August 27th, 2024
Mile Marker: 1596.7
Miles Hiked: 31
We slept in this morning until 6:30 AM since it was so cold outside. It’s terribly hard to get out of our sleeping bags. We will look at each other and without saying anything look away and shut our eyes for a bit longer. Eventually we got up and made a warm breakfast in bed.
I felt a surge of not wanting to be on trail when we headed out and Journey could notice.
So we spent the morning discussing options. We realized that I went from stressful graduate school, to stress with moving, to starting the trail and enduring physical stress with psychological stress of hiking in grizzly country. Now after months of this, I’m just tired… Exhausted, which doesn’t help anxiety at all.
We decided I could pop off for a little and stay with my cousin while Journey continues and I could meet back up with him when I felt better. Or we could look at a couple zeros and different route options in Colorado, since there are the occasional low routes instead of high.
I felt better discussing options with Journey, I just needed a breather.
The trail took us out of the trees and up over high bald mountains that gave us 360 views.
Journey and I started listening to a new book called Coddling of The American Mind. It was an interesting listen and made us think about the struggle a lot of us have with engaging in discussion with someone who has an opposing view from us. They discussed a lot about cancel culture and how harmful this can be, getting us stuck in a feedback loop of like minded people. Especially in education, we need to be able to hear opposite view points and be safe discussing different views without getting cancelled.
I thought about my time in my masters program. This was very true to the environment cultivated. Not always, but occasionally if someone spoke a different view point, another classmate would attack the person and make them feel ostracized… it’s what led me to get quieter and quieter in my classes, unless I knew the teacher would support a range of viewpoints.
Listening to the book was a good distraction and I kept my mind on the beauty that is before me. We found a nice lunch spot around 1 that led to more gorgeous views.
We took our time even though we knew we still had a lot of the day left to hike. We had our biggest climb of the day this evening, up to over 12,000 feet for the first time.
We continued on through the ups and down and before the final climb went through a burn zone. It’s crazy to think about all the burn zones we have been through.
As we steadily climbed up we started to see all the mountains around us. I was in awe, trying to reframe my thoughts and stay focused on the book playing in my ear and the beautiful landscape. What a privilege.
From far away Journey and I could see where we needed to climb to as there was a white shelter building up at the top of the climb. Initially it felt intimidating as it looked so high up.
We kept moving towards it slowly then a mile away supposedly had the steepest climb of the whole CDT straight up the grassy side of the mountain.
I kept my mindset positive, trying to relax and shift to a “Let’s Go!” frame of mind. Making myself excited to get to the top than fearful.
We got to the top and as my mind wanted to get nervous as it has been wired to do, I kept telling myself I was fine. Because I was. We also had an incredible sunset.
We went into the building to get away from the blasting wind, ate a snack, and moved quickly down the mountain.
We wanted to get to a lower elevation to sleep and to make miles to ensure Winter Park would happen.
I am always joyful going down the mountain as the worries flow away and I can move quickly.
It started to get dark and we both pulled out our headlamps. I typically don’t like going so late but tonight felt different. As we descended it wasn’t very cold and the stars were out. Plus we were getting to low elevation and I just felt good. My body felt good. We flowed quickly and made it close to a highway to camp.
When we arrived at the camp spot we noticed another hiker setting up her tent. She said her name was Ace and she was also a Sobo hiker. It’s always wild to Journey and I how we never see some people who are around us the whole time.
We found a spot near her, made food, and got into our tent.
It was a long day no doubt but a very successful one. Once again so thankful for a blue bird day and a gorgeous sunset. Also, I’m proud of myself. The nerves are there but I’m trying and learning to overcome them.
Goodnight.
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 