Day 45 - sunrise on Grays Peak (34.9 miles)

June 23, 2021

Miles: 34.9 miles

Steps: 84,915

Got up at 2:45am so Swift and I could make it to the top of Grays Peak, highest point on the CDT, for sunrise. The hike up was a lot harder than we thought so didn’t get to the very top for sunrise but still got to see one of the best sunrises. We both had trouble breathing as the smoke from the Vail fire had made its ways overnight.

It started off easy but got very tough very quickly. I was hiking on very narrow trail at times, straight down on both sides. It’s a good thing we decided not to try for the summit yesterday as we may had run out of daylight on the way down.

We didn’t hang around long at the top as we were trying for 35 miles on the day in would involve 10,000+ feet of climbing.

The trail down was way easier as that’s the main way people hike up.

It was a nice gravel road walk for several miles until we got close to I-70 then we hit a paved biking trail that parallel the road, which lasted about 4 miles.

Then hit a trailhead where we had another big climb that took us to the ridge where we hiked for a long time. Then it took us down the mountain only to go back up for more ridge walking.

We ended the day heading down to a road crossing and a parking lot that had a big warming hut with bathrooms. There were signs that said no camping but we were both pretty tired from that long day and didn’t want to move after eating dinner. Hope no one comes by and kicks us out.