night.  They have already been to visit, but Dave shooed them away.