Grand Lake, CO and raining

Hi everyone. Sorry I didn't post from Leadville. We ran into our friend and fellow-hiker, HUI, and spent the whole time in town visiting with him.

We are currently in Grand Lake, CO after discovering that Colorado is pretty much nothing but rain in September. We had one day with no rain between Salida and Leadville, and then had two days with no rain between Leadville and Grand Lake, but one of those days was a short day and the other was a roadwalk with lots of threatening clouds. As I type it is pouring outside and we are taking a day off in GL in order to dry out. This "zero" day will replace the scheduled zero we had for Steamboat Springs.

The section from Salida to Leadville was relatively easy, with few big climbs and a lot of time spent in valleys either east or west of the divide. The only real exception was Hope Pass, a nearly 3000 ft climb with few switchbacks just south of Twin Lakes. Unfortunately we had almost endless spitting with some brief, strong rain showers and we were wet pretty much every minute after the first 16 miles, so it didn't seem like a particularly easy section. The worst day by far was Liv's bday (Sept. 6), which was very sad. It rained most of the day and we ended up sleeping in an old cabin with a lot of rat turds and a lumpy floor. I think the Little Debbie cakes she packed out made her birthday at least a bit happy, but the weather definitely didn't cooperate.

We stayed at the hostel in Leadville and "slack-packed" the 22 miles between Tennessee Pass and Copper Mt via the bus system. The two nights in Pbvl were very nice and Hui showed up the second night with his friend BP, so we had a real nice time visiting and then making breakfast the next day. Joel was so excited to sleep in a bed two nights in a row that he decided to skip the next section and stay at the hostel to recuperate further.

Liv and I got a ride from BP down to Copper Mt and hung out at the convenience store with Hui for another few hours before walking the bike path to Frisco and then Silverthorne. We stopped for beer and sushi in Frisco on our walk, which was probably the neatest and least backpackey thing we have done on the trail in a long time. When we got to Silverthorne we walked through the outlet mall and then up the hill past a few cheap hotels, one of which had a sign that said rooms for $49+. We briefly thought about staying another night in a bed before deciding that was too opulent and Liv said she would quickly run in and get a soda from the vending machine before we left town.

Just at that moment, Fandango and Piper called to ask if we were in Silverthorne. They were two hours out and wanted to stay with us in town. We immediately booked that cheap hotel room and went to the hot tub. A third night in a bed was very nice and we had a good time talking to Kevin and Piper, but we probably stayed up too late (for me at least).

The rest of the section from Silverthorne to Grand Lake was the hardest section for us so far on the whole trail. We climbed over 6000 ft one day and almost as much the next. The trail was hard to follow, with no tread in places and just cairns in the tall grass. In addition to the difficult trail conditions we encountered a lot of very strong winds, some rain, some blowing snow flurries, some hail, and a few very cold nights. The winds were especially annoying while climbing above treeline because the trails were steep but whenever we stopped to catch our breathes we would get very cold and then sweat again while walking.

The highlight of the section for me was the Berthoud pass warming hut, which was just a building out of the wind. We got there and had second breakfast (including coffee/tea) and then started to take naps. Then Team TEAM (minus eblanket) showed up and we had a nice three hour hiker reunion that really recharged us before the climb up Mt. Flora. It was great to see MoSho, ABear, and Trainwreck and we hope they continue to have a good hike towards NM.

We ran into Freebie on the top of Jame's Peak and then Vocal on the roadwalk south of GrandLake. It was great to see everyone and hear all the stories and we are now even more excited about flipping back to NM and running into everyone again.

Well it is time to eat a sandwich and let someone else use the computer at the Bakery. I hope everyone out there is enjoying the Spot updates that Liv is dilegently updating nightly ( I would forget). Please wish us good weather as we push towards Steamboat Springs tomorrow.