Day 059 - Continental Divide Trail - Dillon to Bobtail Creek

Day: 059

Date: Thursday, 04 July 2024

Start:  Dillon

Finish:  Bobtail Creek

Daily Kilometres:  28.8

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

Total Kilometres:  1730.1

Weather:  Cool to mild and sunny.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Motel Continental breakfast.

  Lunch:  Turkey & cheese subs

  Dinner:  Snacks

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

Highlight:  Nothing in particular.

Lowlight:  Dave woke to the distressing news that one of his best friends, dating from nearly 50 years ago, was in palliative care in a London hospital with end-stage cancer.  It tinged the day with great sadness.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We had a slow start to the day and it was 8am before we left our motel to begin hiking.  We have now joined the Silverthorne Cut-Off Alternate and the climb out of town was steep.

Initially, we followed the Ptarmigan Peak trail, which was obviously a popular local trail, and we met a lot of day hikers, some dressed in Americana garb given it was July 4th.

Our path diverged from theirs after three hours on the shoulder of Ptarmigan Peak at around 11900’ and above the treeline, and we made our way towards Ptarmigan Pass with truly spectacular views in many directions.  The trail was now more of a “route” than a trail as we crossed the high wildflower-bespeckled moorland looking for the cairns that marked the way.  In places it was difficult to work out where we were supposed to go and that cost some time.

Once through Ptarmigan Pass (11781’), the trail continued to be difficult to follow and the descent to the Williams Fork Creek was also rocky and slow.  Immediately after fording the creek, we began a long climb to back above the treeline through pine forest on slow trail, made even slower by many blown down trees that took time and energy to climb over or go around.  By now it was becoming obvious that we weren't going to get as far today as originally hoped.

Once above the treeline again, we had a whole new range of spectacular alpine mountain views and many photos were taken.  We stayed above the treeline for the rest of the afternoon following faint trail and cairns along a ridge line, dodging snow in places, generally around 12000’.  It was often hard to work out the route and we made several navigational errors that cost a lot of time and energy when we were ready for the day to be over.

Eventually, around 6:30pm, we crested out last pass for the day and began a long descent.  At 8pm, we found a tent site amongst some trees and close to a stream and called it a day.  Given the late hour, and knowing we will be in a town tomorrow night, we just had snacks for dinner and went to bed without our usual wash.