#mount of the holy cross

CT Day 10 - 20 miles

After last night’s barrage of hail and thunder, we woke up exhausted. We pressed snooze several times before finally sitting up and beginning to organize our things for the day. I got out of the tent and saw that the entire valley was covered in thick fog and the peaks were gleaming with alpenglow. The calm after a crazy storm like the previous night can be so beautiful.

We hiked up and up, stepping on piles of hail from the night before. We were mentally & physically so tired. The steep uphills felt relentless. This section of trail is so stunning though. We walked by high alpine lakes flanked by big granite walls, walked on boulders and stepped over creeks. It all reminded me a lot of the high Sierra, specifically the area of Kings Canyon we walked through on the PCT. 

The Colorado Trail, in general, seems a lot less crowded than the PCT was. Maybe it’s because there’s a bigger window of time to do it and not everyone has to hike at the same rate. On the CT you can go a full day without seeing anyone—in fact, we haven’t seen any CT hikers in a couple days. It’s interesting that way. Sometimes I wish we could make some friends to hike with!

The day seemed to trudge on. We were so tired from yesterday’s long day, plus not sleeping through the night. We planned to do 22 miles, but couldn’t find the motivation to keep going once we hit 20 and found a good campsite. We set up our tent at the trailhead to Mount Massive. Tomorrow we’ll hike 7 miles to Twin Lakes where we’ll meet Nate’s parents for breakfast and we’ll pick up some food for the next few days. We’re so excited to see a familiar face! Then we’ll do another 15ish to get us closer to Buena Vista. We’re thinking if we hike fast we may actually be able to take a full zero in BV and still stay on schedule.

14'er / colorado USA. Still working on the rest of the photography from this trip. I will finish before a full year is up.