Salida, CO to Chama, NM

Carolyn, Safety's Fiance, dropped us off at Monarch Pass. The temperature was 19 degrees but we were rewarded by walking into a winter fantasy. The snow that had fallen the night before was clinging to everything around us. The going was very slow, more postholing for the first 10 miles to Marshall Pass. We initially thought we wouldn't be able to continue but the trail droped just enough in elevation to where it was manageable to hike on. The next several days were sunny and in the 40's & 50's so the snow was melting quickly. We had some very cold mornings in this section, and even some cold days. We caught the last of the fall colors in this section and we could see the San Juan Mountains off in the distance, looking buried in snow still. We apparently got into Lake City, CO the day after their official summer ends, so almost everything was closed. There is a fantastic hostel in Lake City owned and run by former thru hiker, Lucky, from Ireland. He and his wife had met while hiking the CDT in 2007. They got married while on trail in Helena, MT and then decided to settle in Lake City and open up the Raven's Rest Hostel. Lucky has hand made pretty much everything in the hostel, he's a fantastic guy to chat with, talk trail and trade stories with. I wish we had had more time to spend there. We had to push on, there was some snow in the forecast and we had to beat it to Silverton. The San Juan Mountains is not the place you want to be caught in any kind of nasty weather. We made it to Silverton in 3 days, the weather was beautiful for our first stretch of the San Juans, save for some very cold mornings. We even met another thru hiker, Bluefoot, who we've been spending a lot of time with on this stretch. Silverton is crammed into the only possible sliver between enormous steep mountains. It, like most other towns we've been to on this trip, has a rich mining history and relies mostly on tourism these days as it's economy. We ended up taking two zero days in Silverton, one because it snowed and the other because we went out, got drunk and I was worthless and in no condition to hike. So, we enjoyed Silverton! Got back on trail and had 3-4 days to get through more of the San Juans and into Pagosa Springs, CO before the next snow was to arrive. This section of the San Juans was stunning. Pictures, video nor words can ever describe it or do them justice. We had the mountains all to ourselves, we didn't see another person (except Bluefoot) the entire time we were in the San Juans, probably because its freezing and so windy this time of year. It was also the most difficult hiking I've ever done. It took everything out of us just to cover 20 miles, exhausting up and downs. There have been a handful of times in my life when I've felt like I've cheated death or when I have seen my life flash before my eyes. Two of these now have been in the 3 months I've been on the CDT. The first being all the close lightning encounters and the second was just a couple days ago on the Knife Edge. It started out harmless like any other snowy section we've encountered, some postholing in deep snow that didn't slow us down too much. Before we knew it we were in a shady section that doesn't get hardly any sun. The snow got deeper and there was a thick layer of ice on top. We were stuck! We couldn't back track now, the snow was 3-5' deep, there was a wall of rock rising to our right and a very steep drop-off to our left. I couldn't break through the snow with my feet anymore, I had to use my trekking pole to dig out foot holes. I was using the uphill side trekking pole (shortened) to drive into the snow and use that as my stabalizer (with little faith in it). Then I would dig out the foot holes with the downhill side trekking pole, while leaning into the slope. It was terrifying, not knowing if the snow was going to give out from underneath you or if you're weight was in the wrong position, glissading down the cliff to certain death you go! It took us an hour to go 150 yards. We hitched down into Pagosa Springs from Wolf Creek Pass, just hours before a snowstorm was forecast to arrive. Pagosa is a nice little town near the New Mexico state line that has a really nice brewery that's only been open since May. We ended up zeroing in Pagosa because of the snow, just a couple inches fell in town but 12-18" fell up at the pass. We knew the San Juans were closed for business now, winter had arrived for good this time. I feel fortunate to have been able to hike almost all of them. We got to see more great wildlife too, plenty of Elk and many Moose. So it's on to New Mexico and we can start the countdown to the Mexican Border...only 700 miles remain!

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVtgXuhBflQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IIlDSNfMro&feature=youtube_gdata_player