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Adventures of the Spirit Eagle - Colorado CDT

  by Jim & Ginny Owen

August 12 - Durango - 5.5 miles - total 149 miles

Jim: We got lucky with hitchhiking - again. Eric Peers picked us up and took us all the way to the Durango airport where we rented another car - well, sort of a car - it’s a Geo Metro. But it’ll get us where we’re going. Found a motel, got a good meal and a shower, did laundry and picked up our gear from Hermosa Court. Culture shock. What a difference from the last few days. Last night we slept perched on a small ledge beside the trail, tonight we’re in a bed with clean sheets. I’m not sure I like the transition all that much.

August 13 - Wednesday - South Fork -

Ginny: We had a good day wandering around Southern Colorado and part of New Mexico. Yesterday was spent descending to the trailhead and then walking three miles on a dirt road past a couple of campgrounds, trying to hitch a ride to Pagosa Springs. We lucked out by getting a ride from a student who was chased out of the mountains by fear of bears. (He ran into a horse packer who told him all sorts of stories). He gave us a ride 25 miles out to the highway, then 60 miles to Durango to the airport where we were able to rent a car. We ate lunch, showered, got our town gear back from the motel where we had left it before we took off for the mountains, wandered downtown Durango, did laundry, and finally collapsed. It was busy, but not much fun. Still, getting the ride was incredibly lucky. Today we explored places where the CDT passes through northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado, which involved a big circle drive through mountainous areas, high desert, ranch and farm country. We checked out Pagosa Springs (too touristy, and very spread out), down into Chama NM (another narrow gauge railroad town) – to a good Mexican lunch, to Alamosa (nice murals) to South Fork, to Creede (It was smaller than I expected. We had dinner (banana splits) at an expensive ice cream parlor. The whole town was closed up at 5:00, presumably to play bingo in the Community Center in one of the mines), to South Fork again. We had planned to camp, but it began to rain (surprise!), so we ended up in a motel in South Fork. It was a pretty peaceful wandering sort of day. Tomorrow is still up in the air, but today was nice. Relaxing, despite all the driving. (Jim drove.)

August 14 - Rock Lakes to Wolf Creek Radio Tower - two ways - 10 miles Total 159 miles

August 15- Friday - Durango again

Ginny: Yesterday we drove up to Wolf Creek Pass where we were supposed to end our hike. There’s a dirt road to a radio tower/lookout area that has a good trailhead that saved a 1000' climb to the CDT. From there we walked about five miles to the Divide beyond Rock Lakes. A thunderstorm developed (of course), so we turned around and headed back to the car amidst lightning, hail, rain, hail, thunder, hail - well it was a quick return and we didn’t even get all that wet since all the showers were brief. It was nice trail, mostly in spruce forest. A group of high school students, whom we met at the trailhead, had been working on it for four weeks, doing a lot of waterbars and filling in eroded spots. We saw fresh snow covering the mountains to the south. Although short, it was a nice hike. Jim’s cough returned, so we decided not to try any more hiking. Instead, today we drove west and north out of Durango on the scenic highway route - about 235 miles through desert, plateau, alpine mountain, old mines and other interesting terrains. It was really beautiful. I had forgotten how much red rock there is around here. We did a brief visit to Telluride (claustrophobic tourist glitz) and a much longer wander around Silverton (tourist shops and lots of hotels and restaurants, but wide dirt roads and a sleepier feel to it once the daily tourist trains have gone back to Durango.) We took lots of pictures as we drove around, taking our time. Ouray was a nice town too, but we didn’t spend any time in the shops there - another time maybe. We had a good, though tiring day. Now we’re back at the hotel, trying to decide between sleep and ice cream.

I’m not ready to go back home yet. Seeing all the beauty today reminded me of all the places we have yet to explore. I’ve done a lot of thinking about the reality of a CDT thruhike. Bailing out early might have meant an end to that dream, so I had to think about how much I wanted it, when faced with the reality of long distance hiking. Eleven days was exhausting, am I ready for 15 times that? But there is so much beauty out there. Fact is, I am happy on the trail, despite the rain and cold, sore ankles, no showers, perpetual pasta dinners, endless climbs, sunburn, puffing and panting and a too heavy pack. So much world out there - so little time to explore it all. It isn’t an easy life, but it is a fulfilling one.

Jim: Not much to say for the last couple days - it’s been a good time, although not what we came out here for. There’s an ambivalence in my attitude – I don’t know whether I love this country or hate it. The CDT was both more and less than I expected – more rain, more mud, more problems with the altitude, more beauty than I could absorb, less sunshine, gentler grades (Thank God). In some ways it scared me – it’s bigger, more awesome, rougher and more elemental than anything in the East. And more so than I ever imagined. And I ran into spiritual challenges of a sort that I haven’t had to face in a lot of years. But I also know that I’m addicted to it now. Both Ginny and I realized before we even got home that we had changed. For one thing we’re even closer to each other than we were before – and that’s hard to imagine. But there are other, less defineable changes in our attitude and outlook. Eventually we’ll figure them out, but it’ll take some time. Overall – it was a really good trip, I’m glad we did it – and the "Flight of the Spirit Eagle" is on course for ’99.

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© Copyright 1997 Jim & Ginny Owen