CDT Day 45 (7/2/25)

Miles 1035.2 (Red line 1231.1)- 1059.2 (Red line 1255.1) (24 miles)

Verbatim

Today was a day! I’d hoped to go 40 miles and to see Nathan and Sophie at Herman Gultch trail. That didn’t happen. Some other crazy things happened instead! Foremost, today had something like 7.5k elevation gain and 5.5k elevation loss, all over 24 miles. That’s intense. Most of the day was spent up high well above tree line. The views were spectacular. I was quite amazed. It’s definitely been the grandest day on trail. There was so very much elevation change, and steep changes, as we walked amongst these “hill tops” up at 12.5k and 13k elevation.

I say we because I met three new people today, and spent time hiking with Twister and the one and only Pepé Le Pew! It was really really good to see Pepé again. His character, easy smile, joy, and story telling is really starting to open up. I like Pepé a lot!

I was out first in front of a large group of hikers (7 or 8 of us!) and came across a whole heard of mountain goats! There must have been thirty of them. There were little ewes too! The little ones were hornless and had such powder white looking coats. They were adorable. They don’t yet have the shaggy look of an adult mountain goat. I waited for Pepé to catch up so I could share the animals with him. I didn’t want to move closer and scare them away. It was nice to share a special thing with someone.

I took two wrong turns today! I walked an extra two miles, easy. The first wrong turn was at the top of Georgia Pass, the place where the CT and CDT diverge. yay! No more CT hikers asking about snow, or mountain bikers blasting down descents. Walking against the CT felt like one long weekend. There were always people doing a different sort of trail going the opposite way on the CDT. It was kind of annoying!

Because the CT is such a more readily traveled trail, when the CDT diverged I didn’t realize it. I just ambled on the CT as it crested around a round hill and started its descent towards the desert. I knew I was supposed to be climbing, so when I looked out and saw two hikers and a biker ascending towards me I knew something was up. I checked the map and sure enough, I was wrong. Instead of back tracking I ended up just rounding the hill and looping back towards the CDT ascent. I caught Pepé shortly thereafter, so I’m ok with the extra miles because it put me behind him.

The second extra mile came when I missed a vague turnoff off a dirt road that Pepé and I were following. Traversing the high tundra plains is very open ended. You can walk anywhere. So there isn’t always a plain trail to follow. I hadn’t consulted my maps because I was enjoying the view. There was no sign or obvious path. Oops! I ended up at the top of “radical hill”, an ATV road that’s quite steep and treacherous. Of course I turned back to find the trail. Those extra miles really put a damper on the prospect of going 40.

I’m so happy tomorrow is a Monday. There were so many ATVers today. You can literally drive to 13,000 feet out here. I much prefer walking these heights than driving them. Tomorrow is Gray’s Peak, which is the highest point on the CDT. I hope to not see so many day hikers. I’m only four miles off the summit (and 2k feet still to gain) so I hope to be there early before the day hikers. I’m excited for the mountain.

I had taken off on my own, being a bit swifter on my feet than most others I’ve hiked with, and hadn’t yet taken lunch. That’s when I saw them, four mountain goats down on the upcoming saddle. They were munching and romping. I decided I would get as close as I could and sit to take lunch. I spent 45 minutes watching those goats as I sat. I weathered multiple hail/rain flurries which passed through. I shivered. I watched. It was awesome.

The goats were funny, and very inquisitive. Two of them came close to check me out. One close enough that I poked at it with my trekking pole to say that it was close enough. Most of the time they spent eating and frolicking. It was funny. One would find some good grass and get really into munching. When another saw such success it would come charging over and would force the first off the good forage. Then the aggressor would enjoy the munch. Sometimes a third would participate by mimicking the same process. They would chase each other around but all seemed pretty amicable in the shared company. I saw a goat take a poop. It stunned me to think of just how much like a dog’s these goat’s bodies seem. Eventually Pepé and Twister came along and the goats moved on, confronted by the presence of three people.

I’m so surprised at how many mines there are up at high elevations in these mountains. There are mines at 12.5k elevation! The shafts are filled in or blown out. The old buildings and tracks are falling apart or are decrepit. I can’t imagine people coming this high to search for what? Silver? Gold/ It’s a good aesthetic though. Mines in the high mountains!

Post Note

This was a long entry so I’ll keep my post note short. A couple important things to expound upon…

First, when there’s a lot of elevation gain/loss in one day I want you to know that every hiker I’ve ever met prefers going up to going down. Going up feels good, keeps you warm, and is muscle work (muscles recover quickly). Going down feels terrible, can be cold, and knocks the crap out of your knees, ankles, and various ligaments. Going down will leave you feeling sore and miserable for days and the accumulation of these discomforts is much more likely to knock you into town for a couple days off than the musculature effort of climbing. Plus! Going up means your going up high. And being up high is the best.

Second, you really can tell when it’s a weekend on trail. Truhikers don’t really worry about the days of the week. There’s only one important day of the week to remember and think about. That particular day is whichever day the next town’s stores/post office is or isn’t closed. It is the worst to get to town needing your resupply or gear package you sent through the mail for general delivery at the post office only to find the post office is closed until Monday. So, in general, who cares about the day of the week. It tends to come as a surprise then when the calendrical world’s weekend inevitably does come around and the trail fills up with perfumed and yummy-treat laden day hikers. You chances of scoring a ride into town or scoring some informal trail magic from a day hiker increases exponentially on a weekend. It’s kind of annoying though, to pass oodles of day hikers on trail during a weekend. They do stupid stuff like bring portable speakers, find the most obnoxious ways to get in the way, and generally seem sort of out of the element. It’s hard to relate to a day hiker, unless they’re giving me a soda or something.