Taking a little break in Grand Junction.  My mom got a cheap ticket to fly here, so we are going to spend some time at Arches National Park and the Moab area, and also make some water drops through Utah.  I don't like the idea of driving to a place before I walk there, but it is the middle of summer and better safe than sorry.  Nevada will be another story, even hotter and dryer.  I might be walking hwy. 50 through the state if I can't arange water drops.

From Crested Butte to the Grand Mesa was a large variety of terains.  The first view of the end of the rockies.  Several stream crossings, with fast springtime water.  Sagebrush mesas.  More snow than expected on the Grand Mesa (snowshoed quiet a bit up there).  Saturated places like I had never seen on the "Flat topps".  High altitude lakes.  Lots of elk, and signs of bear.  Flowers and more signs of Summer.  Took a side trip to Cedaredge where I stayed at an ADT trail coordinators house and had a fun rest day.  Then droping more than 5,000' to Grand Junction in a days walk to the dessert.

I met a guy and his dog while walking down off of the Grand Mesa.  He is an avid artifact hunter.  He invited me to stay at his place while I wait for my mom.  Yesterday we went artifact hunting for 6 hours on a sage brush mesa.  Above the many canyon washes were tons of flakes (debree from making stone tools), and a few actual tools.  But I just found a couple scrapers amung all of the flakes.  His collection is one of the best I've laid my eyes on.  I met a lot of generous, interesting, and inquisitive people on the Mesa.  Friendly area.

I've been preparing for the desert.  My pack is much much lighter and ready to carry a little over 2 gallons of water.  ugh.  I ditched my stove and fuel (cook on the fire if I want to cook), all my winter stuff, and other odds and ends.  If the going gets to hot I might have to use some alternate routes.  We shall see. 

 

Taking a little break in Grand Junction.  My mom got a cheap ticket to fly here, so we are going to spend some time at Arches National Park and the Moab area, and also make some water drops through Utah.  I don't like the idea of driving to a place before I walk there, but it is the middle of summer and better safe than sorry.  Nevada will be another story, even hotter and dryer.  I might be walking hwy. 50 through the state if I can't arange water drops.

From Crested Butte to the Grand Mesa was a large variety of terains.  The first view of the end of the rockies.  Several stream crossings, with fast springtime water.  Sagebrush mesas.  More snow than expected on the Grand Mesa (snowshoed quiet a bit up there).  Saturated places like I had never seen on the "Flat topps".  High altitude lakes.  Lots of elk, and signs of bear.  Flowers and more signs of Summer.  Took a side trip to Cedaredge where I stayed at an ADT trail coordinators house and had a fun rest day.  Then droping more than 5,000' to Grand Junction in a days walk to the dessert.

I met a guy and his dog while walking down off of the Grand Mesa.  He is an avid artifact hunter.  He invited me to stay at his place while I wait for my mom.  Yesterday we went artifact hunting for 6 hours on a sage brush mesa.  Above the many canyon washes were tons of flakes (debree from making stone tools), and a few actual tools.  But I just found a couple scrapers amung all of the flakes.  His collection is one of the best I've laid my eyes on.  I met a lot of generous, interesting, and inquisitive people on the Mesa.  Friendly area.

I've been preparing for the desert.  My pack is much much lighter and ready to carry a little over 2 gallons of water.  ugh.  I ditched my stove and fuel (cook on the fire if I want to cook), all my winter stuff, and other odds and ends.  If the going gets to hot I might have to use some alternate routes.  We shall see. 

 

From Leadville I hiked 6 days (without seeing hardly a soul) around Twin Lakes, up Clear Creek to the Coligate Peaks Wilderness, over a difficult snowy pass to another snowy timberline trail, down to the Taylor River, west across the Gunnison National Forest down to Clear Creek Canyon, and north to Crested Butte.  At the Taylor River I decided to take a lower elevation route because of the snow conditions. 

I think I'm finished with the 12,000'+ passes, and am taking an alternate route out of Crested Butte.  Just been to exauhsting.  Most of the passes and many of the trails since Georgetown havn't been treaded on in a long time.  It's been great exploring and blazing my own way without the help of visible trails or markers, and made me pretty good with a compass and map.  I met some hikers who had gotten to snow line at the Coligate Peaks to go to lake Anne and turned back.  I camped as far up in the mountains as I could, went fishing (no dice), had some Elks come close to camp, and woke up at 4:00 the next morning to attempt the pass while the snow was hard from overnight freezing.  Most of the way up in the morning the snow had gotten so hard I just walked on top of it (about 3' of snow).  When I reached lake Anne I put my snowshoes on for the cramp-on traction and was on top of the pass at 8:00.  I decended on the SW side, got a little banged up, and snowshoed much of the rest of the day until I reached the Taylor River in the late afternoon.  A full day.

I met a nice family in Spring Creek who invited me to stay at their cabin and eat all of their leftovers (since they would be leaving for Oklahoma in the morning).  I got cleaned up and the next day was in Crested Butte by lunch time.  Next stop, Grand Mesa, then Grand Junction and off to Utah.

I've been doing a lot of snow shoeing.  Crossed some awesome high elevation passes (Argentine, Searle, Kokamo).  I actualy took some good photos too.  I'll have to try and post them next stop (Crested Butte?).  They will explain a lot.

I've had to detour around some sections of trail due to snow conditions.  I've hiked up to 2 that I had to go back.  One near Breckenridge and the other yesterday near Leadville.  Many locals I talk to say that this is the most snow they have seen this late in the year in a very long time.

Yesterday I entered Mt. Massive Wilderness a little before noon.  The weather changed and started snowing.  After crossing the wilderness border there was no more trail signage.  So I navigated to the pass anyways using my map.  Snowshoeing up a creek the whole way.  While at the top I tracked back and forth on the ridge trying to find signs of the trail.  I found a dozen or so "i" carved in some trees, some at snow depth (3-4') or half buried.  The decent on the other side looked sketchy and the snow was all slush in the afternoon.  Some places very deep.  I decided to track back down the same way I came up, and follow a forest road that took me close to Leadville.  I camped last night, and woke up to snow.  Walked in to Leadville around noon.  Cold today, snowing off and on.  I telephoned Mike, the other ADT hiker that I've been hiking on and off with, he took another route after crossing Searle pass, and he had hitched to leadville and had a friend there who I could stay with.  So I've had a nice shower and some biscuits and gravy and out of the cold for a bit.

I saw a beaver and a fox snowshoeing up to Searle pass.  A bald eagle yesterday at 11,000'.  A big cyote or a wolf? at 5:30 in the morning near my camp several days ago.  We looked at each other for 10 seconds then he ran off.  Mountain ground hogs happily living at 12,000'.

I've left a lot out from Georgetown till here, like Argentine Pass (a journal entry all by itself).  The days have been packed.  Tired now and will rest for another day.  Feeling strong and healthy though.

I havn't gotten very far in the last couple weeks.  After spending a week in Denver, I spent almost another week in Conifer, at yet another trail coordinators house.  The reason for waiting is that another ADT hiker,"Lion King" Mike Daniels, was due in Denver.  We have planned to hike over some of the high elevations together, for safety.  While in Conifer, Harv (trail coordinator) and I built a roof from start to finish in 2 days, earning my keep.  Mike showed up and we have slowly been chipping our way to the highest elevation on the trail, Argentine pass.

The weather has been wet and snowy.  Yesterday it rained and snowed non-stop, morning till night.  Today we climbed from 7,500' to 11,000' and back to 8,600'.  Several miles in knee to waist deep snow, which was a chalenge without snowshoes.  In Georgetown we have some snow shoes waiting for us so that we can climb up to 13,500' (Argentine pass)  in a couple of days.  Today was beautiful.  Up in the clouds, blue sky breaking through, white untroden snow, great views of the surrounding white mountains, and quiet.  Even though there is a ton of snow it was warm today.  I'm feeling healthy and strong, and anxious to get moving.

Tommorow we take a short train ride out of Georgetown to the trail head, and back in the forest.

From Green Mountain Falls I slack packed (the art of having your gear transported ahead on the trail so you don't have to carry it) 60 miles on a nice mountain bike one day.  I was decked out with running shorts and shoes, a fanny pack, no shirt, and my hair blowing in the wind which has gotten quite long (I think I'll keep it till the weather gets hot).  Dick Bratton, the ADT Colorado Coordinator, helped me out on that one, which worked out very good considering there are not many places to camp for that 60 miles, unless one was inclined to being sneaky, and in that case there are places to hide.  Beautiful pasture country along the east side of the front range mountains. 

The next day I hiked up the Rampart Range and, to get water, camped off the trail at Bear Creek in the national forest South of Denver. 

The next day, instead of hiking back up to the trail, I decided to Navigate down the creek to where it crossed the Colorado Trail (a trail which starts in Denver, and crosses Colorado about 500 miles).  It snowed all night and the whole day till I was farther down in elevation where it turned to rain until 3.  The old trails I was following down the creek disapeared so I had to bushwack several miles. Very snowy and wet, steep moutain faces, downed trees everywhere.  I crossed the creek a dozen times, when one side of the creek turned to rock face the other side typicaly had a mini valley.  Finnaly when it was becoming most dificult I came upon a trail which I believed to be the Colorado trail, and after a mile there was a trail marker.

So I made it into Denver where some friends live who picked me up at the trail head.  It was a cold wet day.  The wettest day of hiking I've had so far.  I will be in Denver several days, and hopefully some of this snow will melt in the higher elevations.  I might be snow shoeing over Argentine pass (13,000+ feet in elev.)!  We shall see.  For now, I'm told it's steaks everynight.  No complaints out of me.

I've arrived in Green Mountain Falls to meet with Dick Bratton, the Colorado state coordinator for the American Discovery Trail.  We have been hashing out the Nevada section of the trail, which is probably the most tricky part of this route.

In the last several days I went from semi-arid desert to slightly wintery alpine country.  Havn't climbed any 14,000 foot mountains yet, but been across some 10,000 foot passes.  Been north to Cripple Creek, up Hoosier Pass, around the west side of Pikes Peak, north to Divide, Woodland Park, and now east to Green Mountain Falls.  I've been gentle on my feet, and started out with a 10 mile day then a 15 mile day, so on and so forth.  Been plenty tired and sore though.  Had some sleet, corn snow (little snow balls), rain, sun, a lot of wind, cold, and a little warm.  Saw my first Colorado black bear across the canyon on shelf road.  Had a nice high elevation campsite next to a little creek, cooked food on a nice warm fire, and layed there in the grass looking at the stars.  Woke up to a heavy frost and some clean cold air.  Hopped some fences to get off some roads and walk through much nicer pastures (makes you feel like you just duped the man).

This section of the ADT is much more about carefully conecting comunities together with non-motorized routes.  There are a lot of politicts involved in the design of the trail around Green Mountain Falls.  While that's a good thing in these comunities in and around Colorado Springs, I'm itchin to get into the wilderness (which will happen after I leave Denver).  I'm getting little tastes here and there; scrambling down the shelf canyon at Four Mile Creek to splash around the water, or hiking off road to find the perfect campsite.  I appreciate what the ADT folks are doing, I'm just ready to get away from paved roads and big towns.

It was hard to leave my friends in Canon City.  It aches to leave people you have grown close to.  And I miss everybody back home.  Happy mothers day to all those mothers out there tommorow.

 

About 10 days till I hit the road. 

I've made some good friends here in Cañon.  Most of them I didn't meet till recently, which is a bummer since I've been here since November.  I'll miss them more than I'd like to admit.

Cañon City turned out to be a realy good place to hibernate for the winter.  A lot of places to explore, mountains close by.  I've had more free time this month to go exploring since I've finished working at the ceramics shop in the middle of this month.  I've also been helping some friends out at an organic farm.  I get some free eggs and raw milk, and some spring greens, but mostly just an excuse to hang out with some friends.

My grandmother, mom, and aunt are coming to visit next week right before I leave.  That will be fun to show them around and spend time with family that I havn't seen in a year.

"20 miles a day on beans and hay", well maybe not the hay.

I’m hitting the road May 5th.  What’s ahead?  Mountains (lots of em), alpine forests and lakes, canyons, desert, the Pacific ocean.....  I’ve hiked over 3,000 miles (460 on the AT and 2,630 on the ADT), about 2,000 left.

Things have worked out well this winter.  I found a place to live and a job(s) quickly.  I found the jobs a little too quickly if you know what I mean.  I’ve been working full time at a Ceramics factory about 4 miles away, and part time as the gym custodian here at the Abbey, and a little bit of night security at the Abbey also.

I'm living at an old Catholic Abbey turned community events center.   For all intents and purposes it's a campus, used for company dinners, weddings, religous retreats, department of corrections officer training, park and gymnasium....the list goes on.  The Abbey used to be called the Holy Cross Abbey, and acted as a catholic school and monastery, housing students and monks/priests.  I am the sole resident these days.

I'm living and working part time here as security/custodian/events setup/go to guy.  Pretty good set up.  I Have a prefects room in Hedley Hall with an office/living room and bathroom.  No one else in the entire building, so the kitchen and common rooms I get to use too.  My boss's husband lent me his mountain bike, so now I can ride out to all the trails which are about 10 miles out of town.

I've had a couple 30 mile days since I've been here, 20 on bike 10 on foot.  Red Canyon was one trip, Tanner peak was another.  Tanner mountain is the highest elevation I have ever been on the earth, around 9,300 feet.  Mount Mitchell, the highest mountain in the east is under 7,000 feet to give you a comparison.  But it's relative. The base of the mountains here are a mile high, vs. the east coast mountains which start at something around 1000 feet or less (I think). 

It's been so warm here (upper 70's today) I feel I could have made it to Utah before it gets cold, but you never know.  I'd most certainly be at 12,000 feet somewhere in the middle of Colorado frozen to death tommorow morning.

I'm still looking intensely for another job.  I've applied with the USDA, city parks dept., library, mason contractor, hardware stores, the news paper, an industrial ceramics plant, nursery's, spoken with architects and engineers.  Something will come up.

My dad sent me my skateboard trucks and wheels and I bought a skateboard here, put it together, and skateboarded at the nice concrete skate park in town all weekend until I can barely walk today.  It's called Mountain View Park, and it has a great view.

There is a lot more going on, but that will have to wait till next time.