Wednesday, June 10, 2026
37.8 miles, 4767′ gain/2211′ loss
Max altitude: 12,000′
I packed up before 6am at the motel and was walking on the side of the highway by 6:15am. It was another long-ass day, road walking on pavement for ~20 miles to start my day. I kept telling myself that I’d see how far I could get, and see how it unfolded. The car traffic was very light early in the day, but increased as everyone woke up and headed to work or vacation activities. The shoulder wasn’t too bad, and the side of the road had some cover in some places, but I was glad for my Pstyle to pee without disrobing.
The road had no shade except from the mountains, and that was gone very early in the day. So it felt very hot, especially with the sun stronger at the higher altitude. I put on sunscreen a number of times throughout the day, and had lots of attention for it, since the walking was fast and pretty boring. I’d developed a small blister and a hot spot yesterday and they were annoyed with me today, with the road walking making it a lot worse. It was hard miles, since I couldn’t let my mind wander too far as I was dealing with all of the traffic (which often included trucks pulling big trailers or campers).
Since there were options and I was tired and had money, I stopped for soda/coffee/cold drinks with caffeine and sugar twice on my road walk, once at the Wagon Wheel campground store at Wagon Wheel Gap, where I sat and drank my drinks with my feet up for 15 minutes before pushing on, and once at an unfriendly liquor store on the outskirts of Creede. It was nice to keep myself fueled with drinkable calories because I was thoroughly sick of eating by this point.
In Creede, I passed by the mining museum and the winter ice skating ponds on my way out of town. By this point, I knew that I’d finish tonight, it was just a matter of where I would be sleeping tonight. I had a lot of travel to get back to Denver for my plane, and I wanted to be well positioned to start that process tomorrow. It’s a 6-hour drive, but double that in bus time and the closest bus (1.5 hour hitch hike from Creede) only runs 1x a day at 5:45am, making it take at least a full 24 hours of travel. And I also wanted town food for dinner, if at all possible!
I headed up into the mountains on a double-track (but very much single lane) road to get to San Luis Pass, where the CDT intersects with the Colorado Trail. Once I made it to the intersection, I would have hiked from the Mexico border all the way up to Rawlins WY on the CDT. The steepest part of the road was literally 45% and of course it was in a tight spot between old mining buildings with poor visibility. My tactic for the long climb was slow and steady, keeping my heart rate down and just keeping my legs moving, while also keeping myself hydrated.
A ton of 4×4, OHV, and ATV passed me on the long steep dirt roads up towards San Luis Pass. One group gave me cold water without prompting when I walked past while they were stopped, and they were very impressed with my hiking, though they also weren’t sober. I was nervous about them, since I struggle to pass as straight, but no one said anything even though I did see them looking at each other after the first time they heard my voice. They made frequent stops, so we leapfrogged each other a number of times. We ended up seeing a moose together, as it wandered along the side of the road.
I also met a young woman taking her Subaru with her pup as high as she could go to camp for the night before hiking tomorrow. We seemed to vibe, which I attributed to us both being hikers and the odd ones out, surrounded by vaguely threatening drunk OHV men. We leaf frogged a lot, as she had to drive slowly to get over larger rocks and scout out a few creek crossings.
I wasn’t sad that the last mile up to the top was a hiker-only trail. It gave me privacy to cry as I sang along to music on my headphones. It turns out, singing and crying (and breathing) at the same time at altitude is really tough. I made it to the intersection at 5:45pm, and spent a little while there, soaking in the mountains, thinking big thoughts, and feeling heavy feelings.
Then I was hiking back down. I stopped and talked with the young woman for a little bit, and she mentioned she’s hiking San Luis tomorrow morning for sunrise and then heading back to Denver. I asked her if she’d be willing to give me a ride, since otherwise, it’ll be a 1.5-day endeavor to get back using public transit (and a little hitch hiking). She seemed very willing, so I offered up my phone number, giving her the ability to not text me later. But she followed up taking my phone number with giving me hers, and I told her I’d text her as soon as I got to town and I hoped we’d connect later.
I headed back down the road, hoping for someone to pass me going towards town so I could get town dinner. I saw half a dozen people fishing, but none of them were heading down any time soon. I had to hike almost 5 miles before my path crossed with a pickup truck who had seen me earlier outside South Fork. I managed to yogi a ride from them back to town 20 minutes before sundown.
Unfortunately, everything was closed in town by the time I arrived, except for 2 bars. One bar was located inside of an outdoor outfitter, so they offer showers and laundry to thruhikers. I took advantage of the shower but passed on the laundry since I’d done laundry only 3 days before and had clean underwear and socks available. That bar didn’t serve any food. The other bar in town served toaster oven single-serving frozen pizzas and potato chips. So that plus Sprite from the bar was my meal of champions.
After my meal, I walked down the dark main street to get to the baseball field a bit south of town center. I checked out the heated bathrooms nearby that were open all night, and then set up my tent between the pitcher’s mound and 2nd base. FarOut comments had warned of many sprinklers that turned on around 4-5am. Thankfully, I found a great spot and enjoyed a good night’s sleep, even if the field lights never turned off. I love my eye mask.
The next morning, I slept in until 6:30am and then headed to a breakfast restaurant. It was the most disappointing food of my entire trip, much worse than frozen pizza. I left 1/3 of my food on my plate because it was inedible, and there wasn’t much food to start with. I went to a 2nd breakfast place, and had a much better experience!
I met 3 CDT hikers who were all international hikers (including a Belgian living in Germany, and a German living in Switzerland). The mix of accents was a lot of fun, but I didn’t feel confident enough to try chatting with any of them in German. They were all planning their next sections, as they headed into the San Juans. I shared a bit about my experiences on the Colorado Trail and they seemed to appreciate the information.
Soon, the young woman who lives in Denver texted me to let me know she would be back to town soon. We met up at 10:30am at the gas station in town, and headed out to drive the 6 hours back to Denver together! She kindly dropped me off at a light rail station near her house, and I headed to my friend Becca’s place in downtown Denver. It was such a relief to stay with a friend and have a few days to decompress before heading home.
Of course, I decided to go on a solo mountain biking adventure in Boulder the next day, biking 22 miles with a thick-tired mountain bike, covering ~10 miles of blue square trails with a few black diamond trails. I ran out of water on a day that felt like 93 degrees, and I was remarkably nervous, dropping the bike or falling off 4 different times. Which was fair considering I’ve never mountain biked before! But it was a fine adventure, and I visited with my friend KB before dinner with cousin-in-law Erin before heading back to Denver.
Then on my last full day in town, I went with my friend Brian to hike Sniktau, a Colorado 13er out near Copper Mountain and Frisco. We enjoyed a very leisurely hike with lots of time sitting on the summit chatting, hiding from the cold wind. And then we had breakfast for lunch at a great restaurant on the way back to Denver!
My travel home was uneventful and I was happy for a smooth, direct flight back. Now to dream of my next adventure!
