Night #15--Camping in Segment 17 at Baldy Lake (hiked 18.8 miles!)
A foggy and ominous beginning to our day....feeling like a character in a Kirosawa movie emerging from the mist and icy rain
But the wind worked its magic to bring us a nice sunny day after all, rainbow included!
Sargents Mesa
Thanks for the water, Baldy! Our guidebook told us that this was the last reliable water for 12 miles, so we had to drink up!
Night #16--Camping in Segment 17 along a jeep road next to Lujan Creek (hiked 12 miles)
Sunrise at Baldy--coldest morning yet, feeling less confident about our gear than we have the whole trip.
Today we carried lots of water in case nothing was flowing, but so far we've had no trouble.
If only Monk had still been with us...every dog's dream
So happy to have a warm-breeze-bird-singing-campfire campsite tonight, because the hike was pretty rough (it's always the day
after the big day that gets us)
Night #17--Camping next to Cochetopa Creek, almost into La Garita Wilderness (hiked 22.8 miles!)
Woke up after a perfect night of sleep and packed up camp in the dark. We had a very long, but flat, hike today and the conditions were just about perfect (cloudy but not too wet).
Felt like the real wild West out here today. Like we were outlaws hiding behind sagebrush and climbing over buttes.
Hard to tell from the pictures, but this was one of my favorite sections of the whole trip. Yellow flowers and grasses and sagebrush, flat and wide open with wooden fences to the right and aspens to the left, and BLUEBIRDS flying right in front of us, over and over they did, and their blue glowed such a beautiful shade.
Then we came upon an old horse trailer stocked with sodas and gatorade just for hikers! I had a rootbeer, Peter had a Coke.
When we made it to our projected campsite (16 miles in) we both still felt great (maybe it was the extra sugar) and so we kept going. We were both pretty surprised.
Been working on a song today: Climbing a mountain again
Climbing a mountain my friend
If you go up, you must come down (x3)
Someday you might just walk into a town.
Amazing how you run out of songs to sing in your head, and have to make your own up. This one began to haunt me by the end of the trip (couldn't get it unstuck)
The person who took this picture was named James and he was riding his bike along the whole trail by himself. He came toward us while we were taking a break. We could see him from really far off and we puzzled as he approached: A horse? A really fast hiker? A wizard? Nope, just a lost biker (didn't know how far he'd gone). He camped near us and in the morning we were able to give him a nice hot cup of coffee (he was traveling so light that he didn't even have a stove, just tuna and protein bars) and it felt good to help someone, even in this small way, after all the people who've helped us this far.
Night #18--Camping in Segment 20, 14 miles up the same creek as yesterday (Cochetopa)
Woke up this morning with ice on the tent and condensation on our bags (we tried zipped-together for the first time this trip), but at least we were cozy! Cloudy morning, but the sun soon came out to dry out our things.
Cochetopa Creek reminds me of those old paintings done by pioneers and then sent back to the bewildered east coasters.
La Garita Wilderness!
My camera finally captured the true color of these flowers...pretty amazing
Met some more interesting people today...one hiker who was planning back-to-back 30-mile-days. Another who did the trail 15 years ago and shared his opinion that the trail really doesn't even begin until Highway 50 (right after Salida). He said the best is yet to come!
Maybe our best campsite yet...just below treeline at 11,755 feet with beautiful views from our tent and a nice little hideout among the willows.
Night #19--Camping in Segment 21 before Snow Mesa (hiked 9 miles)
Made our breakfast under the stars and saw the first light as we were packing up.
Today I wished that I could bring everyone I know and love (you) with me to the San Luis Valley.
I got a little camera happy today, but it was just too beautiful!
San Luis Peak
The epic shadow of San Luis Peak
The marmots remind us how much we miss the Monkus
Our advertisement for Santa Fe Trail Mix...
Here's the view form our campsite. Something that's been bugging me the past few campsites : trash! I just can't believe that people would love the wilderness enough to come out here (for a month or more in some cases) but be careless enough to leave their stuff everywhere. Yesterday we saw a ziploc bag with three books that someone had left on the side of the trail, and today we saw a toy guitar and a whole bunch of toilet paper. Makes me sad.
Night #20 & #21--Raven's Rest Hostel, Lake City (hiked 14 miles)
My actual journal entry for today: "Today is probably one of the best days of my life." And that's as far as I got. I'll try to fill you in a bit more...
Woke up at 4:30 this morning and were hiking in the dark. The next three shots capture the sunrise pretty well.
On our way to Snow Mesa, probably one of the most beautiful hikes we've ever been on.
Snow Mesa, if you remember from an earlier entry, had been on our minds often because of the high lightning danger (wide open and close to the sky). We lucked out: beautiful, non-threatening clouds (although they did move in pretty fast).
Here you can imagine that lightning wouldn't have to travel very far from cloud to you...
The San Juans in all their glory
And we made it to the highway where we got a ride into town for two rest days!
I love this sign because it really shows what a trusting and welcoming community there was at the Raven's Rest. Nice showers, then we hit the town. We really lived it up--laundry, icecream, switch the laundry, coffee, fold the laundry, beer and pool, hang out at hostel, pizza and beer, more hostel time, and another beer. Kind of extravangent, but we could use the calories.
Look at that clean hair!
A public garden with very happy plants :)
And already time to hit the trail again. Feeling rested, and no butterflies like I had leaving Salida. Actually feeling a little pre-nostalgic, I think, since we only have about 10 more days. I want to remember not to take it for granted and be simple and positive for the rest of our journey.
So lucky!
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