Day: 041
Date: Sunday, 16 June 2024
Start: Conejos Campground
Finish: Stunner Campground
Daily Kilometres: 40.2
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 1215.8
Weather: Very cold early, then warm and sunny with a blustery wind
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts/Muesli
Lunch: Cheeseburgers, icecream.
Dinner: Snacks
Aches: Dave - very tired and the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: None in particular.
Lowlight: Nothing really.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We woke to a very cold morning and heavy condensation in our tent. This is a known issue with our ultralight tent and just can't be helped. We usually try to camp somewhere high and breezy and away from rivers/creeks, but that's not always possible. Anyway, some extra time packing up was spent in wiping down the tent to reduce the moisture before we packed it away.
We were hiking by 6:15am, wearing extra layers with very cold hands and could see the sun shining on the mountain tops across the valley, but it was obvious it was going to be a long time before it reached our side of the valley. In fact, it was not until we took our breakfast break at 8:30am that we could sit in the sun.
Despite the cold, the scenery was magnificent, with the snow-melt-swollen Conejos River rushing through the valley to our left, occasional vacation cabins and ranches on the lush valley floor, and towering mountains on each side, with snow visible in places.
As we got further along the gravel forest road, the human habitation disappeared and we spent our time looking out for elk or bears, but only saw the occasional chipmunk or squirrel.
As the day wore on there was more vehicle traffic and it was obvious that the two local passions were fly fishing and ATV touring. There was some dust from the passing vehicles, but most slowed right down to reduce that.
Around 1:30pm we reached the seasonal settlement (only open in summer as the road is closed by snow much of the year) of Platoro and called into a recommended campground store/cafe for a late lunch. It was run by a very friendly young couple and there was also a CDT hiker who had been there for six days! Caught in the comfortable vortex, he said, but he promised he would be hiking again tomorrow.
We had hamburgers for lunch, charged our devices and used their wifi with the bonus, for Dave, of watching the England v Serbia EUFA Cup soccer game on their big screen. Very pleasant, and it would have been easy to stay in one of their cabins for the night …. and get caught in that comfortable vortex. But, the trail called and we set off again at 2:40pm intent on reaching the Stunner Campground, 11km away for the night.
First we had to climb up to Stunner Pass (10500’), before descending to the Alamosa River with views to the exceptional multi-coloured mineral-rich mountains across the valley. Apparently, the minerals leach from the soil into the river, along with some old mining chemicals, making the river water unsafe to drink, so we had to get some from another stream before reaching our target campground at 5:45pm.
Once there we found a nice spot in the sun with a picnic table and quickly set up the tent which, in turn, quickly dried in the warm breeze.
Having once again had a substantial lunch, we just had snacks for dinner before an early night.
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