Finally, I started my hiking day before 8am. Today, Dang, Knuckles, and I were rolling around 7am. We quickly made the pass between Peak Six and Peak Five which was along the ski boundary for Breckinridge. Traversing north, we dipped into about five miles of snow for the day.
| 🗓️ Date | June 18th |
| ⇢ Mileage | 26.1 |
| 📍 Trip Mileage | 1177.3 |
| ⛅️ Weather | Clear, beautiful day |
| 🏞️ Trail Conditions | Brief miles of snow around Breckinridge ski area, clear Colorado Trail tread most of day |
In the forested area, we decided to follow Miner’s Creek along its ravine instead of the snowed forest of trail. It was tedious navigating snow clumps, downed trees, and the tributaries of the creek, be we eventually merged back with trail, cutting off maybe half a mile.
The trail winded down to Colorado Highway 9, which leads to Breckinridge to the south or Frisco to the north. I was only a matter of a day and a half out from Leadville, so a town stop was egregiously unnecessary.
We continued along the trail. The Colorado Trail and the CDT are merged still, and we are quite a ways from the watershed divide line. I’m okay with it — it’s a bit lower elevation and less snow covered.
The Colorado Trail out of Breckinridge area had an abundance of mountain bikers. Over the ten miles out of Breckinridge, I passed nearly 50 mountain bikers. Most don’t follow trail protocol to yield to hikers. Instead, they fly at full speed, no braking, and expect hikers to jump out of the way. I get it. Mountain biking is fun when it’s fast. But, it might be preferable to find a trail other than the Colorado Trail to be bombing trails.
The trail was very mild today, and Knuckles, Dang, and I made an early camp before 7pm after 26 miles of hiking. We ate and chatted around a fire until 10pm before it was time to rest for tomorrow. Tomorrow’s terrain might just make for the hardest day on trail yet.
Signing off,
Zeppelin / fReaK (ON a leash)
Leave a Reply