Day 14 - Section 9 & 10 of the Trail

Dave called today while he was having his lunch. They were on a knoll in the Holy Cross Wilderness around 11k feet. From morning camp, for about 5-6 miles, those mosquitoes were out in numbers Dave has never seen before (ok, except for last night)! He was glad to be able to sit and enjoy his lunch without being lunch. The guys are dealing with the altitude just fine. Dave said it felt no different than being at 7k feet. They feel pretty good during the day and by evening time they are ready for sleep! Tonight the plan is to sleep at 11.045k feet and he expects no altitude issues. Last night he slept well mainly because he had a flat spot for his tent. His bad night sleeps are when there is even a 5% grade where he puts his tent. He keeps slipping off his mattress! Finding a good spot is one of the main issues on this trail. That and mosquitoes! They never are far from a trail head which means that the few really good spots can be taken, leaving them to find less desirable spots to sleep. That is what happened this evening. They planned on camping at one site which was up a "goat trail" of a mountain. Their goal today was to hike 13.5 miles, completing section 9 and getting into section 10 by 3 miles. Those 3 miles of section 10 were all uphill, with 1000 ft gain in that last mile alone. When they got to the campsite, yup, you guessed it, it was taken! They had to scout around for another site that would also be near water. There were not a lot of options and they found themselves in a meadow. Dave called once he got in his tent. He had eaten and was looking forward to getting sleep. Although it's been raining every afternoon, it usually rains for a short time and then is done. Today it was raining for 5 minutes, stopping, raining for another few minutes, stopping, over and over. It was still pretty early being only 5:00 pt, 6:00 mt, but he figured the rain just wanted him to sleep. He wasn't going to fight it. Tomorrow they will finish section 10. One of Dave's hopes was to do some peak bagging. He'd love to collect a few more 14k's! Tomorrow they will be near two of Colorado's 14ers. One is Mt Messive which is the second highest mountain in Colorado. Dave figures they will be passing that one up. However, they will also be passing Mt. Elbert which is only 10 miles away and that one they want to get to the top of. It is a 4,000 ft climb up from the Colorado Trail, so the guys will leave their gear hidden somewhere on the trail and slack pack up to the top, wave their flags (yes, they have American Flags with them to celebrate the 4th), take pictures and videos, and hike back down to collect their gear. I'm not sure if they will hit this peak tomorrow or on the 4th. Although Dave complained a few more times about the mosquitoes (not nearly as numerous as they had been), he did tell me that he was amazed at how little trash there was on the trail. They have done about 159.5 miles of the Colorado Trail and the trash he did see wouldn't even fill the bottom of a trash bag! He's only seen graffiti once. I'm thinking he's planning on moving us there one day! He just loves those mountains! They see people, buildings, power lines, roads, but everything is well taken care of. He is getting spoiled! He texted me another picture which I'll get on Facebook this weekend. He left his camera today on top of another mountain and luckily realized it pretty quickly so could go back and get it. He says he's taken so many pictures that we'll all be really tired of looking at them... but we'll share! If he gets into town he'll find a way to email them to me. If not, we'll just post them all after the trip. More on the wildlife. They saw a deer today! First one. The do see lots of elk scat. The good thing is they have not see bear or Mt. lion scat! Tonight's location: 39.25586 -106.42529 Jane