CDT Day 48 (7/5/23)

Miles 1112.5 (Red line 1308.6)- 1142.1 (Red line 1338.2) (29.6)

Verbatim

Another 1% day! And an exciting one overall, although much of the day was spent in cruisey forest. I’m stealth camping within the borders of RMNP right now… Pepé wanted to camp at 30 miles, so here we are. I can’t complain. This is good camping, and I’m always up for a 30. Is it a 30? Pepé camped a half mile before me last night. Does the half mile I walked further than Pepé yesterday apply to my today?

It’s distantly thundering right now and lightly raining. There are birds chittering in the background. I can also now hear some hikers yelling to each other. Lol. Being in a national park is busy I guess. We’re camped at the headwaters of the Colorado River, or so Guthook’s description of a water source says. It’s marshy and there’s a lake. I saw many Canadian Geese and even some large white heron? Stork? They’re the size of a swan but not swan. They have orange feet and bills. I will call them white heron! Four(?) of them were sitting perched on along jutting into the water from shore. All had their bills nice and tucked against their chest.

Yesterday I could see a fire billowing up from down off the ridge. Turns out the fire was right on the trail. It burned about five acres. Pepé and I walked through it today! And it was still smoldering! Some trees were actively still burning and there was much smoke still emanating from thick ash beds. As I walked the ridge and approached the fire there was a helicopter flying overhead. I was worried it was an emergency copter for Pepé. Maybe he had been hurt ahead? It didn’t dawn on me that it was associated with the fire. It circled multiple times. Then there were planes circling about! Oh, and I had to take a desperate poop on the ridge line. I wanted to save it for the woods (little did I know they were burnt at this point). I was about to descend but I couldn’t hold it. I was worried the copter was going to make another pass while I was pooping. But it didn’t. Phew! haha

As I descended into the burn there were four planes circling. I was afraid they were trying to drop retardant (they were) but couldn't because I was in the way. Then I was worried that they were going to drop retardant on me anyways. I heard some chainsaws down below and felt better about it. Eventually I came across a squad leader who greeted me kindly and told me to wait for ten minutes or so. He said they were about to do a retardant drop. They did! And I got to watch it. It was cool. Aaron, the squad lead, then let me go. I headed down the slope and saw maybe forty firefighters. I thought of Young Men and Fire. A good book.

After that the trail was cruisey. I eventually caught Pepé right off his siesta. He’s eating bigger and better lunches now and napping a bit. Smart man! We crushed miles together in the afternoon and descended about 7,500 feet over the day. At Monarch Lake there were lots of people and swarms of bugs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many bugs. Like CLOUDS.

Now I’m camped and am ready for bed. I noticed and called out a tick on Pepé’s leg. Ticks are out at lower elevation! Also, goodbye to big CO mountains. Also, hello to the first National Park. Also, it’s been fun racing and dodging thunderstorms this evening.

I hope there’s good ice cream in town tomorrow.

Post Note

You might be thinking, while reading this entry, that what I did was really dangerous. What with walking through a day old burn zone and all. Heck. I guess it was. But there was no where else to go, and there wasn’t billowing smoke like I’d seen the evening before. If things looked bad or active I would have done my best to bail out off the other side of the ridge. It had rained the night before. What can I say? Get out of my way burn zone! I’m walkin’ here.

Here’s a little bit of information about Pepé. First. He’s French, and found it really funny to embody the independence of his French ways by cutting switchbacks in the deep backcountry when he wanted to. I’d be in front of him, dutifully following the back and forth meandering of the trail as it loped downhill. I’d turn a corner and there would be Pepé, in front of me when he should have been behind, breaking out of the trees while pulling a stray leaf or branch off his beard or shoulders. He’d grin, look at me, and say something like, “You should hike the French way”. It was endearing exactly the same amount that it was infuriating.

You’re not supposed to do that! Just like you’re not supposed to pee or rinse dishes anywhere near water. We’ll have to talk about Leave No Trace principles somewhere sometime soon… But, for now know that I really do think you should follow Leave No Trace principles like not cutting switchbacks or peeing in streams. The principles are really important because they help keep a LOT of people in line and thereby minimizes damage. I didn’t love Pepé’s trail blazing ways, though was thankful he had the common sense to only ramble off trail in areas that weren’t frequented by day hikers and in ways which really did get far off trail. When you’re being independent in the backcountry it’s good to go really find a way to be independent. You don’t want people following your trail. That leaves a trail.

Another thing about Pepé is that he hate hardly anything for lunch when I first met him. I’d get all excited about my chocolate breakfast essentials and this dude would eat a cracker or two. Now I’ve met some crazy hikers with unusual dietary styles, like Rhapsody on the PCT who practiced intermittent fasting each day. I once watched Rhapsody consume four packages of pop-tarts, two cliff bars, some chocolate, and a quarter of a jar of peanut butter at 5pm shirtless and sopping wet after showering in a natural snowmelt waterfall in the Goat Rocks Wilderness. There was another kid, I forget his name, who was rumored to be slowly working his body towards the sole consumption of oil and butter on trail because the calorie to ounce ratio, and lack of air bulk in these foods, was most favorable to his desire to go reaaaaallly long stretches without resupply. For the record, if you try to eat only fat products you will have the shits and will not be well. There are no nutrients nor protein nor sugars in straight lipids. At least that’s how I understand it. Don’t try this at home kids.

People are crazy. Pepé is crazy. I’m happy to say that I did convince Pepé to start eating lunches. I think I was one of the first, and maybe only, people Pepé spent considerable time on trail with. When he saw me eating a yummy lunch it must have destroyed him. Thruhikers are so hungry all the time. Good job Pepé, despite what Rhapsody or that rando hiker might recommend I can attest to the fact that your eating lunches seemed to improve your CDT experience. We had some good lunches in there. :)