Thursday, October 10th

OIThursday, October 10th. Day 114

Today's miles = 14.9 Total CDT miles = 1,719.1

I woke up this morning with a much better determination than yesterday. The snow that fell last night wasn't to blame for my better mood, in fact it put a small damper on it. I tried not to let it bother me as I packed up my things in the cold and brushed off the few inches of snow from my gear. I started this mornings hike full of energy (probably fake energy as I didn't really eat dinner last night) and didn't mind for the first few miles that I was hiking in the snow uphill, while continuing to be snowed on. It wasn't long until things got ugly. Within an hour a foot of snow had fallen. By the second hour there was two feet of snow on the ground. The wind was screaming up on the pass and the entire sky was white. I could not see in front of my face and kept being blown over by the wind. The pass I had to cross today was at 12,800ft and I just kept telling myself to get to the top and head down. And then I remembered that this particular pass was not like the rest in that once I got to the top I still had to hike 4 miles on an exposed ridge before I could start the descent. I made it just a few feet from the top of the pass before I decided to turn back. The weather had gotten horrible. I felt like I was in a real mountain snow storm and I knew that it was more dangerous than it was worth to risk the 4 miles on the ridge in the weather. It continued to snow and it was not letting up at all. I have not seen so much snow fall from the sky since a traditional winter in buffalo. Every step was a challenge trying to navagate in the feet of snow. The drifts of snow were considerably deeper in some spots and it took every ounce of energy I had to make it the 10 or so miles down to a trailhead. Yesterday when I was at this same trailhead there was nothing here. It was a dirt road with a few boulders here and there but this time there was an extreamly pleasant surprize. On my way down I could smell a wood burning stove. My first thought was that I was going slightly crazy but the closer I got the more hope I had that there was actually a fire going down there.

There were two huge canvas tents with wood burning stoves. The three hunters who were staying in one of the tents offered us to come in and get warm. They then gave us drinks, food, and conversation. I stayed in the tent by the stove all night until it was time to go to bed and set up my tent on top of snow. It was an absoutely freezing night but I didn't seem to care because I had warm food in my stomach. I slept great.