2007 July

It’s a pretty cold and windy night on the divide, but the morning brings ridge hiking as sweet as it comes. Shortly after this picture Jeremy and Bob startle a mountain goat that flies across the rocky terrain below us. Another tough climb takes us to Stanley Mountain. We try to find camping before Berthoud Pass, but nothing very attractive presents itself, so we camp near the noisy pass tucked away in the trees.

CDT: Divide N of I-70 to Berthoud Pass at EveryTrail

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Our newly formed team follows the plan to eat, drive to Berthoud Pass to leave a food cache, then continue to our starting point at the Bakerville exit on I-70. Jeremy and I will each collect a GPS track, Jeremy will take notes and waypoints, I’ll take photos and video. The trail is easy for a few miles paralleling I-70, then begins to climb. By sundown we’re perched on the divide at nearly 13,000 feet of elevation:

CDT: Bakerville, CO to the divide at EveryTrail

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(Congratulate me if I successfully make this post–it’ll be my first foray into the blogosphere….)

On Sunday, 7/29 I drove Dylan to the trailhead he wanted to start out at around 9am. No, you don’t get a link to a map, a gps coordinate, or even specific information about what trailhead it was. It was by a private reservoir, on the East side of the Rocky Mountain National Park, somewhere south of the infamous Camp Dick, and I could find it again if pressed. Is that enough information? He planned to walk 16 miles west, and end up at Monarch Lake to join his group of Backpacker companions. I kissed him goodbye after confirming a date to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary with a meeting of the hearts and minds in transcendental space and time. Then I drove straight home in the company of selfish twinges of jealousy and flashbacks of the long stretches of loneliness while he was hiking the CDT and I wasn’t on our honeymoon. (Poor me.) Ah well the bird must fly! Happy trails, Baby!

I’ve volunteered for the BACKPACKER Magazine CDT Mapping project as a team leader, and my first task is to meet my two team members at Monarch Lake. I figure it’s about 16 miles of hiking, but Sawtooth Mountain looks very tempting, and the trail is quite wiggly on the west side. The elevation profile ends up looking like this:

I just barely make it to Monarch Lake when I’m supposed to be there. Bob is just wandering up to meet me. Fortunately he’s already secured a campsite, because all I can manage is to stay upright and smile. Bob’s son Jeremy, my other teammate, pulls in after dark.

Beaver Reservoir to Monarch Lake Via Sawtooth Mountain at EveryTrail

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I haven’t enjoyed a big fiction read like this in a long time. The dictator of the African nation of Aburiria seems to be a composite of his peers in the real world, Mobutu being the most recognizable to me. It’s a social and political tale that is chock full of strange metaphors and blatant parodies. I’m sure much of the cultural context passed me by, but I feel like I absorbed a lot as well, and enjoyed doing it. It did leave me puzzled about who or what the narrator might be, but that may very well be intentional.

We drive eagerly to Piz Badille, new climbing shoes in our packs, but it’s raining. Optimistically, we wade across the South St. Vrain, but it only rains harder and we have to turn back. In the end we settle for a nice hike and car camping near Beaver Reservoir. Somewhere my cellphone falls out of my pocket.

Doug meets us on a fine morning at the Nautilus, then proceeds to dive back into climbing with a solid lead of Stand and Deliver 5.10a. He and Ann then follow me up Ted’s Trot 5.7, just as thrilling for me the second time.

Rain showers send us scurrying off the rock to sit and have lunch in our new BAT camper, after which Ann and I succumb to the urge for a nap. We’re starting to see some of the benefits of camper life.

It’s hot, we have errands to run, and we’re not moving so fast. But we make it to Vedauwoo eventually and find Mark and Kate in a similar state at the ever-name-changing area Jurassic Park. Despite our laziness we enjoy a few routes:

First Iteration 5.9+ There’s some hard slab climbing here if you try to stick to the bolt line. I hem and haw for a long time at the top move, finally deciding on a big sidestep to a mantle.

Recombination Mutation 5.7 Fun hand crack, interesting cave moves at the bottom.

Sore-O-Pod 5.8 This is a really nice crack with a variety of moves.

We take the next step on our quest to become hermit crabs: more portable housing. Ann’s mom and my dad join us to pick up the new camper. The most nerve-wracking part, backing the truck up under it, goes without a hitch on the first try. We all celebrate with a yummy brunch.

This was a nice book to pluck off my dad’s shelf for our backpack trip. (Too bad I didn’t remember to pluck a plastic bag for it out of the kitchen drawer - it’s a little thicker than it used to be now). The landscapes of Wyoming, my birth state, are brought to visceral life, as are the ranchers whose hospitality I’ve enjoyed but never appreciated with the depth offered by this author. A contemplative and stirring read.