Day 33: Headed toward the San Juan's

Mileage: 28.4 miles (606-634.4)

We woke up around 6am and I read my book, The Lost Grizzlies, by Rick Bass, for a little bit while the others boiled their water for coffee. Bass is one of my favorite nature authors, writing primarily about wilderness in northern Montana. The Lost Grizzlies, however, is about his search for Grizzlies in the San Juan mountains in southern Colorado, where the animals have thought to been extinct for almost 50 years. It's quite fascinating and also relevant because the San Juan's are only 30 miles north as the crow flies and the next big mountain range we'll be walking through.

Another hiker, Commando, walked by us shortly after we woke up - we knew he was around because we had talked with Natty the day before. He seems to be in quite the rush - we hope he'll keep moving quickly and break trail through the heavy snow in the San Juan's for us.

I started out alone through the soggy meadows which were oversaturated with the melting snow. I planned to meet up with Karma and Restless down trail. I walked through a number of Aspen groves and saw quite a bit of bear and elk sign. The bears had been scratching the trees to mark their territory, while the Elk seemed to be leaving droppings everywhere.

After following a muddy jeep road for awhile I came out onto a bigger dirt road and saw a pickup truck with two men ambling slowly my way. Strangely, my first instinct in these situations is to hide, unsure what these guys are doing way up here on this miserably maintained road at 10,000 ft. I stayed on the road, however, and the truck stopped. The older man asked if I was really lost or just very healthy. I replied healthy and told them I'd walked from Mexico. They had never heard of the CDT. Then they asked if I'd seen any cows. I wanted to say, 'so you guys are why there is shit everywhere,' but instead replied with a simple 'no.' They gave me some water and we both went on our way. Before we parted I told them I'd try and flag them down if I saw a cow, but we both knew we'd never see each other again.

I hiked on and the road I was supposed to be following slow disappeared as I was led into a tangled mess of blowdowns. I had to go over, under, and all around the Aspen trees, which were arranged as if a child had anxiously dumped out Lincoln Logs and never bothered to pick them up. More likely, they had succumbed in a heavy windstorm.

After I bushwhacked through the tangled mess, I came to Upper (something peak) Lake where I decided to rest and wait for Restless and Karma. I did some reading and refueled with some GORP (trail mix) and pistachios my mom sent me in a care package. I watched the ravens soar over the lake, sometimes solo and other times seemingly chasing one another. Right when I had given up on waiting, Karma yelled, "there you are!" 

I was happy to see them and have some company for the rest of the day. After the lake, we were on some actual trail for a bit, which was very nice. However, there was a decent amount of snow in parts and we ended up post-holing because it had turned soft by the late afternoon.

We meandered through some alpine meadows at 10,500 ft and then slowly made our descent down to 8,500 ft with a few hiccups in between. On our way down we got a few glimpses of the San Juan's and were in awe of the snow-capped peaks towering above 12,000 ft.

We reached a nice meadow next to a roaring stream and setup camp under some Ponderosa Pines. The sky looks a little iffy but we decided not to pitch our tents and cross our fingers it doesn't rain. Very beat after a long day. Only 53 miles to Chama though with a hot shower and a bed...