Day: 067
Date: Friday, 12 July 2024
Start: Poison Ridge
Finish: Ironclad Mountain
Daily Kilometres: 39.9
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 1961.2
Weather: Mild early then warm and sunny.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Snacks/Trail mix
Dinner: Rehydrated meals.
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: Nothing in particular.
Lowlight: Small biting flies were a big nuisance this afternoon and evening. They are slow, so usually when they bite us, it is their last bite.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were hiking by soon after 6am on a mild and sunny morning. The first early morning without frozen fingers for a while.
The CDT continued to follow the crest of the Rabbit Ears Range, sometimes going over the high points and sometimes around, but mostly above the treeline and mostly around 11500’. The views continued to be fantastic and the trail wasn't too bad apart from a couple of very steep short climbs.
Around noon, after a descent to Arapaho Creek and a long climb back up to the ridge at 11500’, we joined a rough forest road and the remainder of our day was spent on steadily improving forest roads. It was a nice change from the tough trail of yesterday and we made good time.
We only saw one vehicle all afternoon and the driver stopped to tell us he had just seen a bear and a moose down the trail in the direction we were walking. Of course, we saw neither.
We were also out of luck with respect to trail magic. Our navigation app said someone was providing treats for hikers up until this evening at a certain location but, when we got there, before 5pm, they were gone.
We did have some “magic” a little further on when we stopped at an RV parked off the road and were given choc chip cookies by Jim, and water which we needed for the night and which was scarce along the road. Jim, an ex-Marine, apparently parks there each year and gives cookies and water to passing CDT hikers in return for a bit of a chat.
We continued on for another hour or so along the road before finding a marginal spot to camp for the night just off the road at around 6:30pm. Later, Jim drove along the road and told us we were camped on private property but that we would probably be OK if we left early. The signage was ambiguous, so we didn't feel too guilty.
We're looking forward to a shorter day tomorrow before we hitch-hike into Steamboat Springs for resupply and a day off.
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