San Juans
Yowza, Whatta day. Epic as much painful.
It started off pretty painfully. I went to hitch outta town around 7:30a after eating breakfast at the hotel and packing up my gear.
I setup on the side of the road, past the split with the road headed to Chama, so there was really only one way those folks driving by could be going.
Well I’ll tell yeah. I was getting nothing. Plenty of cars, a couple waves, but mostly just blank stares. Since this morning I woke up not particularly pumped to hike after such a restful day, I decided to give until 10a and then I’d just call it a mental health day and take another zero.
I’m definitely at the point where the mental switch over takes place. Acceptance of my life on the trail as the new normal. Pushing miles because I apparently like the suffering, but more so, this is a trail, and sooner or later it must be finished. So may as well keep going. The realization that I’m out here fully out of my own selfish free will makes the suffering difficult at times. Really? Am I that crazy?
Anyway, I digress.
Giving myself to 10, I knew my ride would arrive within 5 minutes of my deadline. Which in addition my mental health day, would also allow me an earlier start tomorrow so I don’t waste crunchy snow time on the trail. Post holing.
And of course, at 9:54, a kind fella picks me up pulling a work trailer! (Usually trucks with trailers don’t often pick me up) he’s on his way to work, which is in construction, ironically in Creede. A couple hour drive for him, two days long hiking for me! The mental battles rage on.
The pass where he drops me off is at about 10,800 feet. Which is nice, because that means even though my high point today is 12,500, that’s not allll that much incline. 14 miles to the route to Creede. About 2 miles of snow on the Creede route from last reports, so my plan today was to kick out that 16, camp on dry ground, and be well on my way to Creede in the AM.
Well, the lengthy time it took me to hitch up, used up critical hours of snow stiffness. With over 5-6 feet of snow from about one mile spanning 95% of the trail to Creede, post holing would not be fun. And let me tell you. It’s wasn’t.
At about 2:30, the rock hard snow I had been walking on (albeit slowly, having completely only 7 miles in those 4 hours of hiking) was now dropping me every so often. It’s almost harder at this point because you think you’re comfortably walking on top of the snow then CRASH. You fall through.
There was no trail to follow, and only a single set of weekish old snow shoe prints which sometimes went all over the place as they surely had way more snow than even I. So for the most part, I was just following my gps the whole time. There was a note in one are that riding the drier ridge line at one point would be easier than the actually trail. And they were definitely right.
By the time I had gotten there, about 5 miles later, and nearly another 4 hours, I was falling to my hips nearly every fourth step. The snow was slushy, and sometimes kind of scary as I’d hear sheets under the snow break and you could hear it crazy for dozens of feet on either side. Fortunately the scarier - side of cliff crosses - moments had mostly past, and even though I was hanging over 12k feet, wasn’t really anything but pain and misery, as I was determined to get to the Creede route, even if I had to do the two snowy miles tomorrow.
It took nearly 45 mins to go a half mile with the amount of waist deep post holing I was doing. The next mile to the Creede route was around one smaller peak, and then going around a more taller jagged one after. I wanted to continue. But I’m not sure in my current state of tiredness, and the amount of digging I would have to be doing to get across would get me there before dark, or be safe.
I found a little partially dry patch of solid ground sitting over 12,000 feet up. Not an ideal setup, being in the snow, in a relatively exposed area, but being solid ground is definitely a benefit. I know I don’t risk the snow cracking under me because I was actually on a slope covered by snow..
Tomorrow I’ll be able to take advantage of stiff snow. If a bit icy, I have my crampons. 1 mile to the Creede route, then 2 there as I descend. Then I’d be done with the snow. And I’m thankful. It’s gorgeous out here. But a lot of work and maybe not the safest doing solo. But hey, nothing truly heart pumping scary happened, and I get to have some snow free days ahead and end in another town! It is 28 miles. But I’m hoping once I’m out of the snow it’ll be a smooth east descent.
