Day 39 Perfect Campground to Celebration Lake

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Mileage: 13 miles 

Chippity chip chippery! That means good morning in chipmunk talk. The chipmunks were mad this morning that we were camping in their homes. 

A view of the sunrise this morning 

The huge moon was still out 

Gone as the wind changes! Hobbit had to leave us this morning to finish the trail a day earlier. He had already booked a flight and needed to make it to Durango in time. The rest of is were on "vacation" (Pippy, Zippy, Sparkle, and Duke Harrison the dog) as we had no real time that we had to finish. So after emerging from our cocoons, doing our princess yawns, and jumping around to our dance video, we were ready to start our day of hiking. 

We began by what???... Oh yes climbing! 

The scenary of the mountain range had changed from a rocky, pointy grey to a green and red stratified dirt rolling mountains. 

Up and up we go 

The wildflower pose 

Gorgeous paintbrushes. The natural color of them are so vibrant 

Even the muddy rain puddles are so pretty with a beautiful reflection 

We emerge from the trees into alpine no-tree land 

Alpine lake with awesome reflections 

Intersection of the Colorado Trail with Engineer Mtn trail. That trail is a popular day hike/bike from Durango. About 12,972 ft at the top...not sure why it can't just be rounded up to 13,000 ft. So particular. 

Dun dun dun dah! The wheel of fortune girls displaying the hidden phrase of the day....can you guess what it should say?

We climbed through shaly rocks....

And oh yes! It started raining. So Sparkle put her hunchback of Norte dame uniform on to celebrate the rain 

Zippy and Pippy sported their Mary Popppins umbrellas. Here's the view of what we see when we have our umbrellas on..a.k.a. Staring at the ground with our heads down like mules 

Finally reached the top of our first climb of the day on the saddle of Rolling Mtn. About 12,300 ft or around there 

As we descended down into the next valley, we began hearing what sounded like hundreds of cows. Actually, as we got closer to the mountain "rocks", they turned out to be a huge herd of sheep!! They blend in so well!

We walked through another meadow and descended into another forest until we reached a....

An amazing cascading waterfall!!!

Here's a closer picture of the hidden, sacred waterfall

We were starving so we thought this would be a good place to have our lunch by the river. What's for lunch??? Beans of course! 

After our lunch spot, we came upon a golden meadow of "TP" plants. The leaves are super soft and supposedly great for using as toilet paper. Sparkle tried it with no side effects so there you go!

Not to mention, we also came upon another trail friend. Sparkle was about a 1/4 mile behind us on the trail and we heard a loud squel from the direction she was. First thought was that Sparkle had been abducted or Duke had been hurt. We froze in our tracks and started walking back and soon enough, we began hearing gabbing and laughing coming our way. A tall, lanky human being appeared behind Sparkle. It was our friend "Dr. NO"!!!!

 We first came upon Dr. No at the trailhead near Lake City about a week ago. He had just completed his hike for the day and was heading into town to resupply his food. We saw him lingering around and thought he might be in need of some water. So we said

"Hey! Were thru-hikers too! You need some water that you don't have to pump?" 

Dr. No: " No"

Us: " you need some food?"

Dr. No: "Noo"

Us: thinking in our mind 'what a grouch'. Pippy pulled out a banana and a protein bar and shoved it in his hand.

Dr. No: "Well, I'll take it"

Us: "Where are you going? Need a ride?"

Dr. No: "Noooooo. I'm not ready."

Us: "hmmm..  Okay well see you later!"

We rolled up our car windows and begin driving down the road alongside him. After 3 seconds of contemplation, we realized his name was Dr. No!!!! We drove away and simultaneously yelled "your name is Dr. No!!!!!!!!!!". He tried giving us the leftover banana peel and we said "Noooooo!". Muahaha! 

But the story doesn't end there....a day later we check into the local hostel in Lake City for the night and who do we see on the couch trying to blend in? It was Dr. No! 

But the story still doesn't end. Five days later in Silverton, sitting on a chair, drinking coffee, and texting on his phone is dun dun dun.....The Notorious Dr. No! We asked him if he wanted to hitch a ride with us back to the trailhead and can you guess what he said? You're right! He said "N0. I'm not ready." And that was that. We thought we would never see him again. But, the world has a way of being funny and ironic so of course we had to run into him again. 

Here's the infamous Dr. No in Silverton. He wasn't ready to go. Were doing the "No" face. 

The afternoon fog began settling in and transformed the day into a gloomy, Adams family one. 

The fog was low enough that the majestic peaks were still visible and picture friendly 

We finally arrived at our camp and set up our first vestibule to vestibule tent party with Sparkle. Pippy's blowing up her pillow while Sparkle is doing.... something. Smiling? Nice flat hair Pippy. 

We stayed under our vestibules for the remainder of the night as it started raining  soon after we set up camp. 

That's all for now folks! 

Day 40 Celebration Lake to Hotel Draw Road

Wednesday, August 13, 2014 

Mileage: 11 miles 

Another day on the trail...the countdown is near. We decide to have a tea party this morning (as we were only supposedly going about 8 miles...we had time)! Everyone needed to wear their best tea party hat a.k.a. Beanie. With some persuasion, Dr. No delayed his departure to join the party. We were so convincing that he even joined our morning dance party after tea time! By the time we were all packed up and ready to go, it was 11 AM! Yay for vacation time! 

Here's Dr. No and Sparkle exchanging personal info for future hiking 

The start of the trail followed a ridge 

The trail turned inward towards the mountains and we traversed through another shaly side full of Marmots. They weren't too happy with us invading their prized rock terrain 

We left Marmotland and walked across a beautiful meadow complete with a mountainous backdrop  

Which way do we go??? Follow Pippy!

About 3 miles into our leisure day, we stop for a little snack break and spied a perfectly flat rock to take a picture of us 

We continued on and came across some vibrantly glowing purple daisies 

Of course, we found another perfect picture spot and transformed ourselves into acrobats 

The trail descended down over another pass with more great views 

Check this out. It looks like a giant cat sitting on the mountain. Wouldn't surprise us if it was as cats think they rule the world 

Up and over into another valley and we come face to face with low moving fog

We were excited that this would be the last climb of the day...doesn't look too bad right? 

WRONG! Fog came pouring in with sideways rain and a whipping wind that turned our umbrellas into tumble weeds. 

We could barely see our own hands in front of us! 

Zippy's fake "I'm having a great time" smile and Pippy's "this is pretty much what I feel like right now" face 

Awhhhhhh....finally the top is near! Sparkle and our new friend Jolly Junior waited for us at the top 

We made it! Woohoo now for the downhill 

About 1.5 miles downhill was the last water source for 22 miles. No, it's not a typo...we did not add another 2. It really is 22 miles away. So what do we need to do to survive? Carry 14 pounds of water on our backs! Yup! We were at this river spot for about an hour pumping and filtering enough water to last the rest of the day and all of tomorrow. 

"Mom, can you please take this umbrella that I've been holding in this position for the last 10 mins so the stove doesn't burn out!! My arm's about to fall off!" We cooked our dinner in advance as not to use up any more water on food. No choice but to cook it in the rain 

And at last, we hauled our twice as heavy 50 pd packs on to walk the final 2.5 miles down the Mountain to our campspot for the night at the end of this segment. 

Pippy speedily walked ahead  and reached the campsite first. She was surprised to see another tent already propped up at camp. However, it looked a little familiar. She peeked around the corner and sure enough....her prediction was correct...it was Dr. No!!!! We happily bombarded his camp for the night and chit chatted away. Dr. No definitely was overdue for company as he said he had been sitting in his tent for the past four and a half hours reading the back of his chip bag. 

We ate our dinner, set up our tent, and  all tucked ourselves into our rabbit holes for the night as we had a longgggg 20 mile day planned for tomorrow. Tata for now!

Day 34 to 37 Pippy and Co.

Thursday, August 7 to Sunday, August 10, 2014

Mileage: 53.3 miles

Elevation: 10,900 up to 13,250 and down to 8,900 ft 

Pippy apologies in advance for the motherload of pictures and the combination of days, but Zippy snatched the phone away for her adventure. So, Pippy needed to remember all of her adventures in her head until she reunited with the phone and blogging app again. 

As Zippy previously mentioned, Pippy continued on the trail with our two new best friends, Hobbit and Sparkle ( and Duke Harrison the 2nd, her dog). We were reunited with Sparkle and Duke at the hostel in Lake City after about three weeks and 200 miles of not seeing her on the trail. She happily waited for us to finish our day hike the day before so she could join the hiking party. 

Day 34 Spring Creek Pass to small pond in alpine land with three trees 

Mileage: 9 miles 

From left to right: Sparkle, Duke, Hobbit, and Pippy at the start of our four day journey to complete Segments 22-24. 

Duke is ready to go with his backpack! 

We began a steady climb through scattered rocks and tundra grass for about 5 miles until we came to a...

YURT!! Right off the side of the trail on the hill. Open year round. 

It's like a Sauna inside, about 75 degrees. Complete with a propane gas stove, three bunk beds, kitchen supplies, wood burning heat, and some skiing magazines. Great place to hide from the scary grey clouds and whipping wind. 

Once the scary clouds disappeared, we enjoyed our lunches on the newly built deck and mesmerized ourselves with the mountainous views 

We hit the trail again and began climbing again through a flower laden forest 

Up and up into alpine land again at about 12,500 ft 

The views were everywhere!

Our book mentioned a "small pond 400 ft down and 0.5 miles off the trail". We spotted the only grove of trees seen in the last 3 miles. It took us 3 seconds to decide that this would be our campsite for the night. 

The beetles have eaten all of the Spruce trees in this ares, but they were still great shelter from the wind. 

Tents are up! 

See the little speck of water down the hill. That's the far away pond. Rain and clouds were coming that evening so we tiredly decided to filter water the next day.

Day 35 Small pond to highest campsite ever  

Mileage: 16 miles 

A heart leaf floated on Pippy's shoe. A beautiful way to start the morning 

And of course, we begin by climbing up some mountains 

Lake San Cristobal behind us....and then we entered into Marmotville! 

Hey guys!

What's happening over there?

Is there a problem? Hmmm...not sure, can't see over the red backpack 

Up down up down 

Highest point of the Colorado Trail. 13,250 ft. Naturally, we had to jump. 

And then straight down the gnarly jeep road we went

Me and Sparkle had to stop and eat a quick snack half way down the road, so we found Hobbit at the trailhead patiently waiting listening to The Lord of the Rings sound track, of course. 

The trail continued on into another gorgeous valley with all these cool high alpine rock sculptures to look at

Pippy needed to continue Zippy's tradition of capturing the forever flutterihg butterflies and vibrant wild flowers..so here's her shot at it...

Can't get enough of the alpine flowers or the massive, majestic, mountainous views...

Tada!

Filtering water for the night at a fresh snowmelt stream...we had to walk back about a 1/4 mile to camp as everything was on a slant since we were on the side of a mountain 

As Pippy walked back to camp, she spotted this amazing sunset view.

It didn't get long to get dark after we settled into camp. And with every passing minute, the temperature dropped       like 2 degrees to a whopping 30 degrees.   

Day 35 High Campsite to Elk Creek 

Mileage: 17 miles 

6:15 AM....Woke up in a ice-covered tent and frozen water. Nice. 

6:45 AM. Mr. Morning sun decided to finally show up!! Instant defrost. 

9 AM on the trail. Another unbelievable day ...

The trail traversed down and up the side of that bald mountain peak 

The 'Windblown' effect 

Just keep walking, walking, walking....

That is until you need to take a food and leg break to enjoy the amazing ....

Views!!

The flowers just keep getting better and better ...

So happy!!

We emerged out of happy land and came face to face with the not so pretty, boring jeep road. 

We walked up on this for 10 mins until thankfully the trail diverged left and we met up with...

Hobbit! He was like 10 miles ahead of us. We contined on about another mile until we saw these big sideways, white "raindrops" gently hitting us. 

It was snow! The first snowfall of the whole trail. Luckily, it only lasted like 5 mins 

And then, this unicorn horse appeared out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere!

We stopped for lunch at the top of our next climb at a pretty alpine lake 

On we went through a relatively flat meadow 

Duke baseball player slid into the snow. He loved it.

There's Hobbit at his favorite view point. Finally after talking about it for 456 hours, he has arrived. 

Sparkle is still coming 

And there's that heavenly view behind us

Yippee for Pippy! 

And then our final descent. 15 something switchback surrounded by...

More gorgeous flowers!!!

These old miners must've been so happy to see these amazing views everyday when they woke up..

Down through the valley we went, following a stream, and big huge boulders 

And then of course, it started raining on us. Here's Sparkle sporting her Barney poncho....so attractive

After four days, we are back in trees! Almost forgot what they looked like.

Rain, guy in a hammock, grumpy lady  who said "I'm sensitive to noise" upon a peppy Pippy "Hello", jolly Chinese man eating his Mountain House dinner with his chopsticks, and a couple " I'm *f***ing  done!!!", we stumbled into the next campsite and were so glad to be there. 

See the look on Pippy's face. Yup, she's done.

Day 37 Elk Creek to Silverton

Mileage: 12 miles 

Nice and warm last night at our 10,000 ft campground. We hit the trail at our earlier hour yet: 8:30 AM. Yes, still on Hawaiian time. 

Goegeous morning walk 

Came across "Goat Man" with his four pet goats. Each goat is carrying about 25 pounds of "equipment"...not sure what. Goat man said he was going to hike around to look for more mountain goats. Hmmm....

Colorado at its finest

Aspen

After about 6 miles, we reached the train tracks of the Durango-Silverton railway. Sparkle and Pippy arrived thinking they would find Hobbit...but no Hobbit. 

Hobbit nowhere to be seen. 

Pippy and Sparkle thought hard and fast, and realized he must've taken the first trail to the train tracks about a half mile back. So, Pippy left her bag and ran/walked about a half mile until lo an behold, she spotted Hobbit's orange shirt. The train was just chugging by and closely behind it was a small little train car. Pippy playfully threw our her hitching thumb, and to her and Hobbit's surprise, the little train car stopped. "Charlie" the little train car driver from Durango happily took us aboard and gave us a fun ride the half mile back to meet up with Sparkle and Duke.

Yay! Thanks for the ride Charlie! Good luck in school!

And then, we walked 6 miles worth of train tracks to the town of Silverton to meet Zippy. 

 But they weren't just any train tracks....they were the prettiest train tracks in the world!

We see Silverton!

Pippy was so over walking. Where's Zippy???

Oh there she is! Eating a key lime pie. She's a local now as she's been in Silverton now for 56 hours and has walked around it 12 times. 

We dropped off Sparkle at her camp spot for the night with Duke as we had to go return the car in Durango. We'll meet up with her tomorrow. 

Bye car! You've been good to us!