Buena Vista to North Pass 8 days 304 miles traveled from Denver

Well folks we are still out here and all things are a go for finishing in Durango on the 24^th of September assuming nothing too unexpected pops up for us or the dogs.

I am sure you felt my downer vibes in the last blog as we prepared for leaving Buena Vista and heading into this next 2 week long section. For all of you concerned about my mental well fair, just know I am better than the first day we set out and am feeling stronger every day! Things are really good, not getting easier by any means, on the contrary, but I am good and that makes all difference out here. Maintaining a positive outlook is key and I believe this applies outside of trail life too.

Our last night in Buena Vista our friend Van came and met us so he could join us on the hike for the first three days of this push from Chalk Bluffs to HWY 50. I had been so looking forward to having him join us since about 2 days out from Leadville, just knowing someone else was out there coming to meet us and would inevitably change up our dynamics for a few days was a thrilling prospect, out here you crave diversity in many ways, food, people etc. He arrived early that evening and we packed our bags with new fresh foods (because the site of dehydrated potatoes was and still is now enough to make a woman sick) and set off for HWY 50.  Van was with us to celebrate our ½ way point in both days and miles, man what a feeling knowing I had made it over the “hump” and was still willing to put my boots on every morning and give it a go. In those days with Van the topography really changed for us, we had our first meadows in what seemed like weeks. Long sections of flat and exposed areas, hot for sure, but such a nice respite from the endless climbing we were experiencing in the Collegiate Peaks. This section with its wide open areas began offering us better and better views than our previous six day trek nestled under gigantic peaks like Massive, Elbert, and Harvard. We gradually climbed around Shavano and Tabauguche Peaks and had to the opportunity to see them in all their glory from multiple faces. Stunning these two mountains are, this is the stuff that can take your breath away, why not try and see of much of it as you can? Van brought his dog Eddie and I think our dogs were happy to have him also join the pack. Eddie was as fun, if not more fun to watch enjoying the hike as Joey and B. He leaped and bounded over everything and at camp still had so much energy it was incredible. I just love watching the dogs, and Eddie really heightened the experience in that regard. 

We arrived to HWY 50 on Saturday the 29^th of August, where we were set to separate from Van and continue on to Fooses Creek. I still was not feeling amazing and I was still discouraged about my mileage abilities and I was feeling more drained than usual because of “lady times”. So when we got to the HWY crossing it was a real treat to see our friend Katie (Van’s wife) pull up. I squeezed her so tight. I needed female energy in a bad bad way, I just cried, it was a natural release (thanks girl #blessed). And despite them having the chance to slip away for a romantic night at the hot springs they decided to stay with Mike and in all of our bickering and my sickly glory and car camp with us. They drove into town and brought back ice cream and twizlers and gallons of clean water. They sent us off the next morning with eggs, fresh water and a whole new vibe. I felt strong and empowered after my Katie and Van time as we walked away from their car toward the creek, and since that moment each day has been more fun for me.

From here it was just 5 more days to North Pass, where mike’s mom and aunt were driving out to meet us with a resupply box. We pushed hard and got there in 4 days instead allowing us just one day “off” to camp and not bag miles. A nice unplanned treat to say the least. This was the first time I did more than 11 miles per day and was still able to continue each new day with as much vigor as the day before. Over this stretch it became more and more apparent that Little Britches has reached her full confidence level here on the trial. She no longer needs to follow Joey around, she is breaking her own trail. This makes me a little nervous, but I don’t have the heart to leash her, she has never been so wild and free and at ease since the day we adopted her. Watching your shelter dog become free of fears and anxieties that they have been burdened with since you adopted them is a beautiful gift as a “rescue parent”. As her confidence grows, I can see myself paralleling with her. We are now two strong empowered women heading toward Durango, and together with our boys we are unstoppable! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, she is my inspiration! Every person that is lucky enough to meet her on the trail is also inspired by her abilities and tenacity. We’ve given her the trail name of “Carhart”, since they are the toughest britches you can find.

Since leaving Van the climbs really intensified again as we left one major mountain range and began ascending into another. We climbed over 3,000 feet to Sergeant’s Mesa which gave us spectacular views of where we’d been and where we were going, and areas we won’t have a chance to go to on this trail (the Sangre de Cristo’s). The view was 360 degrees of magnificent; seeing the Sawatch Mountains behind us, the San Juan’s in front and the Sangre’s towering out in the distance; as far as the eye could see it was mountains and it gave me that similar feeling as when I’m standing next to the ocean, an obvious reminder of how small we actually are, that humbling feeling of insignificance (in a good way), and that feeling like “I am standing exactly where I am supposed to be at this very moment on Earth”. Feeling insignificant individually, but so connected to everything bigger than you at the same time. Is this called inner peace? Maybe it is.

Connectedness is a major theme on this journey for me. I’ve been feeling for years in the “real world” like I don’t really fit anywhere, whether that be places we’ve lived or jobs I’ve had, but mostly in terms of what I view as success for my life seems so counter to what most of my friends and family have done and are doing. It makes you question yourself, when you compare yourself to the way other people choose to live. But out here I belong everywhere I am. I feel part of the circle of life as cheesy as it sounds, but I’m serious here, I feel powerfully connected to both the micro and the macro and everything in between. The ants and spiders and millions of little micro lives existing beneath our shoes, the breeze rushing through the huge single organism Aspen groves, and the gigantic mountains, calderas, and ancient volcanic ash hoodoos over 27 million years old. We all exist because of what and who came before us and therefore we are connected to everything that has come and will come. Again I know this is a little cheesy, but you can’t help asking yourself while you are out here, “what are we doing to protect each other and our lands, what are we leaving for the future world? What is my responsibility as a member of the human race?”

Just a side note… I’m becoming a geology nut out here, I just can’t get enough information to satisfy all questions I have about what I am seeing day in and day out.

As we approached North Pass we saw two Moose, our first big wildlife sighting. There was a female and a male, Mike and I assumed they were a young couple just like us, just trying to make it in this crazy world. What a sight! This was also the first and only day on the trail so far we have not seen another living soul, at detail I made sure to appreciate.

This section was vital to my survival out here, I had to break down in order to build myself up, and up I am!

North Pass to Lake City 4 days 358 miles from Denver  

What a beautiful stretch. We made it to North Pass a day early and got to have an extra day just camping with no miles to walk. What a great feeling. Sara and Lynne brought us our resupply box and drove us up to Saguache Park where we had some great food, wine, and conversation while car camping. It is always nice to see new faces, it is rejuvenating. We pressed on the next day and climbed climbed again. We made it to the fishing spot on the CT, Cochatopa Creek. Mike caught 2 Brook Trout and we shared one for dinner and had one for breakfast. September 5, 2015 is our one month “hikeaversary” crazy to think we have spent the last month living in the wilderness. I am finding my personal stride, my spirits are way up and Mike and I finally have a great schedule going for ourselves and I have worked out my nutrition so no more vomit and my weight has leveled out.

We pushed over Snow Mesa, which was a crazy huge mesa well over 12,000 ft. There are no words to describe this section. You will have to look at the pictures below, and even those don’t do it justice. I guess ya’all will have to just come out next year and see it for yourself ;)

The changing of the seasons is upon us and every day we can taste fall in the air and can feel it in the air, Days are shorter and so are the nights. A new “crispness” in the air. The leaves are just starting to change and we are getting more excited to push on. 

The kindness of strangers and other hikers we have met here in the last few days on our layover in both Creede and Lake City. We arrived a day early and had trouble hitching to Lake City so we hopped over to the other side of the road and the first car picked us up and took us to Creede, what a strange beautiful gem of a mountain town. It was not as easy as we thought it would be to find a hotel in town. I talked to many locals who sent me to bars and pizza shops to ask random people for rooms and nothing was available for us AND our dogs. We were feeling pretty low knowing we'd have to pack up and find a place to camp and a man stopped us and asked us if were hikers and if we were doing ok. I of course cried and said "until now..." He didn't hesitate for a moment. He loaded us up and took us to his deceased mother's house where we camped and he opened the doors to us for facility use. Such a nice guy, who just wanted to help some hikers, he admired what were doing. As he left us for the night he gave me his card, he turned out to be the county commissioner for Mineral County and local staple in the community. Thanks Scott, if you are reading this just know that is the greatest gift one can receive on a journey like ours and we will never forget you. Next day we got a rides back over the pass to Lake City where we have had the most restful and amazing stay at the Raven's Rest Hostel. For the owner Lucky you can tell that this is so much a labor of love. He loves the hiking and adventure culture and chose to bring us all into his home. One of the best hostels I have ever stayed in, I feel at home and will miss the comforts and good company when we hit the trail again tomorrow.

Next is eight days to Silverton and then just six more days to Durango.

As always thanks for your support and thanks for reading. We love and miss you all.

Leadville to Buena Vista (from the last blog)

Buena Vista To North Pass

North Pass To Lake City

Leadville to Buena Vista

Leadville to Buena Vista: 6 Days 210 miles traveled from Denver

We are alive and well and have made it through the toughest section yet. It is really hard for me to find the right words to describe my experience this section because I struggled so much, yet I feel stronger mentally and physically as a result of pushing myself when it got super tough. I have never wanted to keep doing something and wanted to quit that very same thing all at the same time before. I know I keep saying this, but this experience is really really hard. I have given in to the fact that for the next four weeks my body won’t ever really truly be comfortable, something will always hurt or ache or be bruised, blistered, burned…the list goes on.  I am beginning to feel worn in, worn out, and to be honest a little worn down and in many ways (though different than mine), I think Mike is too. With 210 miles covered and 275 to go, this tough place to be mentally right now and our next push is challenging in more ways than one. We have less water sources available to us as we get into cattle country and we are getting ready to push almost two weeks straight through to Lake City, Colorado with no layover days. One day over the 2 weeks, Aunt Sara and Mama Lynn will come and meet us on North Pass with a resupply box, but we plan to hike that very next morning. High mileage goals and high altitude are also playing a role moving forward. Not to mention Mike and I have been inseparable for three solid weeks (your imagination can decide what that comments means).
Everyday this adventure becomes a more multi-faceted endurance experience.

While most often the beauty of your surroundings and a good hot drink at camp can help to mend the unpleasant feelings from a long hard day on the trail, this is not always the case. Below are just some harsh realities of this experience thus far:
1. If you are hiking through an exposed section in the heat and you are climbing 4,000 feet elevation over a 5 mile climb straight up with absolutely no deviation or turn or anything (Imagine here if you will an Escher painting, or for you younger folks that hallway at Hogwarts where the stair cases move and you always end up back where you started. I kept thinking I was at the top and it took two days to actually get up there), just straight up and up and up and up and you begin throwing up and then having visual and auditory hallucinations of men wearing orange saying that there was soup being offered at the top of the mountain… you have to keep going because you are in fact in the middle of the woods and have to at least make it to a camp site for the night… and you must do this even when you realize there is no soup.
2. My own smell makes me nauseous and is truly unbearable, for me that is saying a lot too!
3. Diarrhea… no toilet… enough said
4. The backs of my legs look like some one beat me with a baseball bat they are so black and blue and I am not sure what happened, that is just how they look
5. My shins are covered in bugs bites of various types
6. I have a sun burn regardless how much sunscreen I use, at 12,000 feet those rays are coming for you no matter what
7. Blisters that form on top of blisters that then form blisters on top of those.
8. I am still only able to cover about 11 miles a day and that isn’t even totally consistent so we are usually behind schedule, this plays mind tricks on you and can add stress to an experience that was intended to reduce it. We have had to make multiple changes to our course as a result of that particular reality.
9. The sight of the food we have packed is becoming unbearable, I never realized how much my body would crave diversity. This caused some struggles for me in the last days, as my body began rejecting everything I put in and the very thought of food was enough to make me gag.

… and these are just a few things we are dealing with out here.

I was feeling low about my physical abilities upon arrival in Buena Vista, I guess because I thought I would be bagging 11 miles per day no problem by now, and it is still extremely hard for me. Additionally, I was naive about this entire endeavor when it came to how much work there is to be done outside of just getting in the miles each day, and I can feel Mike’s patience and generosity wearing thin; it is not always easy being together 24/7.

Despite all of this, I want to keep going. Why? Well number one I am stubborn as hell and number two because this really is amazingly enriching and every day when I wake up alive after going to bed thinking it may be “my time for the long sleep”, I feel empowered and brave and strong and all the good things one would hope to feel from an experience like this one. So onward I must go, no matter how hard it feels at the moment.

We had the chance to see some very majestic things over the last 6 days, we are in Collegiate Country and have passed under most of the Collegiate Peaks. At Twin Lakes the trail diverges and we had the option of hiking the Collegiate West or Collegiate East portion of the Colorado Trail and we chose the east. This was where the climb from hell was located (soup hallucinations), at the time we thought we were choosing the easier of the two routes, not sure there is such a thing now that I was on the “easy” side. Nothing out here should ever be called easy! We would like to hike the West portion sometime as well just to compare the two sections. On the east section we lacked perspective because all these huge 14,000 ft mountains were directly above us. You could feel their presence looming high over you, yet we didn’t get as many spectacular views as we would have hoped. As I am writing this entry from Buena Vista, I am looking out on a storm forming over Mount Princeton. Over this stretch we have experienced the most challenging ups and downs in terms of terrain so far with some really spectacular views to go along with it. The fires out west I think have been causing the haze we’ve seen since coming into the Arkansas Valley. We hiked to Twin Lakes and Mike tried his hand at fishing there with no luck, another attempt was made at a pond upon entering the San Isabelle National Forrest near the trail head to the Missouri Basin, still no luck. Then on our last night out at Harvard Lake, Mike landed two Brook Trout that we ate for breakfast the next morning, what a treat and the first food I’d kept down in over 24 hours.

The dogs are just so fun to hike with, and on the really tough days I just tell myself this is all for them. Every day continues to be the best day of their lives. Joey has caught two squirrels and didn’t quite know what to think; he was definitely proud of himself, he just didn’t know what to do with them once they were dead. Mike and joke he has now caught 2 of at least 10,000, I don’t think he is a major risk to the woodland creature population so we will let him get on for now doing his thing. Lil Britches has two turbo rockets for back legs and blasts with all her might chasing Joey through the forests each day, it has been a blast watching her trail confidence grow more and more. People are always surprised she is doing as well as she is. To be honest, he is better shape than me right now, and that’s no lie!

We hiked out to the road where our dear friends Paul and Ashley came and picked us up and took us into Buena Vista for a layover and resupply. Their faces alone were enough to almost make me cry, it felt so good seeing them. The time spent with them was amazing, they treated us to the Hot Springs and a meal, but the time spent catching up with them was what was really special and much needed. We have rested for 3 days here in Buena Vista and will set out again tomorrow. I am feeling recharged and ready to push on, this time with less giddy excitement pumping through me and more determination. I feel older somehow… it must be because I am 29 now (hahaha).

Thanks For Reading and as always thanks for your love and support.