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Adventures of the Spirit Eagle - Colorado CDT

  by Jim & Ginny Owen

August 9 - Campsite above Ute Lake - 13.2 miles - Total 112.5

Ginny: We woke up and the deer was still grazing on the hill across from us. I started the day worried about sunburn, ended it worried about hypothermia. We made it to a campsite way above Ute Lake, but it wasn’t easy. The day started warm and sunny as we climbed up to Humpback Pass, then down the back side with fantastic views of the Grenadiers, especially the Guardian of the Grenadiers, Mt. Silex and Snow King Peaks. Descended along a creek, and then followed the next creek back up to the Divide at Nebo Pass. It was another place where we could have followed the Divide cross country, but we chose to follow the trail instead since the Divide had a lot of up and down. I’d rather do that on trail than cross-country - usually. We ended up below Mt. Nebo with a pretty lake with an unusual rock formation in the middle of the lake. Then we descended toward the Ute Lakes. Just before we reached the first one, West Ute, it began to rain. So much for lunch. Over the next five hours we experienced constant rain, four hail storms and frequent thunder about one mile away. We kept going mostly because there was no good place to stop. We missed a turn and ended up taking an alternate route (about the same distance) down and back up to Twin Lakes. We missed Middle Ute Lake entirely. We were following a couple of horsemen who did the same thing. When they realized they had missed the turn and were descending, they tried to go cross-country, but got caught in the heavy willow growth and the bogs, so they decided to follow us instead. We saw a group that looked like scouts near Twin Lakes. They turned off before we could say hello. We finally stopped about 4:00. We put up the tent and jumped in. Two hours later I was still shivering. The rain had stopped, so I decided to cook dinner and see if that would help warm me up. Our sleeping bags are old and worn and just don’t do the job any more. The sun made a brief appearance, but quickly disappeared. There is a small group camped across the lake. I went down for water - it was a long way down, especially since I was trying to avoid getting wet by avoiding going through the willows around the lake. I had to do a few detours to avoid the brush. Climbing back was harder still. Soup helped a lot though. I sure was getting upset at the trail today. Eight inches deep in mud, with heavy willow growth to scratch at the legs. Jokes about bog monsters help, but don’t make up for the slow going. They evidently don’t trim back the brush at all. People that don’t want to get scratched by going through the willows, end up making new trails around them. A pair of loppers would do wonders - or even a brush cutter. It wouldn’t help with the mud though.

Jim: Another hypothermia day. Our boots are like the tent - they haven’t been dry since the first day on the trail. The trail itself is a continual series of mudholes alternating with good dug trail, stream fords and the usual high country stream walks and footbaths (large unavoidable puddles). Today we had the added pleasure of a long, cold, soaking rain. By noon we were both soaked to the skin and by the time we got to Twin Lakes we were both in the first stages of hypothermia. The climb up to Ute Lake warmed us up enough to find a sheltered campsite, and get set up and into the sleeping bags. The rain continued intermittently all night along with the lightning.

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© Copyright 1997 Jim & Ginny Owen