CT Day 13 – Sunburnt Breaking Point?

Day 13: 13 miles, Swan River to Highway 9

I was sooooo tired yesterday after finishing the 13 miles to the river. I set up camp near Scott and his dog Charlie, who I saw a couple of times in the morning, and made two trips back to the river for water to filter. I was disappointed that my tent was still soggy from the rainy night before, but it wasn’t wet enough to affect my camping experience too much – I just had to be careful not to brush against the ceiling.

I let myself get a slow start this morning, taking my time at camp and starting to hike around 7:15. A fawn was entering the camping area just as I was leaving, so I tried to go quietly and not disturb it. I stopped for a quick hello with two women section hiking, whom I’d seen a few times the day before, and then started along in earnest. After about 0.8 miles I stopped for my First Breakfast break, which helped my energy levels a lot, and then continued on to the 3 mile, 1200 foot climb. In a lot of ways it felt harder than the day before – I’m still having nausea pretty frequently, and that made it both hard to keep walking and hard to want to eat – not a great combination! 

Even as I was struggling with the climb, I appreciated the scenery – gorgeous pine forest, topping out below tree line on a ridge filled with some pine trees and verdant undergrowth. Lots of small wildflowers everywhere, and quite a few mushrooms- mostly squat red ones with light spots on their caps. A cloudy sky with sun breaking through created absolutely beautiful lighting that I tried to capture in my photos. 

Today’s descent was much smoother trail than yesterday, but I still had 10 miles to go before the highway and it was largely exposed to the sun – I made a valiant effort, but did not apply enough sunscreen. The scenery toward the end of the day was more stark – large areas of cut-down trees where the forest service is trying to manage damage from beetles, giving way to a sunny desert-like slope descending into town. I was passed by lots of weekend mountain bikers, and saw one NOBO through hiker and another SOBO hiker later in the afternoon, as well as a few day hikers. In my hurry to be finished, I didn’t stop to take in enough calories, and my energy was completely gone by the time I got to the highway. 

Recovering and Looking Ahead

I’m very thankful for the Summit County bus service, which was easy to catch into Frisco and dropped me a four-minute walk from the hotel. I’m taking another double-zero while I contemplate my future on the CT: two 13 mile days in a row were too much, and my struggles with food, and sun exposure aren’t getting better. I don’t want to quit on a down note, so I think I’m going to plan a slow walk to Tennessee Pass and see how I’m feeling once I get to Leadville.

The next section gets above 12,000 feet, and while I love the mountain scenery, I don’t love how the altitude makes me feel; I’m planning to savor the next section as much as I can in case it’s my last for this summer.