Day 048 - Continental Divide Trail - Razor Creek to Marshall Pass

Day: 048

Date: Sunday, 23 June 2024

Start:  Razor Creek

Finish:  Marshall Pass

Daily Kilometres:  38.2

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

Total Kilometres:  1442.8

Weather:  Cold early then mostly sunny and warm.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/Snacks

  Lunch:  Trail mix

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals.

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles, only more so; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  Nothing in particular.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were hiking by 6:10am on another very cold morning, but not surprising given we were camping at 11000+’.

For most of the morning we were hiking on difficult and very rocky trail through forest, following a ridge with lots of sharp ascents and descents.  It was hard work and slow going, which was exasperating as we hoped to cover a lot of kilometres today so that we have a relatively short day tomorrow to get to Monarch Pass from where we will hitch to Salida for a day off.

Late morning, after a long climb to cross Sargents Mesa, the trail emerged into a high grassy meadow with fantastic views to the partly snow covered mountains ahead.  The trail improved for a while and we had lunch by a stream in the sun.

The afternoon involved another huge climb up very difficult trail to 11700’ on the shoulder of Windy Peak from where there were frustratingly no views.  But, only a little further on, we emerged into another meadow with stunning vistas.

There had been no water on the trail since lunch and, rather than carry extra litres until we camped late in the day, we had decided that we would hike until the next water, no matter how long it took.  It was 7pm by the time we reached that water and started to set up camp nearby, so a late night for us.

We saw a number of hikers on the trail today, including Geoff, the CDT hiker we had last seen way back in Pie Town, weeks ago.  It was good to see him and he seemed pleased to see us, and we had a good chat.

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