Day 23 Frenchman Creek to Avalanche Trailhead

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Mileage: 13.5 miles (completed Segment 11 and completed first 6.6 miles of Segment 12)

Elevation: 11,000 ft down to 9,400 and up to 11,800 and back down again to 9,400

Duration: 9 hours and a 10 min wait for a hitchhike to Buena Vista 

We meet so many people along the trail, and some of them leave a lasting impression that makes us smile. One trio in particular is who we nicknamed the three musketeers ...,but then that named morphed into the "Teenage Boy Scouts". We first encountered this hilarious trio at the hostel in Breckenridge. They had huge packs and no hiking poles. The owner of the hostel chuckled at them and  disappeared into his garage of everything, and re-appeared with three old ski poles for them to use for the remainder of their journey. The most amazing thing is that they all just finished their junior year in.......no not college.... high school! And here they are...

After our funny conversations and listening to their pre-hike narrations to what got them here, we bestowed these names upon them. First off on the left, is Jonah, the "lightbulb". Inquisitive and jolly. We noticed he end up carrying the extra weight. In the middle is Matt. Not Mattie, not Matthew. Just Matt (and he will tell you that. His name is "Bookie" because he carries the 5.76 pound full-description book of the Colorado Trail in full detail (We'll elaborate more on that later). And finally, there's Leo, the "Scout Master". He makes sure that everyone and everything is organized to backpacking standards. 

Fast forward two weeks to today and we were just finishing one giant mountain named Mt. Columbia and getting ready to climb another, and we needed to check in at the trail register. This is what we found...

 And guess who it was from??? The teenage Boy Scouts!

It made our morning! Thanks for the smile that you gave us guys!

It didn't last long as we got to the trailhead and saw on the bulletin a profile of the elevation change. It should have been called "The Great Colorado Pyramid"

There it is. 2,500 ft up and 2,500 ft down. 

Here are some highlights...

Climbing up through the forests 

At the 11,000 ft level, we came to a serene valley 

We walked to the back of the valley floor and walked over Silver Creek on a manmade bridge and handrail 

Awhhhh...stopped by the river, cooled down our feet and had a power snack as we had to climb 800 more feet 

Zippy couldn't believe we climbed up to the same level as the mountain behind us

And then we saw this on the other side and began our just as much elevation descent down 

We descended into a great valley 

There were views and mountains all around us 

The final rest stop before our...

Hitchhike to Buena Vista! Here's Pippy's hitchhike pose and here's 

Zippy's! We were placing bets on what number car would pick us up. Pippy said 6, Zippy said 9, and Chippy said 10. The Chippy won! About 10 mins later, a nice woman picked us up, no questions asked and took us all the way to downtown Buena Vista! 

We walked through the old town thinking there would be a historic hotel to stay at, but there was none. We changed routes and continued on the main highway, passing by several motels with no vacancy signs. Finally, we saw a Super 8 motel ahead and figured there would have to be rooms there. And as it turned out, somebody had just checked out of the last available room and we scored it. Not but one minute later, about four different people came in and were turned down. But, hey! At least they had a car to drive to another town!

Our room wasn't ready yet do we left our bags and walked a block to a restaurant that Little Pippy remembered eating as a little girl, about 15 years ago. Mom Zippy was proud to go back there with her and share a beer to commemorate our 200 mile mark!!!

Casa del Sol.. Best Mexican food in Buena Vista! 

Our opus(tummies) were all full and happy and we walked back to our motel, washed clothes, and zombie walked into bed. We were so tired. 

Last but not least, since we arrived on a Saturday evening and tomorrow's Sunday, the post office is closed! It's right behind our motel, but our resupply box is locked behind red bricks and bolted glass doors. Rather than waiting 34 more hours, we just bought snacks and food for our 3 day 38 mile journey to Salida and will pick up our next box there!