Day 50 - leaving the peaks of Colorado (30.8 miles)

June 28, 2021

Miles: 30.8 miles

Steps: 61,795

I think this was the hardest morning to wake up. I set my alarm for 5:15am so I could get an early start. That didn’t happen as I hit snooze until 6am then I just let my body rest. I finally got out of my sleeping bag at 6:45am.

Everything was wet, some from the day before, it also rained just as I was going to sleep. Plus the dew was really bad. I think I was still in a bad mood from the end of yesterday and it sure followed me on my morning hike.

Got on trail by 7:30am and figured I had a pretty easy day, no problem getting in big miles. However I was not counting on more burn sections or the amount of down trees that I had to maneuver around. I just wasn’t feeling it, mainly because of the down trees, just took it out of me. There was some uphill but that was the least of my troubles. Also it didn’t help that it was cloudy and hadn’t seen the sun for awhile.

Finally got up above tree line and got some views as the sun was trying to break free but that was short lived. I noticed those low hanging clouds had popped back up but didn’t stay around long.

The hike on the ridge really lifted my spirits and got renewed energy and was happy,

Got to my late morning break and had hiked less than 11 miles in 4 hours. I filled up on water and ate a little. I had a short downhill before about a 1,000 foot climb which appears to be my last long one in Colorado if I did my math right. Surprisingly it wasn’t too bad and at the top I ended up on a road.

The road started out pretty rocky and went up and down for a few miles. Then found some water and ate. There was an annoying chipmunk that wouldn’t leave me alone.

After about an hour break I got moving back on the road. I would be walking on this dirt road the rest of the day.

Pretty quickly it started a big decent. The farther I went down the less rocky it got and started to level out.

Pretty soon the road was just dirt and no rocks, plus it had leveled out which made for some fast hiking. The last 10 miles on the day I was averaging about 3.75 miles an hour.

About 2 miles from my campsite I ran into a herd of cows. Some got out of the way but others kept moving down the road with me. They were clearly afraid of me and didn’t know what I was going to do but just kept walking down the road and stopping then moving again as soon as I would catch back up with them. I thought a few times the bigger cows were going to charge me to protect their babies. In the end I was able to get around then.

I made camp early, 6:45pm, as this was really the last spot to camp as I had a paved road walk the rest of the way towards Steamboat Springs.

I’m camped about a half of a miles from the highway right next to the dirt road on top of a hill.

Plan to wake up really early, I mean it, and hike the 11 miles to the intersecting road to hitch in Steamboat Springs.