September 10th, 2024
Mile Marker: 1878.6
Miles Hiked: 25
We woke up early today in hopes to cover two passes before the rain but quickly realized that was not going to happen.
We got up at 6 AM, I slept relatively well despite waking up a few times during the night. I found myself awake before 6 and when Journey popped up, I was ready to go.
We set out right at 7 which was our goal for the day. Aster and Whatever were shocked, we were never out before them.
We had 4 miles of up to reach Hope Pass. We started out quick to warm up our bodies, flying over the rocks and roots. We were both also motivated because this is a climb on the Leadville 100 mile ultramarathon. I kept imagining me racing but then was reminded I have a 25 pound pack on my back slowing me down significantly.
After a couple miles we started noticing frost still frozen along the grass and plants. I was so glad we slept at a lower elevation last night.
Once we passed majority of the tree line we came out into a bowl surrounded by huge mountains. We saw two other hikers ahead of us on the climb and eventually caught both.
One guy stopped as he was breathing hard and said we were flying and I replied that we had been out here for a while. He then asked if we were doing the whole thing and we responded yes. The guy then proceeded to tell us we were awesome and what an adventure.
It was good mojo to keep us climbing at the pace we were. Just before we made it to the top we noticed a mountain goat run across the trail and up and over the other side of the mountain. I’ll never understand how they can be so fast on crumbling rock on the side of a mountain!
We made it to the top, gave each other a big knucks and continued down.
I was moving quickly and had felt good going up the climb but was starting to have bits of a headache form while descending.
I was thankful when we made it to the bottom of the climb back to 10,000 feet. We then cruised around 10,000 feet for a while in the trees and eventually started to steadily incline as we reached the 2nd pass.
Around 11 AM we started noticing dark clouds roll in and both knew that it was going to rain before we got over the second pass so we would just take it as it comes.
As we continued through the valley we noticed rain on the far end and decided to stop and eat our lunch under a tree before the rain hit us.
As we sat and ate we noticed that in the high mountain in front of us, was actually collecting snow on it. It’s getting late in the year and chilly…
We then set out and started getting rained on so we put on our rain gear and kept moving. Eventually the rain passed but I didn’t want to stop to take off my rain gear so I became a sauna.
I was moving a lot slower on this second climb though, as it was rockier and not as easy tread.
Once we reached the top I felt the panic start to creep in and made my way down the mountain as quick as I could. Journey was taking his time so I slowed down and told myself to stop, we want to be different then be different. I tried to feel my body, am I okay? Was I breathing okay? I was.
We also spotted a marmot showing off his teeth and a pica if you can see it! Picas are so hard to capture on camera!
We came to an intersection where we had to decide if we wanted to take the old CDT and stay a little bit lower and have 8 miles to camp or take the new CDT and stay higher on the mountain and have 7 miles to camp.
I of course wanted to take the lower route and Journey always wants to take red unless there is good reason not to.
I for some reason felt silly to not take the redline so we turned down it and continued on. I was tired of the mental battle and told myself to let it go.
We then made our way along the redline and skirting the side of the mountains.
We could see storms in the distance and right before we got to our camp area it started sprinkling. Thankfully we saw a huge tree with great protection from the rain and decided our tent could fit nicely underneath it.
We set up camp, then got inside. As I started to cook dinner right outside the tent, I realized there was just enough wind that rain was getting inside the tent so I had to get out and sit on the other side of the tree to cook. I felt exhausted, what a long day, I just wanted to eat in peace.
Cold rain and thunderstorms at high altitude is hard.
We are in camp early which is lovely but didn’t get to do quite the things I wanted with the rain.
Oh well, it’s how it goes.
Aster and Whatever didn’t make it quite this far as the thunderstorm got really bad before they reached here and decided to camp early so they wouldn’t be hiking in it.
Hopefully tomorrow will be less rain.
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 