Silverthorne to Grand Lake (June 17-20)

In the morning after lousy sleep on the motel floor and now with a back strain flaring back up, I shot up quickly walked to the bus stop and went to Target. I shopped for some new headphones, charger cable, and some snacks then returned to the motel and dropped off my bags and walked over to REI, then to City Market to shop for food then back to the room again. Nimbles went to McDonalds and I planned to meet him there. There was a big storm front moving in and we expected heavy rain at some point but everything looked good in our general area so we planned to hike. Twisted had decided to stay in Silverthorne another two days since he had a knee hurting him, the German National football team was in the World Cup and he wanted to watch their game the next day, and he wanted to wait for a female hiker named Skeeter who’d Id not yet met and he was planning to hike with her. At the room, Larry Boy was there hanging with Twisted and repeatedly claimed that Nimbles and I wouldn’t actually leave that day, which frankly, annoyed the hell out of me to no end, and only served to solidify my departure. After sorting my food and packing up I said a bit of an awkward goodbye to Twisted and completely ignored Larry Boy as they left to go see a movie. I left the room and met Nimbles five minutes later and after a quick bite we were on our way back on the trail.

The trail… was mostly road for five miles, all uphill before turning to single track. We hiked ten miles and over Ptarmigan Pass and dropped to South Williams Fork Creek. Constantly looking back and checking on the storm front over the area behind us, we climbed back up to 12,000 feet then dropped to Bobtail Creek and stopped for the night after seven more miles where we saw Natural and his tent on the other side of the water. We crossed and camped by him for the night.
Nimbles and I woke and we’re back hiking at 6am, joined now by Natural.

After crossing Bobtail Creek again we climbed steep switchbacks up to 12,798 feet and rejoined the CDT regular route just before the Vasquez wilderness boundary. Today we wouldn’t be so fortunate with the weather, as we watched clouds swirl and build above and behind us we had a view down to McQuery Lakes before reaching Vasquez Peak where we knew we were about to get hammered by weather. Flying right by the peak at an increasingly fast pace we lost elevation but not fast enough as wind picked up and lightening cracked the sky nearby. We ran. Down the trail we flew before we all looked at each other as we simultaneously spotted trees about 500 more feet below and headed for them. Despite what your intuition might tell you, trees are not the best place to be during lightening. Down was our first instinct and trees were our second due to the shelter and sense of security they can offer. Rain fell and wind howled and we reached the stand of dense trees as one more lightening strike clapped down a little further away this time. We made coffee and gathered our soaking wet wits. After 25 minutes with the storm apex moving past us we hiked back to the ridge and towards Stanley Peak, but chose to drop off the CDT down a spur trail through Butler Gulch and to Woods Creek Road all the way past Urad mine to a rest area that was next to state route 40. We ate lunch and then saw Baskets and Nope coming down the dirt road to the rest area where they joined us. The five of us hiked the highway six more miles towards Berthoud Pass and as we climbed back up we saw the cloud level where we knew rain awaited us.

As it started to rain again Baskets spotted a can of Coke across the road, then another on our side of the road, and a third in a six pack holder that was cracked open and leaking. We figured someone must have driven by and tossed some drinks at us thinking we’d be thirsty and Baskets scooped up and opened the food can much to Nope’s disappointment since he claimed he “saw it” first!
The rain became heavy and we quickly got soaked. From traveling Berthoud Pass I knew there was a bathroom and warming hut at the top of the pass used by backcountry skiers and maintained by the Colorado Mountain Club and after mentioning this we hiked even faster! Being a sunday, hundreds of cars and trucks passed by us going down the pass as we ascended further, soaking us with spray as they went by at excessive speed – just like every Colorado driver. We reached the pass, crossed the road and headed for the warming hut at the end of the parking area. Once inside everyone was relieved to find it was actually a heated building with lots of bench space. We all hung out wet gear and after a short discussion we decided we were, despite the signage, going to sleep in the hut overnight. We all laid out sleeping bags and easily went to sleep. The fact a few drivers came into use the bathroom barely affected my ability to pass out and get a decent night’s rest, happy and thankful for our good fortune.

The following day we were handed an immediate long climb up and around Mt Flora which provided an amazing view of lake Ethel to the east and Winter Park below to the west.
Next came James Peak involving several thousand more feet of strenuous climbing and epic view that felt as if we were in the Pacific Northwest.

The rest of the day we passed through Indian Peaks Wilderness a beautiful and scenic area with abrupt peaks and still frozen alpine lakes.

Overall, we had a great day compared with the previous wet effort and the five of us hiked together before late afternoon thunderheads threatened us again.
Our fifth and final day involved traversing Granby Lake the. Grand Lake itself. The first was a long, beautiful area with lots of campgrounds and lots of people out for the weekend. I watched a young boy fly fish for a few minutes and thought about what I might be doing right now if I weren’t making my way through Colorado on the CDT.

Grand Lake involves some unexpected climbing up some steep hillsides and around burn areas. So much beetle kill scarred the landscape in this area, a reminder of the past 15-20 years of devastation. This lake borders, in fact, is in Rocky Mountain National Park and it was a bit of a sad site to see all the damage. I’d estimate 60-70% of the forrest was dead.
Tired and a bit grumpy in that what we thought our final day would be easy but turned out exhausting, we made it into Grand Lake and I headed right for the burger and ice cream joint where I was met by everyone else. Nimbles, Natural and I walked through town up to Stonecliff Hostel which was a fantastic old lodge overlooking town and the lake. We did laundry, bought beer and settled in for the night.

I didn’t expect or plan on taking a rest day but at this point I’d hiked nearly three weeks straight without taking a day off. Waking in the morning Nimbles looked at me and asked what my plan was and I admitted – I had to take a rest. I got up with him and he, Natural and I went out to breakfast before Nimbles headed out to the trail. I spent the day fixing gear and gene metal doing nothing as that was all I was in the mood to do. I windows shipped with Natural and we grabbed dinner before turning in again and getting ready for the next day which would take us on a short alternate past Rocky Mountain National Park.

Day 1: 10.5 miles
Day 2: 22 miles
Day 3: 28 miles
Day 4: 24 miles