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Adventures of the Spirit Eagle - Colorado CDT

  by Jim & Ginny Owen

August 7 - Meadow near Pole Creek - 14.9 miles - total 81.3

Ginny: The fog was still there when we awoke, though the sun tried to burn through from time to time. We cooked breakfast at the door of our tent, still wrapped in our sleeping bags, then made the long slow climb back up to the trail. As we came over a rise, the clouds cleared and we had a fantastic view of the valley below, with Lake San Cristobal, Sunshine, Red Cloud, Red Mountain, Handies Peak and many others. That view came with us up the climb, just getting better and better the higher we rose. Clouds still filled the valley to one side, but on the other was mostly sunshine. There was a lot of climbing for a while along the Divide, over promontories, down to saddles, then back up again. We detoured around one snowfield and ended up slipping and sliding in mud and loose rock instead. Coming down the final knob we entered a different world. All of a sudden there were jeeps, ATVs, and dirt bikes everywhere. This was Carson, a deserted old mining town, with mostly just a few wooden walls and scars from the mines remaining. Only one building still had four walls, sort of, and no roof. But it is very accessible if you have four wheel drive. Four wheeling is very popular around here, it seems. We also ran into a trail crew working on the Colorado Trail there. There were about 20 people out for a week, digging side hill and putting in culverts. We ate lunch there with them, then followed the dirt roads out of town. We met 3 Colorado Trail thruhikers at a road junction. We had been following their footsteps our first few days, but they got off in Creede for a day or two. They stopped soon after we met them to camp somewhere on Lost Trail Creek as they had done a 20 mile day already (it was 2:30 or so then.) We saw three more backpackers wandering in the willows below us (trying to follow the stock driveway or Jim Wolf’s route?) And then three more who caught up to us at the pass between Lost Trail and Pole Creeks. They stopped to camp there, so we never saw them again either. Lots of people. We also spoke with a forester, Roberto Garcia, who was very interesting. He and Jim discussed the possibility of seeing grizzly bears (remote - but not impossible). We climbed gently for four miles along one creek (Lost Trail) then descended gently for four more along another (Pole Creek). Total for the day was about 15 miles. We’re exhausted. We had mostly sunshine, though it clouded up and sprinkled from time to time. It stayed cool all day though - I never did put on a short sleeved shirt, I just wore my long underwear all day. We finally collapsed shortly after the CDT separated from the Colorado Trail. Up to now they have coincided and maintenance and marking have been primarily done by the Colorado Trail people. The turn was not marked at all. If the directions in the guide book hadn’t been good, we might have wandered quite a while before realizing that the sharp turn to the right we passed was not just a stray horse track, but the CDT. There were two important unmarked junctions there. It’s not the Shenandoahs, that’s for sure. The first half mile or so across a meadow and up a hill weren’t marked at all either. Again - the guidebook saved us. I hope this isn’t an indication of things to come. We had three wet foot stream crossings this afternoon - one was knee deep. I’m glad we brought Tevas. We’re camped in some trees below the meadow at the top of the hill. Lots of evidence that cows use this place as a campsite too. Coyotes are yipping up the hill. I’m cold and tired - so goodnight!

Jim: When we got to Carson Pass, some of the trail crew were friendly - and some of them lost interest as soon as they found out we were hiking the CDT rather than the Colorado Trail. We ran into this attitude several times and it was very noticeable. One of the crew was an AT thruhiker - Grey Owl, ‘91. He’d also hiked the Colorado Trail in ‘92 and very obviously had been thinking about the PCT. Another one was sectioning the Colorado part of the CDT. The 3 CT thruhikers that we met a little later didn’t show a lot of interest in the CDT either. I owe the forest service person some pictures - he’s the only person I ran into in Colorado who has any belief in the possibility of grizzlies in the San Juans. Everyone else thinks the last grizzly was killed a long time ago. The last couple miles today was pretty tough - it was all down hill after Lost Trail Creek Pass, but the trail was torn up by horses on the northern (Lost Trail Creek) side of the pass and by dirt bikes on the Pole Creek side. Our campsite was at 11300 ft and wasn’t particularly comfortable - too many humps, lumps and cow patties. We even moved the tent to get away from some of the lumps – to no avail – we simply found a new set.

Sunscreen - Doesn’t matter how well you tan - take it and use it. Take a look at some mountaineering books - look at the pictures - those people aren’t sporting zinc oxide on their ears and noses just to be fashionable. The sun is a whole lot more intense when the altitude is over 12000 ft. Ginny and I both got sunburned. And sunburned lips are no fun at all.

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© Copyright 1997 Jim & Ginny Owen