Tuesday, October 1st

Tuesday,  October 1st. Day 105

Today's miles = 13.8 Total CDT miles = 1, 590.2

The first thing I noticed this morning was that my tent was frozen. The second thing I noticed was that my socks were frozen. And the third thing I noticed before I decided to stay in my sleeping bag and take extra time drinking my coffee was that the water in my water bag was frozen. I fought this morning with my best fight and it still made me get out of my sleeping bag, put frozen socks on, tie frozen shoelaces, pack up frozen gear, and trudge through wet (partially frozen) marshland.

I've accepted that my purple toes from yesterday were not an occasional occurrence but rather that I am going to have to suffer through it everyday for the rest of Colorado.  After my morning of horribly wet marshland the trail turned into snow and ice. My now marshy and frozen feet were forced to hike on snow for a few hours before the trail changed drastically. The snow suddenly disappeared, the sun came out, an elk ran right in front of me across the trail, and it miraculously wasn't cold anymore. I started to take off all the layers of down and fleece I had on and tried to work on my fading tan. There were a few hours today where I forgot that I was at 12,000ft in Colorado in October. And then it happened... a moose ran across the trail and suddenly the trail turned back into snow. Elk taketh away the snow and moose bringth it back... or so it seemed.

Eleven of the almost fourteen miles today we're uphill; perhaps thats what took so long, that and the snow. I'm not upset about the low mileage today. I feel like I've hiked twice that many miles. The trail kicked my ass and it all started with the frozen morning. Tonight I'm camped at a backcountry campground. There isn't anyone else here but there are picnic tables and a privy. What more could I want?... (a bed, a book, hot tea, a cuddly cat, a soft blanket, slippers, an electric plug-in device that creates artificial heat???). Meh, I have a sleeping bag.

The following pictures were all taken today, are in the order they were taken, and show the difference in environment from one mile to the next.