Day 30 Cow Creek to Hwy 114

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Mileage: 10 long, drawn-out miles

Elevation: 10,900 ft up and down five drawn-out mountain climbs  until our final descent at 8,900 ft 

Tragedy has struck the Cololorado Mountains. Totoro has gone missing!!!!! 

Last seen at rest stop #4 of the day off the side of the single track trail. He was reported missing at lunch time. Pippy began putting on her back pack and NO Totoro. 

Pippy almost had a nervous breakdown. Zippy and Hobbit had to console her. 

Pippy couldn't believe it. If anyone knows of his whereabouts, please report your findings at pippyandzippy.blogspot.com. BIG REWARD! Pippy is doing better now as she follows the philosophy "everything happens for a reason". 

Let's rewind a little bit to the frost bitten morning. We were almost convinced that we were in the Artic. But, our moo cow friends reminded us we were in a meadow of Colorado.

There were soo happy to see us!

And of course the only breakfast we had left was COLD. It was delicious granola, but just not that warming for the Artic morning. 

Pippy's outfit of the morning. Too cold to change out of her wooly thermos so why not just layer them with today's hiking attire and be even warmer? Good thing no mirrors exist on the trail. 

We left our cow friends behind and booked it through the next forest grove walking at a pace of 10 miles per hour (well, more like 3) to warm up our snowmen bodies! 

 

Our trail was lined with pretty wildflowers 

And where there's flowers....there's butterflies!

Looks like cat eyes on the next one...

After about the 3rd nonsuspecting mountain climb, Pippy was absolutely exhausted. The trio were all really tired and dragging our feet today, but tiredness hit Pippy the hardest.

No care here...poor lil pip. 

We finally leave the forests and our mountain climbs behind and began our final 4 mile descent on a pretty country road. 

It started to get a little boring, so we began playing some hiker games. This helped us take our mind off of the flat, white ground in front of us. 

Four miles later, the trail road ends at a stop sign and a paved highway road in the middle of a great valley. Next step: hitchhike to Gunnison. We were a little nervous for this hitch as the mileage to "Gunny" is a whooping 40 miles away!!! We were prepared to be there a while.

But who can resist happy faces, colorful ensembles, and synchronized dance moves! 

Go Zippy go!

And tada! Five cars later as were jumping up and down like cheerleaders, our new journalist friend picked us up and took us all the way to our hostel in Gunnison. 

We wish him luck on his children's book in the making!

On the way to Gunnison, we drove through a rock canyon common for bighorn sheep, but we weren't too lucky today. 

And here we are at the cutest, favoritest hostel of our trip so far! 

Named the 'Wanderlust Hostel' 

After checking in and realizing how tired we all were, a second day at this place was a unanimous decision to stay. Woohoo! The adventure continues!