Day: 065
Date: Wednesday, 10 July 2024
Start: Grand Lake
Finish: Trout Creek
Daily Kilometres: 35.3
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 1889.7
Weather: Warm and sunny to mid-afternoon, then overcast with a thunderstorm.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Microwaved breakfast burritos
Lunch: Snacks/Ham & cheese roll
Dinner: Rehydrated meals.
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: Nothing in particular.
Lowlight: Climbing over Bowen Pass (11470’) was going to be a highlight but, as we cleared the treeline, a thunderstorm that had been brewing, began thundering loudly, it got very cold, and a mix of snow and sleet began to fall. High above the treeline was not the place to be during a thunderstorm and we didn't linger as we crossed the Pass and descended as quickly as we could.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
After a good night's sleep in our comfortable cabin, we ate our microwaved breakfast burritos and began hiking around 7:45am on a lovely sunny morning. Initially, we followed the Rocky Mountains National Park Cut-Off route which passed through a long stretch of burned forest dating from a wildfire in 2020. It was encouraging to see the wildflowers out in abundance, but the trees were all dead with no sign of forest recovery, which was sad. There were some grassy meadows bordering the Tonahutu Creek, and we spied, in the distance, two moose grazing and watching us.
We also met four CDT hikers, travelling as a group, or “trail family”, and saw them again later in the day.
We rejoined the official CDT after a couple of hours and followed it to a trailhead where Dave remembered it as the start of a memorable 25km run he did to Bear Lake over Flattop Mt in abysmal conditions, about 30 years ago. Also at the trailhead were two rangers with horses and packhorses getting ready to carry in supplies to a crew working on the trail.
From there, after a short road walk, we spent some hours gradually climbing through pine forest on mostly good trail towards Bowen Pass. The weather gradually deteriorated during the afternoon as a thunderstorm developed and the climb over the Pass was not that pleasant (see above).
Rain continued for an hour or so after we crossed the Pass and returned below the treeline, but then the clouds cleared and the evening was more pleasant. Rather than stop early, we continued hiking until we reached a stream to get water for the night and found somewhere to camp nearby at around 7:30pm. The mosquitoes were bad.
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