Thursday, September 4, 2025
23.4 miles, 9642’/6781′
I was awake at 6. I packed up and called an Uber. One arrived within 15 minutes, and I was even able to modify my drop-off location when I realized I’d selected the wrong drop-off point.
I was hiking by 6:45am, with a fairly light pack with only 1.5 days of food. I hiked up the steep, rocky road for a while. I promised myself that if someone offered me a ride, I’d accept it. Eventually someone stopped and I accepted the remaining ~1mi ride to the trailhead. I’d left the hotel with a liter and had missed in the FarOut comments that the last water source for many miles was dry. I asked a hiker returning to the parking lot if he knew of any more water sources. He said no and then offered me 1.5L of water he had left. I gladly took the water. It tasted like plastic but was mostly tolerable.
I summited Grey first, favoring slow, steady, and smooth. It was very high winds all day, often around 40 MPH on summits. I saw a mom, dad, and baby mountain goat on the way up! It was neat to be standing on the tallest part of the Continental Divide! I got a few pictures of me with the sign, thanks to a few day hikers. Then I did the class 2/3 connection over to Edwards, with a fair amount of exposure. I had to disconnect my brain about the level of risk present for this section. It was very sandy and loose, with a long way to fall if I slipped. Birds were flying below me. And I was slower and more clumsy with the high altitude, so I took my time and did not push myself.
Once on Edwards, I yogi’d a liter of water from a couple at the summit. Unfortunately, it was so disgusting from being in an improperly cleaned bladder that I could barely tolerate it. I carried it all day without drinking it and dumped it out at camp.
I took the Argentine Spine alternate, and end-to-end, it took me 3 hours, 20 minutes, which was faster than any time noted on FarOut. I had to wayfind the entire spine. Granted, I had to wayfind before and after, too. It was just straight-up cross-country travel. I did get to see a mountain goat herd (maybe 15-20) along the way. It was very hard to stay on trail since it often wasn’t even a herd path. It was nice to finally connect with the main CDT, though it was still hard to follow and there was no water at the location noted on the map so I just kept moving. It was windy and cold, so I didn’t need a lot of liquid, thankfully.
I was then chased by large thunderstorms for the rest of my day. I got to experience thundersnow along the Spine, which was a bit scary. And the wind chill was tough, temperature wise and mentally too. I just kept moving forward, and I didn’t get any substantial rain or snow until I was just about to set up my tent. Of course, it started raining just as I started to set up camp in the dark. But I got it up and jumped inside inside before the rain turned into snow/slush. The snow only lasted 10 minutes, so I was able to go and filter water from the giant snow melt stream nearby. I’ve rarely been so excited about good, clean filtered water that doesn’t taste like plastic.
As I was about to fall asleep in my tent at 12,500′, I heard a large animal moving nearby and then drinking from the stream. I couldn’t see to know what it was, but based on the sounds, I suspect it was a moose. It was very spooky. But I was tired enough, I just went to sleep. Partway through the night, my wet tent partially collapsed, so I had to get out and set it back up again by headlamp. It stayed up for the rest of the night.
