CDT Day 39 (6/26/23)

Miles 877.1 (Red line 1070.7)- 906.5 (Purple line 12.5) (29.4 miles)

Verbatim

So much seemed to happen today. But first, there are so many mosquitoes in my shelter. I may not even be able to write tonight. There are at least 50 mosquitoes. I miss my bug netting. It’s actually hot under the tarp tonight, and it would be nice to be out of my sleeping bag. But I can’t because the mosquitoes would eat me alive. Ok, I’m done writing. The bugs are horrible. They’re coming after my hand, the one part of my body outside my bag and head net.

It’s the next morning, and it’s a cool and cloudy morning. It’s likely going to storm today. So, despite the fact that mosquitoes still incessantly surround me, I will write.

Last night was so warm in my trash bag of a 20 degree Enlightened Equipment Enigma bag. This is not a warm bag, so the notion that I was “hot” inside it implies the summer heat is really on. I’m at lower elevation here on the Colliegete West low route, but still up at 10,500 feet. That’s plenty high! In brief conversation with a local yesterday they did say it was a high of 90 degrees down in the valleys (like 7,500 feet). I couldn’t protect myself from mosquitoes with my sleeping bag because I was too hot. So I ended up taking my tarp down and using it like a light blanket. This worked reasonably well, and had the added bonus of removing the wind break under which the mosquitoes were protected from the developing evening breeze. I slept the night this way, waking up intermittently to the pleasant lullaby hum of new mosquitoes dancing about my head and shoulders. They never went away, and were the first to great me this morning as I awoke more permanently. I can remember slapping my face and eyes several times throughout the night. I noticed several carcasses on my groundsheet this morning.

Yesterday’s walking was exhausting. There was quite the elevation gain over the 30 miles I walked. Three passes up at 12,000. Snow for the first 20 miles. That’s a cumulative mileage. There was not 20 miles of snow. but snow was present for 20 miles in various forms. One might be cutting switchbacks up or down on vertical slopes through snow, or dancing through sopping grasses around snow fields underneath which the trail disappears.

I walked with Pepé Le Pew, who is a monster of a hiker. We had fun chatting and maneuvering until lunch, when we caught up with three peers my age at a pass. My peers are so annoying! They were using substance and suffering for it, hopelessly entwined by trail romance, and ineffectual in their mileage. At least that’s my grasp of what’s going on. I took off after Pepé shortly after he left from lunch and never caught him. But I followed his footprints for the next 15 miles.

Post Note

Damn trail party culture. I’m so resentful, haha. Unfairly so. You can do whatever you want on trail. It’s your vacation after all! But, that’s party experience has never been my experience and I resent other people for it. Do I? Maybe I don’t… I definitely like it better my way. Go walking for the walking. My hikes have always been pressured by the schedule of my graduate schooling. This particular CDT hike was the first thruhike which didn’t have an August end date. But by this point my hiking style had been set… No time to party! We got walkin to do!

It’s so much more expensive to party your way down trail. Think of all the $13 Colorado micro brews you just drank on top of your $23 Colorado ski resort pizza. Think of how expensive it is to get your dealer to ship to you in random state post offices in random states. Or how expensive it is to buy your preference at some boutique mountain town dispensary. It’s not worth it!!!

I think the part of trail party culture that really upsets me is the misperception people hold. Off trail people, family and friends, often think these hikes are so heroic. “Look! There goes my young adult son, finding himself in the great outdoors like Teddy Rosevelt”. No mom, in actuality your son is still being the frat bro he was the last for years at college but just now out on trail. He’s skipping miles to keep up with his friends who hike more dedicated than he. The instagram wouldn’t mention that, though. Nor the stories he’ll take home.

You can tell I’m not impressed. I really resent guys I think suck (hahaha, I’m so immature). I’ll acknowledge my perspective is finite. It’s jaded and bitter. But it’s been formed through experience. I can’t describe the frustration one feels when you’ve worked your glutes off the last four days over a hard section while making a 28 mile average because you need to get back to school in three weeks and you came out here to hike this whole damn trail only to see little Jimmy Dean in the pizza joint again drinking a lager. Dude. Didn’t I just catch up to you in the last town? And weren’t you staying in town another night back there? I heroed (in and out of town on the same day) out of that place while you were getting high. I saw you smoking outside the gear store. Then I crushed 30s. That’s faster than what I was doing before I caught up to you. And I’m listening to you tell your friend how hard the last section was? You say you hiked this trail? Oh. Now I get it. You’re not out here to do road walks (skipping miles by hitching is called “yellow blazing”). In that case I thinking that you’re not out here to hike the CDT. You can’t skip it just because you don’t like it. You have to move through and work with the sucky parts of your lover too.

Ok. Chill Andrew. Remember, hike your own hike. You know your journey and its integrity. You are the constant which other’s are orbiting around (what a pretentious thing to believe). Plus, it’s nice to see old friends. Little Jimmy Dean is a funny guy after all. Everyone walks their own walk. Grow up and worry about walking yours.

Here’s a thruhiking joke I heard on that 12,000 pass on day 39. It came right after Natty had referenced that the stomach ache and nausea he was feeling, “wasn’t the shrooms. It’s the elevation”. He was probably right about that. Seemed like a pro. Anyways. The boxed (plastic bagged) wine was being passed around another time amongst the group. It had been Tink’s birthday the night before after all. Here’s the joke: Dallas referenced how the wine bag, once empty could be re-inflated to be a pillow! Double use gear! hahahahahaha That’s actually really funny. A good way to get a trail name. Multi-functionality is always an opportunity to cut pack weight.