Day: 060
Date: Friday, 05 July 2024
Start: Bobtail Creek
Finish: Berthoud Pass (but staying in Winter Park)
Daily Kilometres: 28.3
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 1758.4
Weather: Cold early, then cool and sunny with a strong cold wind above the treeline.
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts/Muesli
Lunch: Snacks
Dinner: Burger & fries, thick shakes.
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - sore ribs after slipping on a rock crossing a small creek and falling onto another rock and partially into the creek. The situation was not helped by Dave rushing to help her and slipping on the same rock and falling on top of her, pack and all.
Highlight: Nothing in particular.
Lowlight: The first few hours hiking were tough. It was very cold, with ice on the puddles and frost on the undergrowth. Our boots/shoes and socks were still wet from yesterday's ford and we had to ford another freezing creek (calf deep) soon after starting. We both had frozen hands and feet and the trail was often hard to discern, further dampening our mood.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were hiking by 6am on a very cold morning and the first few hours, as we followed Bobtail Creek downstream, were very cold and it was pretty miserable (see above).
After about 90 minutes, and still very cold, we reached a forest road that we followed steeply switch-backing uphill, climbing 2000’ in 3 miles (5km) to Jones Pass (12460’) where we rejoined the official CDT. We stopped there for a breakfast break sheltering from the cold wind and next to a snowbank. Suddenly we heard a swishing sound and a young guy snowboarded past us on the snow, followed by another. They must have driven up the forest road on the other side of the snowbank, which blocked the road, to get to their snow. They must have been keen.
We were now well above the treeline and followed a ridge in the bitterly cold and strong wind into the Vasquez Peak Wilderness. The views were just awesome, surrounded by snowy peaks and mountain ranges, not to mention the wildflower-carpeted meadows we were crossing. We reached our highest point so far, 12738’, along the way, and had to negotiate some small snowfields.
Although we dropped back down into the forest around lunchtime, high above the Henderson Mine (molybdenum) which we could hear, we climbed back above the treeline after lunch, After crossing Stanley Mountain (12499’), we stayed high in the strong wind, sometimes being literally blown off the track. And it was cold!
Eventually we began to descend and reached Berthoud Gap and Hwy 40 around 4:30pm. We began hitching and soon got a lift from a chatty local down to Winter Park and our motel.
We checked in with the friendly proprietor, showered and then Julie went and bought some takeout for dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment