The Muddy Pass gap road walk starts where the CDT joins Highway 40, about 2 miles west of the Highways 14 & 40 intersection on Rabbit Ears Pass, then turns north on 14 for another 10 miles until the trail heads southeast on the dirt road at County Rd 53. I had hiked to the Highway 40 trail junction a couple years earlier, and started my prior year’s southbound CDT section hike at County Rd 53.
I was celebrating an addiction recovery milestone, and someone who knows me well suggested that gap as nice way to mark the date. I’m not sure how important that 12 miles of pavement is for a section hiker, but I wanted the whole CDT experience. It was also pretty convenient for me to make the short drive from Steamboat to trail on a cherry-picked clear, early weekday morning.
I parked my truck at the Old Columbine trailhead and could see the moon still out as I started my hike. At a walking pace I could appreciate the morning sky reflecting off Muddy Pass Lake.
As I finished the first 2 miles I smiled looking at the little parking lot at the 14 & 40 intersection. I’ve driven past this spot a least hundred times over the years, but in the last couple years I often stop here for a moment of prayer and reflection. The CDT has become such a spiritual experience for me that I’ve adopted this humble dirt lot as my personal sanctuary.
The day really was ideal for this walk, and morning fog blanketed the rolling hills ahead. I had planned the early morning to minimize vehicle encounters on this 2-lane highway, where drivers tend to move fast and might not be used to seeing hikers on the narrow shoulders. The vehicles I did see for the most part saw me also and pulled around to provide a little safety buffer. I hustled through sketchiest section, a guard-railed curve around a blind corner, with virtually no shoulder.
This turned out to be a nice, long walk and it was cool to appreciate the scenery I usually missed on a hurried drive towards Walden. I also appreciated my choice of almost new, cushioned road running shoes that a thru-hiker probably wouldn’t have the luxury to change into.
I recognized the final long, curvy hill towards County Rd 53, and was now realizing that hiking with virtually no traffic might also mean a long wait for a hitch back to my truck. I’d made a tentative plan to meet up with my nomadic buddy Chris on Rabbit Ears Pass if he made it over from Denver, so for a change was in really no rush.
I was probably a quarter mile from the finish when a loaded down 4-Runner crested the hill. Chris! We had no formal plan, he wasn’t even sure when I’d be hiking, and he just happened to take the long way from the front range. His vehicle is rigged for overlanding and not passengers, so I gave him my truck keys so he could come back to pick me up. The wait gave me some time to sit and reflect on the day that really couldn’t have gone more perfectly. Chris worked his magic and even topped that by pairing a picturesque campsite on Rabbit Ears with a gourmet backcountry supper.
Lone Wolf hiking 