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CT Day 16 – Last First Day
Still going, but not for long
During my time off in Frisco, I made the decision to end my hike at Leadville this year. My progress is too slow to complete the full CT within my 5.5 week deadline, and the resupply logistics get harder going forward, so I’m going to slowly walk the next forty miles over five days and just try to enjoy the hike without worrying about mileage and my next resupply. I took advantage of my town break to book an on-trail night at Janet’s Cabin and a train ride home to Seattle from Grand Junction.
When I come back to Colorado in a year or two (or three) to complete the trail, I know now to take the time to acclimatize MUCH more before setting out on trail.
CT day 16: 5.6 miles to Miners Creek
I started out at 10:21 today, dropped off by the bus from Frisco. I walked along the paved recreation path toward the trailhead, and then turned uphill. My pack felt sooo heavy – I probably bought too much food again for resupply – and I wasn’t sure I’d made the right decision to keep going until Leadville.
Like the other side of the pass, shade was in short supply, especially with my closer-to-midday start. I popped a peppermint lifesaver for motivation and began inching my way up the climb, stopping for shade breaks as often as I needed to and could.
By the time I topped the first climb, clouds were starting to roll in and I could see rain in the distance. There was some distant thunder, and it eventually got close enough that I hunkered down in the forest until that cell had passed – very glad I wasn’t in a more exposed area when that happened!
As I started the second ascent to camp, I saw a few more backpackers – a couple who had just started out today, and Caroline from Denver, who was planning to thru hike. This climb was only about 1.4 miles, not as steep as some of the previous climbing today, and more forested; I was starting to feel better about the hiking as the day went on. I made camp shortly after three, and set up just in time to avoid more afternoon rain.
Tomorrow, four miles of climbing up to 12k feet!
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