CDT57
20th June Tuesday
21 miles
Silverthorne alternate trail
Early start of 5:30 and my camp buddy had already gone in the preparation of the long day ahead. I knew he was only 10 minutes ahead of me and if he is a slow walker as I think he is, I should catch up with him before second breakfast.
Vasquez Peak 12,740 feet
I soon caught up with Firefield while climbing up the snow covered trail.
Saw my biggest cairn to date and went off trail to have a closer look at it, the views were great with the sun just starting to touch me.
After having a zero day in town yesterday, I was thinking I would have plenty of energy, but my legs were dragging, big effort to keep moving uphill. Admittedly my pack was heavy even though I removed over 2 kg from it at the post office. It’s the food and once again I have packed too much, with Grand Lake being only a day away,I’m carrying over four days worth of food, too much.
Steep but I had foot prints to follow which makes things easy, see the animal tracks, deer or Elk I’m not sure
We decided to take a different trail and basically get off the mountains, both FireField and myself are tired of snow walking so we dropped into a valley which will eventually lead us into Fraser town following a 4 wheel drive track. Big dark clouds are coming and from a distance we could hear the thunder.
We camped 5 miles from town which will take us 2 hours to walk in the morning and the hope is that there is a coffee waiting for as at the service station. Firefield is running out of food so that’s the main reason for the visit, I was amazed at how little he is carrying, his bag is smaller than mine and since the start of the trail and going through all the snow, he has done it without walking sticks, crampons or ice axe. I really cannot see how he is doing it without these tools, an unnecessary risk?
Thunder is rumbling around us, a few drops of rain has hit the tent and the temperature has suddenly dropped but thank goodness we are off the mountain as looking at the map there’s little coverage for the next two days walking. During the night the clouds opened up and i had a restless sleep. For once I stayed dry and nothing at all in my tent got wet.