Mileage: 19.6 miles (1140.7-1160.3)
After our late night "Better Call Saul" binge I slept in until close to 9am - a much more restful sleep Han the night before. I got up, took a shower, and then packed all my stuff. We all piled in the car and headed out around 10am to get breakfast down in Breckenridge. We had some enormous breakfast burritos with coffee, which totally hit the spot for me.
After breakfast, they dropped me off at the trailhead and I said my thank you's and goodbyes. I was so happy the timing worked out to see Jim and Clare - her family was so hospitable, I need to make sure to send them a card when I get off trail.
I got started hiking around 11:15 and the clouds were already looking ominous. I started ascending out of Breck almost immediately and it felt good to be back on trail. Throughout the day I probably passed about 25 mountain bikers heading down the trail and then a handful of Colorado Trail and day hikers.
It drizzled on and off pretty much the whole day, until it really started to rain when I made camp for the night. The day was full of wildflowers once again - Lupine, Blue Flax, yellow Asters, Larkspur, and many others I didn't know.
The trail was well-marked and easy to follow - I figured I only needed to do about 20 miles before camping, as after that it was above treeline for almost 20 more miles and I didn't want to camp up there with the storms that had been coming through.
Around 5:30pm I ran into a couple and their dog from Boulder who were doing the Colorado Trail. I sat with them and talked and it turned out they knew a number of northbound CDT hikers, none of whom I had met though. The guy had done the PCT, so we chatted for a bit about long-distance hiking and also about hiking with a dog. We agreed it wasn't safe to bring a dog on the entire CDT because of the harsh trail conditions and also the grizz up north.
They told me there were some camp spots right below treeline so that's where I headed, trying to make as many miles as I could before setting up camp. The trees became stunted and I started looking around for a place to setup camp. I found a nice flat spot right near where the CT and CDT split. It started raining right after I setup my tent, so I was blessed with good timing for once.
While I was cooking my dinner a Japanese guy about my age came up to my tent. His English was very bad, but I understood that he was also hiking the CDT and had flipped up north from Pagosa Springs and was now headed south. After I ate and was writing, another guy came up, this one headed Northbound like me. He said his name was Chimichanga - I'd actually heard about him from Slaughterhouse, one of the folks who'd given me the Root Beer float near Copper. It was raining pretty hard when he came up, but he did tell me he had read my blog, I assume from the San Juan's. He headed out looking for a flat spot and we wished each other a good night. Perhaps we'd run into each other again tomorrow - it might be nice to tackle the next section with someone else as it is pretty high and exposed and there have been a lot of storms lately. I'm going to wake up early though tomorrow to try and avoid the afternoon storms. I guess we'll just have to see what he does and perhaps our paths will cross again...
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