CDT Day 40 (6/27/23)
Miles 906.5 (Purple line 12.5)- 935.3 (Red line 1129.3) (28.8 miles)
Verbatim
I glissaded down Lake Anne Pass today! I caught Gnome Sherpa and Oatmeal Stout right at the pass. They showed me how to climb down the five foot cornice and let it rip! It was really steep. It was really fun. My butt got cold and wet, but that’s alright. I was definitely feeling an adrenaline rush in the moments before. I made some comment to Oatmeal Stout, “I don’t thruhike for adrenaline rushes. I’m here for those cruisey NorCal vibes”. Then I enjoyed the rush. I climbed down the cornice with my axe, and took a deep breath, and dropped to my butt, raised my hands and let out a holler! It felt like a roller coaster and ski run combined. Because both Gnome Sherpa and Oatmeal Stout had carved a channel on their descent before me mine was really fast. Gnome Sherpa was videoing and had to jump out of the way! Oatmeal Stout exclaimed, “A new record!” when I slid the furthest. We tried a second glissade, but it didn’t beat the first. I like glissades. Best in the afternoon when the snow is soft.
The three of us meandered through the snowy trees, fording streams until we found a dry spot. There we took second lunch. Hanging with those two was really fun. They asked about my shoes and so I shared about my plastic idea. They were supportive and intrigued. They asked to see how much plastic I had, so I pulled out my four bags and showed them! Those two are from Leadville, where I’ll be in two days, and so they’re going to do some slack packing. That sounds nice, but I’m carrying plastic!
Today I pooped three times. I’m eating a lot. The Culo Clean (YEAH) is a life saver. I walk so much more efficiently and comfortably after I’ve pooped.
The morning was full of frosted NorCal vibes. Dry and cruisey. Good shade. Open pine needled forest floors. I glimpsed just the slightest flicker of a Fox before it ducked away into some rocks. There was plenty of water, and the mosquitoes would swarm instantly upon stopping. I cut off three miles of walking at one point by fording a river. It. was. freezing. Painfully so. That numb sharp throbbing pain was accentuated by the bushwhack through the willows after the river ford but while still in the flood plain. My legs were all cut up.
I didn’t see Pepé Le Pew today. I thought he was in front of me. I was looking forward to encountering the cornice together, especially since he doesn’t have an ice ax. I wonder how he did.
Oh, I forgot my trekking pole somewhere along the walk today. I’m camped halfway up Hope Pass and it’s beautiful.
Post Note
Ah yes. The mosquitoes. The bane of my existence for the next month and a half. There’s nothing so intimate as falling asleep with mosquitoes. I remember where I forgot my trekking pole. It was right after I’d pooped, just as I left the morning’s campsite. Mosquitoes on your face and neck is one thing. The feeling of mosquitoes intimately caressing your backside while you struggle to activate and conclude your business ASAP is a uniquely inspiring memory to hold. I used my Culo clean to try and spray them off before they bit me. Yet another advantage of the back country bidet! haha. Did I mention I think you should go for a thruhike? You’ll love it I swear. I followed my pooping process, which I’ve described before, and got the heck out of there. No even enough time to pick up the trekking pole. That pole was bent anyways from the bludgeoning I’d given it and the torque it had received when helping me traverse snow. It was sort of nice to have forgotten it actually. It had some plastic. It was made from carbon fiber. Is that plastic? Anyways. I wasn’t going back for it. I guess I’m not a plastic packing purist.
To Gnome Sherpa and Oatmeal Stout, you two were so good to me. I remember charging up Lake Anne Pass with the wind at my back. The wind was so powerful that I literally flew up the mountain side. I could see you both at the top and raced to catch up. I knew there was a cornice up there and knew I was terrified of it. You waited. You said I got there faster than you’d expected. But that doesn’t matter. You’d still resolved to wait for me up in that screaming wind. You taught me a new skill and gave me reason to celebrate and experience joy. That wasn’t something that was coming easy to me at the time. If there was a single best moment of the CDT, other than arriving at the Lake Waterton terminus perhaps, this was it. This and the animals I guess. Animals are alive. And that’s just crazy.
The rest of the day was really fun. It’s epic to be cruising down a Colorado valley where it’s warm and blooming beneath still snow capped peaks. Colorado was really populated; both by thruhikers, since I’d caught and was passing through the bubble, and by day hikers. There’s a uniquely satisfying feeling of hiking with or past day hikers while thruhiking. You, speaking to the day hikers, are so excited for your big day in the woods while I, a thruhiker, just live out here. This may be your Sunday, but it’s my always. Look at your anxious face while sweating through your freshly laundered synthetic pataguchi as your hustle up the trail. You’d better move quickly so you can get back to the car before sunset! When I sweat into my shirt it cleans the shirt by pressing out the old grim and dirt. At least that’s how I think about it. It probably smells different to you. Oh! You smell too you know. Thruhikers can smell you coming well before you round the switchback. We follow your perfumed/deoterized trace long after you’ve gone by. And we relish every second of it. Think of what the animal noses can do!
It’s this same feeling, except on steroids, that you get when passing as a thruhiker through one of the USA’s National Parks. Look at the masses, out on their grand adventure to take photos at rest stops while driving through a park. Maybe they’ll see an animal! Better to walk a long long time and be seen by animals. Live in the moment in which you could wake from your rest to a Marmot, Deer, Lion, Bear sniffing at your sleeping bag’s foot box.