CDT Day 31 (6/18/23)
Miles 685.2 (Red line 802.2)- 712.4 (Green line 48.9) (27.2 miles)
Verbatim
I’m feeling a bit tired of writing right now, but I’ll stick at it to make the discipline.
I was up at 5:30 and moving by 6:00. I’m constantly walking past the red line. I’m learning to get better at reading the signs of the top map and correlating it to what my eyes are seeing on the horizon.
I saw some sick Bear prints today in the snow. They seemed really fresh.
I took off down the Rito Azul, which was an unmarked trail off the divide. I was bushwhacking my way down the left side of a river. There were some really sketch blow downs and some really sketch snow. The river, which I had to ford only once, was freezing and swift. I followed tracks in the snow until they led me to an Elk path. Then I followed the Elk path. Elk will walk over everything. Which was insane. They will walk nearly vertical slopes and will make tracks on either side of huge blowdowns.
I walked into Platoro, which is a small mountain town with like two restaurants. Two new owners, Nick and KJ, are running this place. They’re super nice. I bought a burger and called my dad. It’s father’s day. I think that’s all I have to write this moment. I’ll be hiking soon.
The milage listed today is an accurate rough estimate. I’m impressed with myself, I did 13.1 miles between 4pm and 8pm. It was a road walk, but uphill! It’s fast. The 4.6 was snow travel this morning. And about 4 of the 9.5 was bushwhack or slope traverse above river or snow while crossing downhill.
At the Gold Pan I met Piper. She was a beautiful early 50’s lady who chatted with me for a good while. We talked about her sons and chaplaincy and trail. She aptly described my experience of CPE and the surrounding experiences as a situation in which I must have been just “surviving”. I told her that was exactly it. Survive is my word to describe that time of life. I told her about how I was left and she said something to the extend of, “well, I guess she didn’t have what it takes to stick it out and everyone deserves that from their partner”. She went on to describe her own experience with her husband in grad school and she working and how hard that was. She made an incredible impact on my day. I am so thankful for Piper and her patient partner who didn’t drag her away from the conversation.
The Gold Pan would make a great hiker haven, hostel sort of place. I think the owners have an eye for it. I hope it happens.
Post Note
Piper! You were an incredible part of my CDT hike. Our conversation was the first in which I truly felt seen. You may not have seen, described, or known what’d gone on in my life but somehow you saw me. I think I remember asking you towards the end of the conversation something like, “how’d you know what to say?”. Your response was something like, “I’m a mom”. In you was a vision of what the future could bring. Elegance, wisdom, and care. I could be like you. Maybe one day I could be ready to meet someone like you. When I talked to you it all seemed so simple. It felt like closure. It felt ok. I was redeemed. It’s not a coincidence that I crushed a 3.25 mph pace uphill for the remainder of the day. When the soul is well the body can move! Thank you so so much. I’m looking forwards to staying in Platoro with you and James while on the Tour Divide one day.
Sometimes walking a trail is more like climbing a jungle gym. A strong wind might blow through an area of trail over winter, toppling living and dead trees. Maybe an avalanche left a hundred yards of trail in a labyrinthine formation. However it happens, you get to figure out how to get past it. If the mess is old it might have been carved up by trail crews years ago, leaving a clean and clear path. If it happened last winter or spring there may not have been time for the trail crews to cut their way through the brush. In that case your path is largely dictated by your own balance and ingenuity and the thoroughness of branch-breaking of those thruhikers who’ve trail blazed before you. You can climb up and down each set of obstacles or zig-zag back and forth as you totter back and forth while walking the length of fallen trees. Whole mornings or afternoons can be sucked into the process of navigating just a few miles of intertwined messes of trees whose jagged broken and spiked branches could snag a shoe lace and send you careening into more broken and spiked branches. This is trip ending stuff. We all hate blow downs. How Elk are able to navigate layers upon layers of fallen trees, all while the trees lay on a mountain side, is beyond my imagination. Animals are magical. It’s teleportation for sure.