Tuesday, June 5
Of all the states I'll hike through on the Continental Divide Trail, Colorado has the steepest climbs with over twenty seven vertical miles of altitude change! Between Cumbres Pass and Wolf Creek Pass (69 miles) , there is over 12,000 feet of both altitude gain and loss. That averages out to 3,000 feet up and down daily for four days. Colorado is also known for SNOW, Here is a link to a graph of the current snow conditions on the CDT.
This year's snow coverage is below normal, which should make my hike through Colorado easier, safer, and faster (except for the problem of forest fires). I don't expect to have as much cell coverage and/or WiFi access as I did in New Mexico, so my blog updates may not be as consistent as they have been for the last month. But I'll do my best to keep you updated on my progress. I really do appreciate you following along! Your encouragement and support are very motivating!
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| I'm in two places at once...New Mexico and Colorado! |
I've spent the day in Chama, New Mexico resting before I begin hiking the rugged mountains of Colorado. Someone gave a group of hikers a ride to the post office (1.5 miles from our motel) to pick up our resupply boxes. I sent my packages back to the motel with my roommate Mike and walked two blocks to the library to work on my blog. I wrote four posts and used their WiFi to update Flickr and YouTube. Check out the links below to find additional images and videos that didn't make it into my blog posts. I'm guessing that a dozen or more hikers are leaving Chama tomorrow so there will be an army of us attacking the southern San Juan Mountains over the next few days.
The residents of Chama are very friendly to hikers...especially this one! I've had a good time resupplying, refueling, and resting before leaving tomorrow. I'd love to come back here and visit sometime. I could imagine retiring in a small mountain community like this someday.
Eva mentioned to me that people are hearing about fires near the CDT and are concerned for my safety. So far I have been ahead of any fires resulting in trail closures. Here is a link to a page on the Continental Divide Trail Coalition Website that is updated regularly with trail closures. It's a great source of current information on the CDT.
I've been at the Chama Library for over three hours and I think I'm done. I've satisfied my technology fix and it's time for ice cream and a 1.5 mile walk back to the motel...unless I can get a hitch. It seems crazy, but thru-hikers have a reputation of being lazy. I remember when I was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2014 and some local hikers in Washington were telling me about a wonderful campsite at a lake, but they were convinced I wouldn't go there because I was too lazy to walk a quarter mile from the trail. How can you call me lazy when I am walking 2,600 miles?
For additional content, check out Flickr for images, YouTube for video, SoundCloud for audio, and the Postholer Map with my most recent location.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. To date, there have been over 6,000 page views from 10 different countries.
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