Day 34 - out of Creede and on the CDT (29.7 miles)

June 12, 2021

Miles: 29.7 miles

Steps: 62,977

Last night I ended up cowboy camping in the dugout of the baseball field. That’s really the only spot they allow hikers. I thought about setting up my tent inside it but I was lazy. I ended up sleep right on the gravel as I didn’t want to take a chance of getting another hole in my air mattress. Some of the hikers slept on the bench but there wasn't much room and didn't want to take a chance of rolling off.

It was a lazy morning for me. I figured since I didn’t have to pack my tent I would be out quick but ended up taking my time. Finally left the baseball field around 7:30am and went to the grill where I ate last night to use their WiFi, trying to arrange a pick up on trail in a few days. Then went to the gas station for a breakfast of donuts and chocolate milk.

I got to hiking with the first half of a mile taking me down main street which turned into a gravel road and the start of a long uphill back to the CDT. This is also where I started to see the old mining structures that were still up from the old mining days. It was a cool hike however it was very steep for about a mile. Then it slowly got more gradual until the last mile where I came off the road and onto a trail. It got very steep until I joined the CDT again. I somehow miss a turn and ended up three quarters of a mile east of where I should have been. I made it back and farther along so I’ll take that as a win. I did end up doing about 3,500 feet of climbing just to get back to the CDT. Then it was another 2,000 feet on the CDT.

Then had a short downhill where I filled up on water. While I was filter water another hiker showed up. I was not expecting to see another one today as all the other hikers that were in Creede were staying most of the day. He tells me he went through all the San Juans and stayed on the CDT the whole time, not many are doing that this year. He said it was pretty rough but worth it. The long trek around added about 4 days to his hike. I had hiked part of that section last year and it was scared in spots when there was no snow.

So we hiked the next section together where I was back to hiking on snow, but not as much. We started off together hiking around this giant bowl all the way up to a saddle.

Once on the saddle it was all downhill the rest of the day, just followed a creek down to a meadow then hiking in the meadow right next to the creek.

I ended up seeing another moose. I was much closer and I think surprised it as it was drinking water. I tried my best not to do anything to make it mad.

Ended up camping on top of this little hill over looking the meadow.

I was surprised I was able to hike almost 30 miles today as I was expecting more snow and that I got such a late start. Let’s hope this trend continues. Trying to hike 20 miles to highway 114 tomorrow by 4pm where I may have a pizza waiting for me.