Days 55-58, ~98 miles, ~946 miles total

Just a quick update from Salida, CO where we are doing less than 18-hour resupply stop. Full posts are coming in about 120 more miles. Photos in another 100 miles (boo broken Wi-Fi card, yay new one on it’s way).

The last 98-some miles has had us climb 8500 feet in a day, sustained winds with gusts that knocked us down, encounter a bull moose at dinner time, have the same moose walk into camp the next morning, trail magic, hail, lightning, dry feet for 48 hours, more wildflowers blooming, marmots whistling, multiple species of conifer (instead of just dying Engelmann spruce and a few healthy blue spruce) and trail crews maintaining the trail. It’s been a terrific segment. Bonus: we hopscotched with Shutterbug, Rattlebee and Banana Pants. Three highly enjoyable and very witty hikers.

Coming into Monarch Pass we crossed over ridges that span the Divide. Headwaters of the Arkansas River to the east, Colorado tributaries to the west. Blue sky with puffy clouds, golden grasses turning green with new growth, marmot meeps, alpine forget me nots and phlox in bloom, lodgepole, limber pine, Rocky Mountain bristle cone and spruces below the meadows. Snowy peaks and snow-free mountains in the distance.

This is hiking the CDT.

Drinking a high quality IPA from Elevation Brewing (brewed ~5 miles away from Salida) with a delicious dinner. This is hiking the CDT in Colorado!

Tomorrow morning we’ll head out for the next ~67 mile segment to Twin Lakes. And from there another 60-some miles to Breckenridge, where we’ll take a zero (and I can update this blog properly).