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| Camping at 11,720 Feet in Colorado |
Monday, July 9
After spending the night in Georgetown, we hiked to the little town of
Empire where I left a resupply box a few days earlier while off trail with Eva. The town of Empire isn't on the official CDT route, but there was a
fire in the area that closed a section of the CDT, and the suggested reroute was to hike through Empire. Eva and I drove to Empire and hand delivered a resupply box so I didn't have to carry as much food and supplies to my final destination, Grand Lake. We tried to leave the box at the general store, but it was closed. We checked out the visitor center, which was open, but no one was there...very strange. We tried the gas station, but they refused to hold it. We were running out of options so I decided to try the cannabis dispensary, Serene Wellness. They had great store hours and the employees seemed very open minded and mellow... After showing Norm the contents of my box and explaining what I was doing, he agreed to hold my box!
5 Star and I hiked into Empire from Georgetown after a hearty breakfast and I retrieved my resupply box, which now had a very distinctive smell. We were soon joined by Patches and ate lunch at the Dairy King before hiking out of town in the heat of the day. We had a very long steep climb from 8,600 feet to 11,700 to prepare for climbing James Peak tomorrow morning. I believe it is the last 13,000 foot peak we will climb in Colorado, and possibly the rest of the trail. We camped above treeline which isn't common, but the weather was perfect and we found a great campsite!
Tuesday, July 10
After my recent experience on Grays Peak, I wasn't excited about the comments in my GPS map software about the ridge walk after James Peak, but it turned out that there was good trail the entire way and I did not spend most of my time wondering what people would say at my funeral. Here are some pictures!
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| Patches Ascending James Peak |
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| Yours Truly on the Summit of James Peak |
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| 5 Star Chilling On the Summit |
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| The Ridge Line After James Peak |
We enjoyed lunch at Rollins Pass, had some amazing views, and saw three MOOSE within a half hour.
Wednesday, July 11
The goal on Wednesday was to hike 20+ miles and be ready to hike into Grand Lake on Thursday morning. But the closer we got, the more we were convinced to "suck it up" and hike into town on Wednesday night. (5 Star has discovered he can motivate me to hike further if there is a possibility of ice cream.) There was a burger and a bed in Grand Lake with my name on it and I was determined to get there! We arrived just after 8:00 PM and while I checked into our motel, 5 Star ordered double cheese burgers with fries for both of us at the Dairy King next door. I ordered a large milk shake to go and enjoyed it sitting on my hotel room bed talking with Eva on the phone. Tomorrow morning I'll pick up my resupply box at the post office, patron the laundromat, enjoy the luxury of a library computer, and...eat as much food as possible.
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| A Boardwalk Through a Marsh |
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| 5 Star Getting His Hike On! |
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| Beautiful Trail! |
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| Shadow Mountain Lake |
I'm less than 150 miles from the border of Wyoming, which I am going to unofficially claim as the half way point of my hike! My last resupply in Colorado will be Steamboat Springs and Patches parents are meeting her there, so its possible there might be some trail magic and the possibility of slack packing into and out of Steamboat. Stay tuned for details!
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 following along!
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