The night’s sleep on our sloping perch was not sound. What had looked like a flat bench in the fading light last evening proved to be lumpy and still falling away from the ridgeline enough that a slow slide pushed us both to one side of the tent.
A cold night brought ice on the inside of the tarp, again. Morning brought more early clouds. We walked back up to the ridgeline trail and followed it along the rolling grasslands east towards the pass, our finish line for this year.
The rugged panoramic scenes of the San Juans were fading behind us. We stopped often to turn around and just …
After going to bed with skies clear, except for a multitude of stars and the Milky Way, the rains began around 4am. Morning came with wet ground and still cloudy skies.
We startd the long climb up back to the divide, up Pole Creek. Pole creek follows a wide open valley, sparsely treed but with lots of grass, wildlfowers and willow brush. And cows, the first we’ve seen since leaving Wolf Creek Pass. We’re out of the Weminuche wilderness now.
We had breakfast on a high bluff with views up the broad valleys of both the west and middle forks of Pole Creek. Storm clouds were already brewing on the crest. …
The skies cleared over night but left a heavy dew. The inside of the tent was covered with a layer of ice and there was frost on the food bags left outside. Our drinking tubes froze shut and socks which were wet become stiff. It was cold, such is July in Colorado camped at 12,000 feet.
The morning walk was a cold bath, walking through willows wet from the heavy dew. The water ladens branches and leaves were just waiting for a passing hiker to wash. Turn your head, don’t forget to get behind the ears. Completely wet from waist down.
We climb gradually to Nebo Pass, the most dramatic pass …
Rain fell heavy during the night leaving items on the side of the tarp tent wet and leaving the ground damp outside. The storm also left cloudy skies. All morning threatening clouds swirled about, but didn’t do too much.
We climbed a high ridge and followed the divide as it rolled along to high points (as high as 12,700) and lower basins. A heard of elk occupied one basin. As we watched them, from high above grazing, a chorus of coyotes echoed their calls off canyon walls a mile or so away. The elk took notice and moved to the cover of willows in a midslope area.
On top of a rocky …
The morning found us walking right on the divide, along a wooded ridge with lots of short ups and downs. Eventually as the ridge got higher we broke out above the trees with views all around.
As the divide turned north it dropped into the first of two “Knife Edges”. The first was really more of a “butter knife”, slighty rounded on top. At the end of this ridge the trail took to a contour on the east side of the divide, going in and out of several high basins. Occasional elk and mule deer were in the basin grazing on the lush green grass and having wildflowers for dessert.
We …
