Lean and Mean to rte 114

8/7-  Back on the trail after 2 days of resting, eating and laughing with friends. 
The resupply team minus Sharon bidding ius farewell. It was so awesome to have my lovely wife Brenda fly out from NH to join us for a few days. She was a sight for sore eyes!  

RM and I got right back into the groove today. We covered 18 miles and made a new friend, Pickle. . 

Pickle is starting school at Fort Lewis college in Durango this fall, so he is walking there from his home in Denver. He has spent the last couple of years ski bumming at Steamboat. What a great kid!  

A beautiful view looking back at Mt Princeton  as we hiked out of the Cascade camp ground. 

Making our way through stunning pasture lands

We met some curious friends along the way. 

RM and Pickle  bringing it home for the day. 

8/8-  Another long day. 3000' elevation gain from 9000' to 12,000'. We covered 17 miles  and settled in for the night at Marshall Pass. 

Lots of water today but once we climb past the Collegiate Range water will become scarce. 

Some beautiful white asters along the trail. 

The east and west Collegiate trails meet up at 12,000''.  We chose to follow the east trail so that we could stop at Princeton Hot Springs. 

Gorgeous views from the Pass. 

Looking east. 

We share the trail with bikes and horses mostly but in this section they allow dirt bikes. As a motorcyclist myself, I have some ethical issues with backcountry riding but I did enjoy chatting it up with this group of riders from Minnesota. 

Making our way to camp. 

Home sweet home for the night. 

8/9-  Another 17 mile day with lots of up. Just under a 3,500' with a 1500' foot loss. Camping above 11,500' tonight and a thunderstorm is raging as I write. Storms are always a little unnerving at this elevation because you tend to be right in the thick of things. This one is moving through quickly.  

We are 17 miles to our next resupply so we should have a hop in our step tomorrow. As of today we have hiked 283 miles.  No wonder my feet hurt!

9:00 am on the trail  Got a late start because we had to dry out  from a frosty night. Good morning Colorado!

Moving through high pasture land. Watch where you step RM. 

Where we have been

Where we are going. ..Mesa country. 

RM doing his morning Tai Chi. 

Here comes the rain. 

Thunderstorms to the left and to the right as we made elevation in the late afternoon.   But we stayed dry!

Wildflowers are everywhere. 

Made camp in a beautiful field of fireweed and aster.  

8/10-  Wrong way Jim takes the boys on an adventure.  It never fails ...  Just about every trip I go on I screw up the directions.  Our projected 17 mile day turned into a 21 mile fiasco with one wrong turn,  Sorry RM.  We ended up on a forest service road going in the opposite direction we should have gone. Luckily 2 fly fisherman took pity on us and gave us a lift out to the highway. 

Hero 1 and 2 with RM. 

But we needed to get to the CT trailhead which was 7 miles west.   We started hitchhiking but no one would stop to pick up scraggly old men. Finally hero 3 took pity on us because it looked like the sky's were going to open up. This kind soul took us to the trailhead. 

We were suppose to meet Jeff and Sue at the trailhead but we were 2 hours late and they weren't there. Fortunately they came back alooking for us and we reunited at about 7:00 pm. Ahhh,  I love resupply days. A hot meal, cold beer and a night sleeping in Van Gogh. 



Thank you Jeff and Sue!!  You guys are awesome!  

Still it was a great day on the trail...

Riding in the back of the truck to Rte. 114. 

Rwas M taking care of his aching feet after I caused him to walk 4 extra miles. 

There were miles of raspberry bushes along the trail today. We picked half a quart for Sue.  

We'll sleep in tomorrow and take the morning to rest and repack for our next 55 mile segment from Rte 114 to Spring Creek Pass. 

302 miles  down and 183 to go.