CDT38
1st June thursday
15 miles
Up to my waist in snow
Doing our calculations this morning to know how long it will take us to get to Pagosa Springs, which is our next supply stop, we couldn’t decide on how many miles we would do each day. The unknown factor is travelling in snow and it’s just as slow going downhill that it is going up.
I’m starting to get the idea about the state of Colorado that its going to be tougher than I first imagined. 90% of today was walking in snow, first up this morning, the snow was hard as overnight it had frozen it but come midday it was soft in places. About three occasions I “post-holed” where the snow disappeared and I fell in up to my waist, it was a challenge getting out where sometimes I’d have to dig my foot out of the snow. It soon became very tiring pushing my way through the thick snow.
A marker to guild us along the trail
We finally stopped off our lunch and that was at 3:30 and at that point we had only done 10 miles. 10 miles over seven hours.
Dark clouds came, we got snow but we were lucky as all around us were threatening clouds but it came to nothing and come 4:30 we stopped to put sunblock on.
It was a long day and finally we arrived at a frozen over lake (Blue Lake) with snow all about but for a little area with enough room for two tents. This is how lucky we were, there was a fire pit with wood ready to be used and a little stream for fresh drinking water without it being iced over. I boiled up water in the fire pit, to save my gas, for coffee and my food. Not long after, it started to rain, then hail, so I ran for the tent with lightning and thunder building up around us.
The sky opened up and my poor little tent was surrounded with snow or hail with bursts of white lighting that lit up the inside of the tent. I lay there and at 8 o’clock it was still light and i could see the snow building up around my tent
Temperature dropped fast and I once again dressed myself with everything and climbed into my new sleeping bag.