Day 42: Down to South Fork

Mileage: 10.2 miles (744.4-754.6)

I woke up to the sound of snow hitting my tent. Hard. It sounded like pounding rain, falling in sheets of stinging pellets. Once again we'd have to dig ourselves out of our tents. At least today we were headed for town.

My tent looked pretty pitiful after it got pelted by snow all night. I didn't care though, it still kept me warm!

From Bonito Pass, we decided to follow the Pass Creek, which intersected with the Pass Creek road down canyon a bit. Again, what seemed like a good decision at first, turned out to not be so good. Even in the early morning, the snow was really wet and we sunk-in up to our knees and hips. 

The walls of the mountain closed very steeply around the creek, making it difficult to walk anywhere except in the stream bed. Of course, with all the melting snow the icy stream was running fast and the snow bridges which crossed it seemed sketchy to say the least. After about two hours of wading through snow, tromping through the river, and almost losing Karma's glove to the river (I 'ran faster than he's ever seen me' to pluck it out), we decided to cut uphill to the road and hope for easier walking. At first, the road had knee-deep post holing as well, but this time, our bet paid off.

After 20 minutes of walking on the road, the snow became shallower and shallower until we finally were walking on dirt. After four days of sloshing through the wet snow, I don't think it's ever felt so good walking on a road. It was like all of a sudden our legs were set free of massive weights attached to our feet.

I called Karla, the trail angel in South Fork, to let her know she could pick us up in 20 minutes. The road to the pond was closed, so we walked the three extra miles to the gate at Highway 160. It snowed for the last two miles. When we saw the car headlights we waved excitedly. She got out of her small, silver SUV and handed us two Modelo beers - the perfect thing for the moment.

We put our wet stuff into her car and we started driving back towards her place in South Fork, CO. The heat in her car felt wonderful and mixed perfectly with the cold, light beer. Fifteen minutes later we got to her house, which was modeled in the style of an old log cabin. She told us to put our wet clothes in the washer and showed us the shower, complete with a bathrobe for after.

Once I cleaned up, I stayed in that red felt bathrobe until we left for ice cream and the grocery store later that afternoon. Karla got us some pizzas in the meantime and we all chowed down on that. After she got us some ice cream, we took her and her husband out for margaritas and Mexican food. We all came back afterwards, played with the three dogs, and then I headed off to bed early while Karla made some bread pudding for the next day. The bed was so soft and warm, I fell asleep almost instantly.