Stony Pass to Spring Creek Pass: June 25th - June 28th, 2025
* Day 0: Zero day in Silverton. Already finished groceries and laundry yesterday so hoping the day feels relaxed. Breakfast and coffee at the Coffee Bear. Silverton is pricey but the food is all really good. Spent almost $200 on groceries yesterday for just a 3 day section - Susan is worried I'm going to eat our savings. I eat like all the time while we're hiking and still need more calories. Susan has lost noticeable weight; I've lost some, but also seem to have new muscles in my legs. After breakfast I dunk my air mattress in the tub and think I spy the leak as little bubbles stream up from near the nozzle. Fixing gear, packing groceries, playing NY Times games, going back to the grocery store; the time goes more quickly than I want. Manage to find daytime Simpsons for most of the afternoon. Spend a solid hour sewing our shoes back together - they're in rough shape. Yesterday I looked down in dismay and found that the entire inside forefoot of my left shoe had blown apart, and I could see my sock with every step. Our next pairs are with Susan's family, still 6 days away; better make these work! Spent more than we should have on dinner at Eureka Station but it's delicious and worth it. Prep some hitchhiking materials for tomorrow and enjoy the jacuzzi jets in the tub. I fall asleep on the couch with King of the Hill on the TV - old habits die hard.
Mountain views in Silverton
* Day 1: Trying to hitch up to Stony Pass today. It's a 4x4 road so that could prove difficult, but we have an ace up our sleeve - a rubber ducky to give away to the lucky off-roader that picks us up. We get going later than intended because Susan doesn't feel very well and I'm still trying to finish up the last blog post. But very quickly after leaving our posh hotel a car picks us up and takes us to the base of the 4x4 road, a really nice young woman who works for the Silverton museum and managed to convince the old, hard miners that it's worth it to digitize their collection. She's trying to find moose, I guess there's a lot up here. By 9:30 AM we're sitting at the turn off for Stony Pass, but nobody is driving by. I'm hoping for some good luck because it's my birthday. At least the weather continues to treat us favorably - clear and dry the next few days. Finally a family in a white Suburban rolls by and offers to fit us in by their two boys in the back seat. They readily admit that the Suburban might not make it up there, but we all seem to think it's worth a shot. I sit next to the little boys and they make sure to tell me about the shiny silver pop-guns they got in Silverton. Even came with holsters. The dad gets increasingly nervous up the road and two miles in is looking at a narrow stretch. "Dad! Dad! DAD!" shout the boys, and he tells them sharply to quiet down. "I don't fucking know..." he says, and the slightly older boy retorts "Dad, don't say 'fucking'!" Susan and I chuckle. He decides to turn the car around and we wish them the best, happy to have got at least a couple miles along. We start to walk when two minutes later two pick-ups come by. The first one is full and loaded, but the second has only the driver and he invites us into the empty bed. Four bumpy and dusty miles later we hop out and award the driver of the white truck our CDT rubber ducky. We're officially dirty again. Then... Back to hiking. At about 11:15 AM. Seems to be our MO. We start above 12,000 feet and stay there, through alpine tundra and meadows filled with wildflowers, sometimes a speckled mix of fuschia, violet, white, and gold, and sometimes a thick diffusion of sunshine-yellow spread like a cluster of stars through the grass. And apparently someone told all the marmots to wake up - we see well over a dozen scurrying through boulders or flopped in the sun. Up and over hills and ridges, around a mountain pass. From here and for a while the Colorado Trail (CT) and CDT share their path, and the buzz that the CT is easier to walk is being born out. The drains are so clear! Snowmelt flows only a few feet down the trail before being diverted off on a different course, leaving the rest of the trail dry. What a concept! Far less muddy trench walking today. Although still enough snow and bogs to keep the feet wet and uncomfortable. We even run into the two drain cleaners and effusively thank them for their work. After 10 miles have ramen-bomb dinner at a lake and decide hiking any farther today won't help us in the longer run, so set up camp. Trying to figure out how we're going to meet up with Susan's family in 6 days. I'll find out tonight if my mattress is holding air.
We got a duck, give us a ride!
* Day 2: Air mattress stayed plump and firm all night. Success! Good thing because it was cold. A half-frozen water bottle that we left outside the tent and my hydration hose totally solid. Luckily by the time we leave the sun's thawed out my hose and it seems to still work... One less thing to worry about being broken. Hiking goes by quickly in the morning with just short breaks - we have a long way to go today. Down one pretty basin, facing Coney Point, knowing the trail will take us up and over this next mesa. Slog up the hill as people in side-by-sides lap us on trips up the strep 4x4 road. The wildflowers on the alpine tundra slopes are a beautiful spread of yellow and violet, a good distraction when we stop to catch our breath as we head up and up above 13,000 feet. I can see the Rjo Grande Pyramid in the distance, the north and northeast faces now, and it sinks in how big of a "C" we traced through the San Juan Mountains. I felt a little defeated, some existential "why"'s creeping up about the circuitous route. But, we're out here to hike, so why not? Finally we reach the commemorative sign - the highpoint of the Colorado Trail! 13,271 ft. If only it were also the highpoint of the CDT. Still, this means some downhill coming up! Kind of. Coney Point seems to gently roll on forever, and it's 4 miles before we finally drop significantly. Stop for brown, peaty water out of some sorta disgusting ponds, and I'm reminded of the old adage from the Simpsons. But it's dry up there otherwise. Stop for more water on the other side, and *assume* we'll find more in about 3 miles so we can make dinner and camp. Below treeline for a little bit for the first time in about 36 hours; at first I thought "This is different", then realized, "Oh, there's trees!". But no water where we want. Looks like we're hitting the big two-oh today. Three more miles... Finally. A small stream. Slopey ground but it'll do for camping. Hit 20.5 miles today - our longest day yet. Probably too long. I've had terrible stomach cramps for the last 2 hours. Grind through camp chores and tuna-couscous as quickly as possible because my body is screaming that it needs sleep. Bed time.
Susan as a sunflower, posing with all the Old Men of the Mountain
CO Trail highpoint!
Morning mountain reflections
* Day 3: It's much warmer at 11,400 feet - no frozen water. We hit "snooze" too much and don't roll out of camp til 7:30 AM. But a quick 2.5 miles and we're at Spring Creek Pass. Chat with some day hikers, start throwing out the thumb. After about an hour and a half, Nancy in a new red Ford stops and lets us crawl in. She's from Kansas, but one of the adventurous types - she's gone up 20-some fourteeners here in CO. I don't ask how old she is but her dad's 101. And she's still talking about hiking up mountains on this trip. Role models. She takes us down to the grocery store in Lake City, but since it's next to the bakery we stop there first for coffee and lunch. Chat with other hikers, Coco and Bryce, who flipped up to the Wyoming basin to avoid snow and are now back for the CO portions. Stock up on more nutritionally dubious food, mostly in bar form. Cheaper than Silverton though. Coco is actually counting up to 4,000 calories a day... Unsure about our own count. The Presbyterian church runs a hiker center and we wander over there and are treated like royalty! A whole space dedicated to us smelly, transients-by-choice and our multitude of basic needs. Water. Snacks. Toiletries. Flushing toilet. Coffee. Electricity. Board games! This place really has it all. There's a body scale and Susan has lost about 12 pounds. I've lost about 8... Maybe I should be counting calories. The display of generosity is really touching, and we chat with volunteers and other hikers while hatching our next plans. How the hell are we going to meet Susan's family 180 miles north in 4 days??
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