Russell's Ramblings: Colorado Trail

August 24, 2017
Finished at CW78.3 (19.2) 11,300'

Like I figured, there was a heavy dew where I camped and the tarp was soaking wet this morning. I put the tarp in a couple of gallon zip lock bags to keep everything else dry. I packed up and was on the trail at 6:45.

The whole area was damp for the first few miles and it took awhile for my hands to warm up.

There was some climbing in the morning followed by a lot of descending. Then there was a good climb up onto the divide. There was some hail on the climb but it stopped. Then, once on the divide it started hailing again. There was hail and rain for the next several miles. I used my umbrella and walked as quickly as possible. I was cold at first from sweating on the climb, but after awhile the sweat dried and I warmed up. It actually wasn't bad and I enjoyed it. The umbrella kept the wind off my face.

I passed a few northbounders on the divide. I talked briefly to a couple of them and one just shrugged hello and passed by. It wasn't the most pleasant conditions so that's probably why.

Once I got into the ski area it was a bit confusing figuring out where to go. For some reason, the CT app on my phone wasn't updating my position either so that made things more difficult. I was able to figure things out and avoided any wrong turns.

At the top of one ski lift, I stopped at a picnic table and had some food. It is nice to be able to sit at a table instead of on the ground.

There's a store at Monarch Pass, so I stopped and got some ice cream. I wanted plain vanilla but they didn't have that so I got vanilla chocolate chip instead. I only got one scoop but it was a big scoop, two would have been too much.

I started hitching for a ride into Salida but wasn't having any luck. There were four people looking around in the store for quite awhile so when they got in their vehicle, I asked if I could get a ride. They obliged and made room for me. They had been travelling around the past week and were on their way back to Denver. They weren't actually going into Salida, but one of the woman told the driver to go the extra five miles so I wouldn't have to find another ride the rest of the way. That was very nice of them. Thank you! They dropped me off in front of the Super 8 motel.

I was planning on staying at the hostel, but I had no data service so couldn't get the number to it nor figure out where in Salida it is. I called Barbara and she looked the number up for me. I called the number and just got a recording. I decided I'd rather just have my own room so I ended up staying at the Super 8. My room is actually really nice and so is the motel.