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[at-l] Colorado Trail continues
Week 2 on the CT- for us that was from Breckenridge to Twin
Lakes area. A nice section of trail. We grew accustomed to
the 10,000ft+ alititudes, and soon felt at home in the thin
air. This week marked us breaking into the 15+ mile days and
also marked the onset of the weather, which would remain for
most of the remainder of the trip. It rained. It rained so
much it flooded, very badly I might add. Several people lost
their lives because of the summer flooding in Colorado, and in
neighboring states. Most of the time I felt thankful, as the
CT is known for exceedingly long stretches without so much as a
trickle of water (up to 20 miles!), but most of the time I was
also ticked off that Mother Nature seemed to want me out of the
mountains, once again. While up on the Ten Mile Range
(highpoint of 12,440ft) we were chased (as in running) off the
ridge due to converging severe lightning storms. It was pretty
up there (our first extensive experience in the alpine tundra
of the West), but when I was forced to run, MAN was I out of
breath. :) As we were quick to learn, the Coloradian advice
of get off the ridges by afternoon was not going to work for
this summer, as storms came through during any of the 24
hours. We made our first camp at over 12,000ft on Searle Pass,
which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It
also had one of the largest snowpack traverses we would have to
face, though it wasn't steep at all, just large. Because of
the extensive rains, the wildflowers were at their best in
decades this summer. There was not a day on the entire trail
that I was not amazed by the color. Columbine were everywhere,
even completely out of season. Even in late August, the
flowers were blooming everywhere, which put many of the natives
in shock out there. A big lesson we learned in our second
week- don't trust the guidebook! I knew this from our start,
as the newest guidebook on the CT was from 1994, but it is
still maddening when you spend 3 miles on a section described
to take .4. We also got exeptional use out of our umbrellas.
They would have provided even more help, I am sure, had we had
a normal, sunny, Colorado summer. But even with the clouds, I
cherished having these along. I am the type of person to burn
in about 15 minutes, and even with SPF 5000 on, I get pink in a
hurry. The umbrella saved me here, and also in cutting down on
the heat, as we had a *few* days where avoiding the midday sun
was imperative. I wouldn't bring them with me here in the
East, but I will likely have my trusty 14oz umbrella at my side
on my future Western trips. More animals to see- fox and
coyote, along with lots of cows- high altitude cows at that!
WIth my time in Breckenridge and the nearby town of Copper
Mountain (the CT walks right through it), I had the opportunity
to read "Annapurna: A Woman's Place" by Irene Blum (I think
that was her name). It was excellent, and I think one of the
best trail books I have read. Of course I had to battle the
mosquitos while reading. They came out in full-force during
this week. Not quite as bad as I have experienced on the AT,
but so persistant that it was driving me nuts. In that sense,
they were worse than I have ever seen. But I guess you could
say they were keeping us company, as in this section we also
walked several days without seeing a single person. Kinda
eerie. The CT would not be the place to get hurt- no one would
find you for potentially a very long time. I think this week
probably marks what would be my favorite part of the trip. We
saw some very dramatic landscape, and I felt secure in the
trail and where we were going (this would later plague me).
Take note though- when I say secure, I'm not talking about
finding your way because of blazing. There is very little
blazing on the CT, compared to the AT. Plus or minus, you
could see something resembling a marker about every mile. And
here we ended week 2, at the base of the Mt. Elbert trail (2nd
highest point in the lower 48). More to come soon....
Firefly
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