Grand Lake to Rabbits Ear Pass.
Days 71 to 74.
Miles 1396 to 1471.
Beyond Grand Lake, the trail goes through Rocky Mountain National Park and cuts through a small portion of the East Troublesome Fire Burn area – the second largest wildfire in Colorado history. Then, the trail enters the spectacular Never Summer Wilderness where the trail follows beautiful treeless ridges for miles. This section ends with a long paved road walk on Highways 14 and 40 up to Rabbits Ear Pass. From there, hikers typically hitch to Steamboat Springs, the final trail town in Colorado.
Day 71
I emerged from my wet tarp into the sunny yard of the Grand Lake community center. Though I’d hoped for an early start, I decided it was worth dilly dallying to give my tarp time to dry. I headed back inside the Grand Lake community center in search of coffee.
As I sat sipping my coffee, the community center employee who checked me in yesterday walked by.
“Thank goodness the building was unlocked and you could come inside during that awful storm!” She said, “I was thinking about you out there.”
It hadn’t even occurred to me to try to go into the building during last night’s storm. I’ve gotten too used to weathering whatever conditions inside my tarp.
I walked out of town and soon entered the Rocky Mountain National Park. The path I took through the park is technically an alternate route that cuts off 20-some miles. The “official” CDT does a big horseshoe shape through the National Park, where a reservation is required for camping. It also can be hiked through in a single, very long day, but I didn’t feel up for that today.
The route I’ve taken through Colorado has been pretty different from what I’d originally planned on. I’d hoped to take the official CDT through most of the state. However, snow and then persistent altitude sickness had other plans for me. I won’t lie, it has been a letdown. But part of long-distance hiking is being flexible and adjusting plans along the way as needed.
At this point, it has almost become a game to see how much of Colorado I can hike across by stringing together random trails other than the CDT. The “official” CDT route measures about 673 miles between Cumbres Pass and Rabbits Ear Pass. Between those locations, by my best estimates, I will only have hiked about 367 miles on the true CDT, and 133 miles of alts and other trails.
On my alt route in the park today, I walked through the burn scar of the 2020 East Troublesome Fire, the second largest wildfire in Colorado history. I remember this fire well. I was living in Fort Collins at the time, and watched the sky fill with smoke as the East Troublesome exploded from 19,000 acres to 170,000 acres in two days.
Now, 6 years later, evidence of forest succession (recovery) is easy to spot in the burn scar. The forest floor is a fuzzy green carpet of tiny pine trees, ranging in size from a few inches to a few feet.
I crossed Trail Ridge Road today, and caught a glimpse of the Grand Ditch in the distance. The Grand Ditch is (in my opinion as a former Geoscience student) a fascinating man-made landscape feature. The ditch cuts high across the west side of the mountains. It diverts water over a pass and onto the east side of the mountains. In other words, water is moved over the Continental Divide through the force of gravity, without using a pump!
The purpose of the ditch is to move water resources to where they are needed most. The water that naturally falls on the east side of the Continental Divide does not meet the water demands of the agriculture and large urban areas on the Colorado Front Range.
In the afternoon, I entered the Never Summer Wilderness. I’ve backpacked and trail ran in the Never Summer Range before and think this area is especially majestic. But I’ve never been to the particular part of the Never Summer Range the CDT goes through.
I pop up and over Bowen Pass, and enjoy some alpine views above the treeline. The next few days will deliver plenty more views, passes, and ridges.
Day 72
I hiked this morning for 6 miles to Willow Creek Pass Trailhead. There, I found an amazing surprise. Calvin, a friend, was there doing trail magic for me and other CDT hikers passing through! Calvin served up fruit, brats, and ice-cold beverages.
I’ve been lonely on the CDT recently, and even more than the food, it lifted my spirits to sit and chat with Calvin. I hung out at the trail magic for a few hours. And amazingly, during that time, several thru-hikers rolled through – including three hikers I know but haven’t seen since New Mexico (Shoehorn, Road Dog, and Lighthouse). It was great to see so many familiar and friendly faces in one day!
In the afternoon, Road Dog and I hiked together over Parkview Mountain – a 12,200-foot peak the CDT goes over the top of. Getting to the top was certainly an adventure. I don’t know what the windspeed on the top of the mountain was, but down in town, the forecast called for 60-mph gusts.
Lacking the actual numbers, I will emphasize the insane strength of this wind through anecdotes. It picked up gravel off the ground and blew it into my face. The gusts were strong enough to blow away not just light items, but larger unsecured objects too, like a liter of water, a trekking pole, or a thru-hiker.
Road Dog and I made our way up the mountain by sitting on the ground during gusts, then scurrying uphill as quickly as we could between gusts. We repeated this process all the way to the summit, like a strange game of red-light-green-light. Thankfully, there was a shelter on the summit where we got a short reprieve from the nonstop wind.
After the summit, there was a long and treeless ridge walk. It was both stunning and windy. Fortunately, the wind died down some in the evening. But just in case it picked up again overnight, I made camp on a forested part of the ridge.
Day 73
This morning, I continued the long ridge walk in the Never Summer Range. Even early in the morning, it was just as windy as yesterday. And cold! For the first time since before Wolf Creek Pass, I hiked fully bundled up in my puffy jacket and wind pants.
The trail traversed multiple treeless ridges and saddles. In some of the windier saddles, I again found myself lying flat on the ground during gusts to avoid getting swept away.
I was glad when I caught up with Road Dog. Though the trail is beautiful, these windy conditions can become just a bit soul-crushing. Having another person there suffering through it alongside you somehow makes it a little better. That is something I realized I’ve been missing for most of this trail, especially in Colorado.
In the afternoon, the trail left the ridge and I finally escaped the violent wind. The trail joined a long dirt road, gradually carrying me downhill. Though the trail was easy, I was pretty zapped by my efforts yesterday and this morning. I took plenty of breaks to sit or lie down and rest.
Even so, I made quick work of the dirt road. Around 7 pm, I reached the point where the dirt road joins Highway 14. From here, the CDT has a 12-mile paved road walk up to Rabbit’s Ear Pass.
Not wanting to get caught on the highway walk in the dark, I opted to camp at the end of the dirt road. I set up my cowboy camp in the middle of a patch of sage brush. I watched the smoke-tinted sky turn stunning shades of pink and orange as the sun went down.
Day 74
I was awake cold for most of the night. I thought this was odd.
“It is late June at only 8,000 feet,” I told myself, “surely it is not actually that cold.”
But when I rose in the morning, I found that my quilt and backpack were covered in frost, and my water bottles were frozen. Apparently, this place is called the “Never Summer” Range for a reason.
As things started to thaw, I began the 12-mile road walk along the shoulder of Highway 14.
Like much of the CDT in Colorado, this is an area I’ve been to before. Highway 14 is the road that goes down into Fort Collins, my home of the last 12 years. On a drive between Fort Collins and Steamboat Springs several years ago, I drove on the CDT where I now walk. On that drive, I spotted a few CDT hikers, in the middle of their long road walk.
I had already thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and Colorado Trail at that point, and was certainly no stranger to the dirty, unglamorous reality of thru-hiking. But even so, I remember being struck by the CDT hiker’s especially haggard appearances. They walked on the narrow highway shoulder, unfazed by the traffic speeding by at 60 mph. Their heads were heads down, their muscular legs efficiently churning at a well-practiced, purposeful pace. Their faces were unreadable masks, giving no hint to the inner mental state of a person halfway through a 3,000-mile long walk.
“What drives a person to hike the CDT?” I wondered. “What motivates someone to walk a route that follows roads as much as mountain ridges? Where the water comes from murky cow troughs as frequently as mountain streams? Where the distance is long and the summer is short?”
Even now, roughly halfway into the CDT, I’m not sure I have an answer to these questions. And yet, I am here. I have become the one of the people I saw walking this very same road years ago.
Throughout the CDT, I’ve frequently found myself contemplating the question “why am I here?”, which gradually morphed into a different but related question: “do I want to be here?”
It is true that the CDT has presented its fair share of challenges. Late season snow storms, altitude sickness, and loneliness have all hit hard. Yet I know I’ve overcome worse. I think about the unstoppable driving force I felt on the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trails to continue northward, even through 100-degree heat waves, snowstorms, wildfire smoke, severe chaffing, infections, norovirus, logistical challenges, letdowns, and heartbreak.
As with any trail, the hard parts of the CDT do not ruin it. They make the amazing parts shine all the brighter. The CDT is an incredible trail. And I wouldn’t want to miss out on its unique beauty by pushing through it when my heart is not in it.
Since getting back on the trail at Wolf Creek Pass, I’ve been distracted. I’ve increasingly felt drawn away from the trail towards other parts of my life that are also important to me.
For several hundred miles after Wolf Creek Pass, I debated whether I wanted to continue on this trail. Eventually, I decided to finish the CDT in Colorado through Rabbit’s Ear Pass, and end there for this summer. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I think it feels like the right one. I do not know when I will hike the other half of the trail through Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. But I certainly want to some day, and to do so when I can give this trail my full attention and enthusiasm. Until then, so long CDT!
Adventures with Val 
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