The wInds part 1

Shortly after writing my post for the last few days I went into my Guthooks app (my maps) and started futzing around. All of a sudden, it crashed. I reopened and still frozen. Turned on and off, still the same. I had a similar problem in town recently and I deleted and reinstalled the app and it worked fine. EZ PZ, except I don’t have service. No worries. Going to set it off to the side, go to bed, and hope for the best tomorrow. Oy. 

One of the downfalls to this campground was having to ford a river to get there. Wasn’t too terrible, but the benefit to that was there’s a forest service road that connects up to the trail and runs parallel to it for a few miles. The trails not terrible in terms of grade, but reports are tons of blow downs. So zoink. Around them I go. 

Sadly, that wasn’t all the blow downs for the day. Up ahead is the Cirques of the Towers. Not quite sure why it’s not the Circles of Towers or the Cirques du towers. But… America. Dubois up ahead isn’t as you would think with a French accent, it’s Dew Boys. Anyhow, the alternate runs around the actual CDT for about 21 miles. But those 21 miles on the CDT is supposed to be ENTIRELY blow downs. Ran into a couple south bound section hikers who started it and had to bail for a forest service road as they were going less than a mile an hour, couldn’t find trail, and in the event of an emergency, they are SOL as no one can get there..

With the more common route being the Cirques anyway, I didn’t think much of it. A few miles before the alternate route are a ton more blow downs. So folks have been recommending a side trail that requires some cross country navigation. Still a bunch of blow downs, I got lost a couple times. But only about an hour or so worth. Not days and days. Once I got up to the route, I pushed through to the Cirques. 

Wow. Not much else I can say. Jagged tooth peaks, running rivers in the valley, high altitude lakes. It was all there. At one point, about 10 miles into the day, I sat down for an hour just to look around and enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery. A bit hazy from all the fires, but nothing too thick, thankfully. With some rusty old bed frame randomly across the river from where I was sitting, I thought of spending the night there. But only 10 miles in, I needed to push more. 

And on I went. And more wow to more wow. Not more than 3 miles later, I come up to this lake nestled in a bowl of a mountain, right before a large climb up and over a pass. It was only about 3p, but I couldn’t turn this spot down. I plopped my pack down and sat there for a minute before doing my chores (setting up my tent, getting water, and so on). 

I actually jumped in the lake, gave myself a little bath and rinsed off my clothes. Then I took my sleeping pad out, and tried to use it as a raft. It didn’t work. Even with all the weight I’ve lost I’m still too heavy for it (but more accurately, it doesn’t have enough air to be used as a floaty). I did try to find an air leak by submerging it, but to no avail. I’ve been waking up lately with a partially deflated pad and that’s just not fun. 

I placed my pad outside and laid there for a while enjoying the surroundings a peace and quiet. No other hikers, no other thru hikers, no one. Even with my short mileage (only 20 the day before and 13 this day) no one caught up which was a surprise. I have a feeling all the folks who said they were leaving Sunday got caught up in the Saturday shindig and didn’t make it out, or at least not in the morning. As fun as it woulda been, I’m glad I didn’t go and was on my way north. 

At about 7:30, River Walk rolls in and sets up camp. He’s pretty far away and I was just eating dinner and getting ready for bed. So we chatted for a bit and off to my lakeside tent I went. 

The next morning I woke up a little late again around 6. But I was able to make a hasty departure and had breakfast and packed up by 6:45. The climb behind us was pretty much straight up scree (one step up, two steps down). It was nice to do in the morning with fresh energy and legs and before I knew it I was with River Walk at the pass. 

The rest of the day we leap frog with one another, taking breaks and chatting for a bit, but hiking off on our own for the most part. The trails around here are packed with day walkers and weekend warriors. Lots of folks eager to chat, and the miles wore on, slowly. In addition to that first pass, we had two more (Jackass Pass and Texas Pass). Winding our way through the winds was beautiful and amazing. There were many more lake side spots I was tempted to stop at. However, already having a big amount of days (and 8 days worth of food which is heavy) I wouldn’t have been able to stop anywhere else along the alternate. I had planned for 20 miles per day, so I wasn’t too far off. But with the 13 mile day, that already kicks up my daily average to about 22 for the remaining 6 days. With the terrain, I couldn’t risk adding more mileage per day in fear of not having enough food to make it to the road into Dubois. But fear not, even in a tricky spot there’s an exit point I can take. Two options, really. One is an 11 mile side trail to a road I can hitch into a town. A lot of folks plan to resupply there so they only need to carry 3-4 days of food. But heeeeeeck no I’m not hiking half a day on another trail that’s not bringing me to canada. Sowwy. The second back up is a trailhead that’s very popular. It’s about an hour long drive down a forest service road (so dirt, slow going, etc). Word is it’s extremely easy to hitch in and out of there due to the popularity. But trying to hitch in and out of a trail head can be hit or miss. Especially if it’s so long of a drive. 

Either way, I think I’ll be a okay with my food. Yesterday I ended up doing 23 miles, so my daily average went back down to just over 20 per day. River Walk and I had planned to camp together again, but he didn’t make it the full 23 and stopped after about 21. The lake I camped at (or planned to) had about a dozen folks set up around. So I kept going a hair more to a smaller lake just up the hill that was empty. Although I could still hear and see the other peeps, it was nicer to be a bit further away. 

With dark clouds in the horizon, I rolled down my tarp sides in preparation, leaving one door open for ventilation, and I like being able to see outside if it’s not actively raining. 

My tent was on a slight hill, and I was rolling around all night. I couldn’t fall asleep all that easily, and even when I did I’d soon wake up for one reason or another. At about 4a, I woke up again to the pitter patter of rain hitting my tent (tin roof, remember?!). With about an hour and a half left before I’d normally wake up, I tried to get in a little more sleep, but it was a restless bit of sleep at best. 

Just before 5:30, I decide it’s just going to be one dem days. I make breakfast, pack up, and make my way. And man oh man am I going sloooow. I’m not particularly sore, nothings hurting, but I’m just drained of all energy. I walk a couple miles, then stop for a bit to relax. Couple more, couple more stops. Decently lengthy stops, too, at 30-40 mins at times. For no real reason either. Just sitting there eating a bar and staring out into the wild. I got a tinge of service for a moment, so sat there for a bit noodling around and checking emails and whatnot. 

While I didn’t sleep all that well last night, I think my lethargy is a trifecta of issues. Sleep, of course. Then the terrain and awe inspiring nature of my surroundings just taking it out of me. And finally, I think because I had to carry 8 days worth of food, I didn’t bring any “extras”. No meat to put in my ramen or potatoes. No extra candy (extra being key, as I already have Welch’s fruit snacks for dessert). Just the bare bones of what I need. I think I’m carrying less than 2000 calories per day. That’s what a normal human needs in a normal day. I’m burning up to 7000 calories per day with the mileage and terrain I typically do. So I think the calorie deficit is catching up to me, now four days into my 8 day stretch. 

But all is well, I’ll be a okay, and can carb overload when I’m in town. Don’t know much about Dubois, but if there’s not a local watering hole near the hotel (whatever that may be), I’ll do the hiker special of a ridiculous amount of dominos, and not putting more than my undies on for the entire day of rest and eating. I do have a couple extra cliff bars for emergency. But to be honest, I’m starting to get a little tired of my food. Which isn’t good! Another month and a half to go. 

Around mid day, River Walk caught up at a pass where I was chatting with a south bound section hiker. He was planning to do 23, which with his extra 2 miles from where he camped to my camp, would put me at 21 miles. The exact amount I need to stay on schedule. And I’m definitely not in the state to push on more, even though I kinda did want to. The real kicker, however, was the rain. About 20 mins before camp it started coming down heavily. So no pushing further for me! We got to our spot and set up our tents and jumped inside for refuge. Looking forward to a sound nights rest, I hope. 4 more days out here! It’ll be the longest stretch on the CDT, and possibly on any trail! It is nice to have my pack weight decreasing day by day. By the time I get to the road I’ll feel feather light! That is if I have any energy to drag myself there. 

Oh, and one last note. The section hiker mentioned 2-3 days of rain ahead… so. Yay for that. Also. I hate mosquitos. They everywhere! 24/7. As I type this I count 12 hanging on one side of my tent. Argh.