I learned over the weekend that Pagosa Springs has a Monday-Friday daytime bus, which was handy to get to the east end of town to hitch back up to Wolf Creek Pass. A cool mountain biker named Pablo from Colorado Springs picked me up after about 30 minutes and we had a nice chat on the way back to the pass. The weather forecast for the South San Juans look looked much better than last week’s daily thunderstorms in the Weminuche, although the morning was foggy and overcast.
I started down the wrong trail from CDT sign trail and immediately was rewarded with wet feet as I connected back to the right trail. Ugh. At least it wasn’t raining and the trail was free of those pesky willows. A trail runner passed me on the way up into ski area, which had a bunch of old ski area machinery laying about.
I Met Lil Lazy Boy from Utah who mentioned his section hike from Ghost Ranch to Wolf Creek had left him exhausted. He warned of blowdowns ahead and no water for miles. He even offered me some of his water. Later I felt bad I didn’t offer him some food, and made a note to be better about this to fellow hikers (like Jeemac had been to me on Bowen Pass a couple years earlier). I stopped at the ski area warming hut for lunch and to top off my phone battery. The blowdowns weren’t so bad and actually kind of fun to climb around, and I was happy to finally see some sunshine that afternoon.
I had made it about 12 miles before stopping to camp, not bad for the first day out of town. The first CDT Sobo thru hikers of the season passed my camp. It was fun to meet Krispy & Mads, and they let me know the past week in the Weminuche was the worst weather they had encountered on the entire trail. In the coming days I would appreciate them leaving me a bit of trail to follow through some difficult to navigate grassy terrain.
I was happy to wake up to a clear morning. I saw a deer then a bear cross the trail in front of me. That afternoon I chatted with a couple who had climbed Montezuma Peak, and then passed by impressive Summit Peak. I was surprised to find cell service and in dealing with some personal stuff back home I forget to check the weather (a bad habit). The route finding was challenging as I hiked down to the Adams Fork / Conejos River to camp. FarOut had warned the trail was tricky through here, so I made sure I found where the trail would cross the creek in the morning before setting up camp.
The next morning was a rough one, and I lost a lot of time with the difficult route finding uphill. I still managed about 14 miles, not bad for a section hiker but well short of the 17-20 I felt I could do by now. I chatted with full loaded backpacker hiker named Tim, who told me the locals called these mountains the Conejos rather than the South San Juans. He promised amazing views to come, I just had to get over that “little hump” that lied ahead. Tim also mentioned he had seen Krispy and Mads, who were now about half a day ahead.
Just as a made it up the saddle, I could see some walls of rain in the distance, and they looked to be headed the same direction as I was. I hurried down the long descent towards Blue Lake, which didn’t offer great camping on the near side. I decided to race the storm to the SOBO side of the lake, where FarOut mentioned there were plenty of good campsites. The rain hit just as I reached the other side, and I was again lucky to get in my tent ahead of worst of the storm.
I was out of camp before sunrise, as this would be my last full day on trail. It was overcast all day and I was thankful for my early start. I was making decent time despite all the blowdowns around Dipping Lakes, and I felt confident I could cover at least 17 miles today. That would leave me relatively short hike to Cumbres Pass tomorrow to start my long and uncertain hitch back to Silverton. I walked past a near perfect established campsite by the lake, and chatted briefly with a NOBO section hiker headed towards Wolf Creek Pass. I felt overdressed in my raingear as she just wore a short sleeve t-shirt.
It seemed my last few climbs were a struggle, so I decided I would embrace this last climb and try to have fun with it. But just as I started uphill I could hear the chatter of hail racing towards me through the woods. Now I was thankful I still had on my raingear. I decided my best option would be just to hike up through the protection of the woods to the next saddle. The combination of wind, heavy rain, blowdowns, and close by thunder all around made this climb anything but fun. I finally reached the saddle and there was no break in the storm. My rain gear was fully wetted out. I sat inside a tree and re-assessed, and decided I just needed to pitch my tent despite covering less that 13 miles so far. I’d had a good cell connection earlier that day to check the weather forecast, which was clearing skies overnight. I was still frustrated that I had 14 miles left to get to Cumbres Pass the next day.
I set my alarm for 1:30 am but didn’t get up until after 3:00. I hadn’t slept well, dreading getting up and packing with much of my gear still wet. The skies had cleared, but I was surprised to find the condensation inside my tent frosted over. There was a mist in the air which made it difficult to see even with my headlight. I couldn’t see the bent tree marking where the trail picked up. I found my way to the trail but was so disoriented in the mist that I couldn’t tell which way to go, and had to check FarOut. I then realized the sliver of moon was still on my left, which at least confirmed I was headed in the right direction.
I was now out of water but didn’t want to backtrack when I realized I had by-passed the next water source. I said a little prayer to my patron saint, St. Bernard, to help me find some water (my prayer for no rain the afternoon before hadn’t turned out as I had hoped). Not long after, I looked down at the wet grassy trail and saw a trickle of water. That was just enough half fill my Bfree filter bottle a couple times, which gave me at least enough to reach the next water source about 6 miles way. It turned out that next water source was at a lake well downhill and off-trail, so I was super thankful for the little water I had. I had been worried about my headlight also, as I didn’t have enough battery left overnight to fully charge it, but it died out just as the first light of dawn appeared.
As a started my descent to Cumbres Pass water was abundent and I crossed the stream several times. I was pushing my pace a bit too much and fell hard in some deep & slippery mud about 3 miles from the pass, yard-saling all across the trail. I had already decided I wouldn’t hike the 3 or so miles to the New Mexico border and back as that was at least two hours of potential hitches from Cumbres Pass I might miss (I found my way back the next year to tag the New Mexico license plate marker at the state line). When I finally reached the highway a mushroom hunter stopped to ask if I’d seen his favorite chanterelles, and offer some tips on identifying edible mushrooms.
I saw a pickup approach and stuck out my thumb for my first try, expecting a long wait for a ride. But the pickup stopped and a super nice fellow named Ricky brought me to Chama, acting as my tour guide along the way to town. He dropped me at the intersection towards Pagosa and recommended nearby Fina’s as a good spot for lunch. Fina’s Mexican Hamburger was a hiker’s dream and they didn’t mind me charging my phone while I had lunch. When I went out to the highway, I didn’t even have time to text my son that I had finished before a super nice live-in van traveler named Jeanie picked me up. She ended up taking me all the way to Silverton, and after an engaging and surprisingly spiritual ride I was thrilled (and a bit surprised) to see my truck where I’d left it. I have hitchhiked to and from trail a lot over the years and have never had anything like that kind of luck. And I realized those rides only lined up so perfectly because I got caught in that thunderstorm the day before.
All told, I hiked 14 miles, hitched 160, then drove almost 300 back to my son Erik’s house in Leadville – what a day! We spent the next day together fishing at Twin Lakes, some welcome Type 1 fun after a Type 2 adventure.
Lone Wolf hiking 