Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Day 26 Dry creek to highway 50


Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Mileage: 14 miles
Elevation: 9,800

Weather: cloudy and raining.. Brr.. Cold

Last night was brrr cold. We had dry clothes , but after putting up our tent in the rain everything felt damp. To make us smile, el Totoro wanted to ride a mushroom. 

I know .. He looks real cute. And yellow bird thinks so too. But then, we could not find Yellow bird. He took off on a hike on his own. He must've gone about two feet when we found him. He was exhausted. But look, Yellow bird found a new friend. Please don't judge his friend, some people are pokey and some people are not. See how happy he is...
Our trail companions keep our spirits high.
Early morning sunrise of which only Zippy ever sees because Pippy is well...you know, still sleeping. 
Our trail was simple and windy along the ridge, and passed through meadows like this one several times.
We love the aspen groves. They stand so tall and upright. 

Once again our fine furry friend treats us to a munching show. He was eating what looked like a mushroom. It was all eaten up in 31 seconds. Then as fast as he was eating, he sprinted up the tree, bounced onto a limb, and scampered  rapidly to the edge of the branches where he leaped to the next tree and practically nose dived onto the ground. It's a funny thing to watch.

The view from atop of one of the hill climbs... Like 7 hill climbs in a day..sometimes we forget to look at the views as we are trudging up each hill with determination.
Here is zippy making her final steps to the top...not sue why she is crossing her legs like that. Maybe the cha cha cha? Only Zippy knows. 
Ta da! We made it to the top!
You can barely see the misty fog starting to roll in..
Zippy enjoying a mid day snack under the pine tree. The views were beautiful.
Pippy in the lead once again.
This was the last water source for the next 5 mikes.
And then up the last hill climb, we see the "hobbit" climbing eagerly behind us.. "Hey, are you the girls from Hawaii?"  As it turns out , " hobbit" is from the same island as we are  from, and lives on the kona side. So cool! 

Naturally we are now best friends, and even knew the same people. Small Island.We are hanging out with "hobbit" and sharing funny stories.
 
And then we met "Garfield🐱. He is a biker dude on his way to Durango as well. 
Thanks for chatting with us " Garfield".  Keep in touch!
 
"Hobbit " and Pippy sharing stories... Yep, Zippy is waaay behind.

Had to do our Hawaiian style Shaka to get a ride to Salida .. Scored again on the 10th car!
We got a ride to the gas station from 1st hitch, then zippy with her chatty self sort of  invited herself into the back of a truck for the rest if the way to town..she told them she was traveling with her daughter and nephew...  They said hop in. So we did!
We were crouching down in the back so we wouldn't get busted for sitting in the back of an open bed truck. The nice folks  from Missouri gave us a ride into Salida.

 Tonight we are staying at the hostel... They only had one toom left ,  and it was a family room. We said we were a family. So " hobbit " is up in the bunk above Pippy and zippy for the night... The trio will continue tomorrow... Nighty night.











Day 25 Dry Creek to Browns Creek

Monday, July 28, 2014
Mileage: 14.3 miles (completed last 7 of Segment 13 and first 7 of Segment 14)
Elevation: 9,500 ft down to 8,900 ft and up again to 9,500 ft

The sound of the deflating air mattress once again was the alarm clock of the morning. Pippy was a bit quicker this morning to arise from her cocoon as it was a warmer than usual morning. We had our tea, ate our wonderfully, delicious, oaty mushy oatmeal, and were off! 
Pippy wanted a portrait with her giant red, "Watermelon"
Zippy's "I'm ready and I'm not stopping" stance. She can go for miles on the trail without stopping, kinda like a bull. Pippy needs to stop like every 20 mins to eat because 20 mins after that...she's starving again! It's probably because Pippy is like a gazelle and Zippy must run to catch up with her. 
See, here's the gazelle sprinting up the trail. We trekked along through the forest for the first couple of miles until the trail transitioned on a paved road and we followed that for the next 6 miles.
Long, hot, no shoulder road heading down into the next valley. 
Despite the straight, boring asphalt to follow...the views were magnificent and there were even some metal containers along the way just for us to set our camera on self-timer. 
Pippy looking at the view below of the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs resort. We decided to bypass a stop here as it was a hot day, too resorty, full of people, and it would've threw off our hiking groove! 

We traversed along the main, boring, hot, scary fast car road into the valley surrounded by these huge, white bouldery mountains. We decided that our faces should be carved in to the rocks to commemorate the first mother-daughter team from Hawaii to hike the Colorado Trail. 
But, then we thought that it wouldn't be a good idea as it would alter the natural and historical beauty of these mountains.
So beautiful..

Finally, we left the asphalt road behind and diverged onto a pretty, quiet, and peaceful country road full of cute summer cottages and fishermen fishing for trout in the neighboring stream. We felt like we were in France strolling along one of the old roads in the countryside...
Pippy's "I'm so sxcicted to be off the main road!!!" stance 
Zippy's "I'm going to copy Pippy" stance

We followed this road for the next mile and a half until we reached the Chalk Creek Trailhead, which was the starting point for Segment 14. We crossed the stream, filled up our water for the 7 mile stretch of no water, and hit the trail again. 
We didn't get too far on the trail before coming to a trail register...
Pippy analyzing the dates and lists of the past hikers. We found a handful of our friends names in there that we've met along the way. Go friends! Were right behind you!!

A thousand feet climb later, we were on the top of a knoll and enjoyed a great view. 
Mt. Princeton on the right and the side of Mount Antero on the left

We descended into the next meadow over and spotted this little unknown flying creature having a treat from a flower 
Anyone know what it is? We have no idea....never have seen it before. Pippy thinks it's a cross between humming bird/butterfly/wasp. 

Up the hill from here, we saw what looked like two white, square-shaped  rocks next to a tree. As we got closer, we realized it was another "Trail Magic" box full of goodies for CT hikers left by fellow alma maters who hiked the CT last year. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, there was only bags of dehydrated black beans, oats, and bandaids that fellow hikers had traded and left behind. As you all know, we've had our fair share of these so we left those alone. There was one handy accessory that we found useful: a lotion bar, perfect for our dry dinosaur skin. Despite the slim pickings, It was still a wonderful treat to stop upon and uplifted our spirits! 


But ahh yesss, nature has a way of shifting things up just when you think you're having a perfect, blue sky day. It brings in not one, but two huge thunderstorms full of booming thunder and scary lightening bolts from two different directions. Just when we thought we were clear from one, another one comes in front of us out of nowhere!
It's almost like a fog from a scary movie...it just snakes its way in and surrounds you. 
Tip #1 when stuck in a thunderstorm: stay far away from big boulders like this one
Tip #2: stay low under a small tree grove  and away from anything metal, electronic, or water. 

Phew! Our tactics worked and we made it to our camp for the night safely. We had to MacGiver our tent set-up as it was still raining, but we figured out how to keep the inside dry by draping the rain fly over it as we popped it up. 
Finally, nice and cozy in our tent away from the rain, we began our ritual, nightly process of blowing up our air mattresses, laying out our sleeping bags, and changing into our warm jammies.

Tomorrow, we'll be heading the 14 more miles to the trailhead and will hitch a ride to the town of Salida to pick up our next resupply box! 

Day 24 Avalanche trailhead to Dry creek

Sunday, July 27, 2014
Mileage: 9 little meandering miles
Duration: 5 hours, we started late in the day..,

As previously described , there are two different trail books that one can take along on the trail. One is the heavier version and quite descriptive. The other is a very lightweight version with to the point information. We chose the lighter version and The book that our "Bookie" friend Matt had, was the larger version. 

The larger version describes an up coming camp site like this; ..,at 9,900 feet  you will see a meadow, just beyond at mile 9.7 there is a bridge that crosses a frolicking stream. Look north and you will find several good camp sites available just for you... Our little mini version book will have something like this;  campsite near the stream . We actually just look for a level spot and set up camp.  It's always a treat to find a camp site that is not in our book:)

Our afternoon and night in Buena Vista was a restorative one. Well-needed rest from the past three days of power hiking big miles. We also needed to replenish our carbo-load, which we happily did with homemade cornmeal pancakes with all the Colorado fixins'. They were as big as a deflated basketball! We ate it all...and it wasn't forced either. 

Before our thumbs went to work for a ride, Zippy being her chatty self , sparked up a conversation with the woman sitting in a 1974 jeep. She informed the woman that she grew up riding in a jeep just like this one , only the color was green. It was fun to see a jeep like this again.

We Had a wonderful sleep on a comfy bed... Ahh and the hot shower was glorious to say the least. We slumbered out of bed and walked over to the natural food store and loaded up on protein bars , tortilla wraps , and yes..cough-cough.. More Beans!

Packed up up packs and off to thumb a ride back to the trail head. We stood across from a church hoping that some wholesome good hearted person would pick us up..  And five cars later, that someone did! Nice guy. He took us 2 miles from the trail so we needed to hoof it along the scary narrow winding road ... Up hill of course.
We kept saying to each other , "where is the trail?"...it sort of jaunts off to the left a bit. We eventually found it.
This is the view walking towards the trail head... No dark clouds yet... But it changed very quickly.
Thunder and sheets of lightening abound...we had to take cover.
A little rain, but at least it was not hailing on us like last time. The aspen groves are  always so peaceful to walk through.
Here the trees disappear as we climb higher. Pippy is pointing the way towards the next hill climb.
Skies were opening up and thankfully the thunder rolled away.
The smell of pine is so fragrant after a rain..
Our accomplishment at the top with these views.. The clouds are forever changing. So very cool.
After trudging along the trail in the misty rain, we cross over several streams to our camp for the night.
Final bridge crossing .. Hurrah!

We found a purrrfect campsite right next to the stream and went about our roles to set up camp. Zippy does the tent and Pippy gets the water boiling and ready for dinner.

 Lastly, we hang the bear bags. Usually, Zippy does this task. But tonight, Pippy decided to give it a try. Well, after a dozen attempts of trying to swing it far enough over the branch and tippy toeing on the tree to reach it, she was unsuccessful. Zippy needed to come to the rescue! 
If only Pippy was an inch taller....maybe she'd be able to reach it. Good thing Zippy's here.