While I was in town at Chama, I called Carrie, my friend from NatureBridge, and planned to meet her in Pagosa Springs the next week. She lives in Golden, Colorado, and helped me last year when I was injured. She offered to bring my resupplies last year, but it never happened. This year, yes, it’s going to happen! I have many friends along the CDT, and I am looking forward to seeing them. They are one of the biggest motivations for me to continue hiking. 

After eating a big plate of Rancho Huevos at a local diner in Chama, I reorganized my food and hitched a ride back to the Cumbres Pass with Jacob. I learned that he did the CDT in 2022 and told me that the Colorado section was most toughest due to snow. He said that he never used his ice axe. “I don’t think I even used my microspikes,” said Jacob in the car. I thought that was helpful information. I said goodbye to him and started hiking.

I knew I was in Colorado when I started negotiating with snow and saw massive snow-capped mountains. I looked at my map and read the landscape to figure out a path that avoids snow the most. It meant climbing up on the ridge instead of following the trail on the steep snow slopes, hopping on boulder fields, and still postholing when I had to. It was no longer a trail hike. It’s a route finding and wilderness navigation to hike the CDT. From my experience in New Mexico, I often had to off-trail travel when hiking the CDT. It’s a trail and it’s not. For that, CDT is interesting and challenging. I think it’s fun!

It was time to find a camp, and I knew I had to get out of the ridge. The ridge line walking was getting intense with strong winds, and I needed a quiet and protected spot. I found a perfect tiny spot free of snow in the trees once turned away from the ridge. As I ate my dinner and planned for the next few days, I decided to alpine start, meaning you get up super early, so that I can take advantage of frozen snow to walk on the surface instead of postholing in the late afternoon.

The next day, I woke up early and left the camp at 5 am, later than I wanted to. I watched the sunrise and had an easy time walking on the snow. By 10 am, the snow was getting soft, and after 2 pm, I started to posthole badly. Sometimes it got up to my hip, and once you stop moving in the moment that happens, you get stuck, and it takes a long time to dig yourself out. I quickly learned to keep kicking the posthole to avoid spending minutes digging myself out. 

I didn’t make a wise choice when the trail was going to traverse the trees in the late afternoon. It was a short one. I decided to go for it. A major mistake. I was postholing almost every step. I could have turned around and gotten up to the ridge. Instead, I decided to go down the hill to the drainage. I planned to walk up the drainage to catch the trail. Once I was in the drainage, almost every step I took, I sank into the snow, and soon I was crawling. I knew it would not last for long. I found a tiny flat area next to the tree with a little bit of bare ground. It’s not ideal, but it’s a perfect bivy spot. I decided to set up my camp and continue the climb in the morning when everything is frozen. 

That was a really good lesson. It’s not that I didn’t know about drainage would have deep snow but I overestimated the amount of effort it takes to move when the snow in the trees is soft in the afternoon. Even if it seems like a short distance, when the conditions are not in your favor, it will turn out to be a long way. I spent 90 minutes to move a mile. I will remember this hard lesson and I hope to do better next time!

The next day at 3:50 am, I was ready to go. There were no stars in the sky. It was overcast. I made the climb no problem and was back on the trail. What a big difference from the day before!! 

As the sky turned light, I saw dark clouds and a beautiful sunrise, meaning that the weather was coming unexpectedly. It was supposed to be sunny/cloudy, but it didn’t seem like it was going to be that way. By 10 am, it started to snow, and in early afternoon. I heard thunder multiple times. By 2 pm, it was like winter. Snow and wind were blowing hard, and the visibility was sometimes less than 200 feet. Of course, no one was out there. But….. I was wrong! I surprised a pair of Ptarmigan hanging out on the rocks! They looked perfectly normal in their element while I was there, tolerating the storm. I thought about bivy, but then it was exposed, and there weren’t many options. Plus, I was doing well considering the situation. So I kept going .

I came to Adam’s Fork Conejos River and finally got the first water of the afternoon. I looked for a camping spot and found one near a tree and shrub that was somewhat protected from the wind and snow. As I settled down, I thought what a day! I certainly didn’t expect this snowstorm in May. But I thought it was a good test of my ability to self-care and move in such challenging conditions- 17 miles in 12 hours at an altitude between 11,000 and over 12,000 feet. At that point, I had 27.3 miles to Wolf Creek Pass, and it would take me two days to get there in such conditions. As I lay down, I hoped the weather would improve the next day and have a beautiful day in the mountains.

The next day was an epic. The snowstorm picked up again at night. I had to slide the accumulated snow off the tent often, all night long. My tent is a three-season tent and not made to handle snow. The wind blew snow inside the tent through the screens. Gees, it’ll be a long night, I thought. 

In the morning, a foot-deep snow was surrounding the tent! It was still snowing, so I waited for it to pass. Around 7 am, I saw the blue sky and the sun. 

I started hiking, but it was more like snow prowling, especially after the last night’s heavy snow. The footsteps I was following here and there were buried. I braced myself for breaking the trail all by myself, moving forward. I looked at the landscape and the map, and decided to climb up the gully to the ridge instead of prowling the deep snow in the valley where the CDT runs. The climb was fine, and since it was steep, there wasn’t much snow, and I didn’t posthole at all. By the time I reached the top of the ridge, I couldn’t see anything: a complete whiteout. I had to rely on GPS to navigate since I couldn’t see the landscape. It was very strange. One point, the blizzard kicked in, and I knew I was going downhill, but it felt like swimming in the air and going nowhere. I kept going, hoping that the weather would pass soon. I wondered if Mother Nature was giving me a test to see if I’m strong and have the endurance to hike the CDT. Or is this just so happened to be a challenging time? Either way, I am just trying to walk to Canada. 

I negotiated with the route even if I couldn’t see anything. I was moving in a way to minimize the snow crawling and have a little bit of fun. Still, I was deep covered with the snow many times. Finally, around 3 pm, the storm passed, and suddenly, the world revealed itself. I could see! I enjoyed the sun and put out my wet tent and other gear to dry out. I was relieved to feel the warmth and the sunshine.

It took me 8 hours to move 10 miles, and that was one of the longest days of my life. When I got to the junction of the CDT and two other alternative routes, I didn’t hesitate to take the Elwood Pass alternative route. It follows a lower elevation, so that means less snow and moving faster. Taking this route allowed me to meet Carrie within the timeframe that she was available.

I thought what a day!  I was dehydrated, hungry, and exhausted. I was happy to see bare ground where I was able to pitch my tent. It was still very cold but I was relieved big time!

The next day, I hiked out to the State highway following the Elwood Pass alternative route along Park Creek. Once I hit below 9,500 feet, there was no more snow on the path. It’s incredible how easy it becomes when you can just walk on the ground. The day before, it took me 7 hours to move 10 miles. I was able to make it to the highway in 6 hours, covering 16 miles. What a big difference!

I hitched a ride with Paul, who was on his way to Pagosa Springs for his computer business. He dropped me off at a grocery store where I would meet Carrie.

I walked into the store and bought salt and vinegar kettle chips, hard-boiled eggs, and a banana. I inhaled all of these in a few minutes. A guy who walked by me said, “You could eat the whole bag of chips because of all the walking you did!” Another guy who walked out of the store said, “Good luck out there,” and gifted me a fancy chocolate bar. A woman who works at the store told me that she would reach out to her Japanese friends in town and ask if they could host me. All these things happened in a matter of half an hour before Carrie showed up.

It was so nice to see Carrie, a familiar face in an unfamiliar place. We caught up a little bit, and while she was on the work call, I opened the resupply box that I meant to use last year. Carrie kept it for me, and everything looked great. Then she drove me to a hotel where I could get warm and cozy.

This was the very first section of one of the most challenging terrains, if not the most, that I would travel on the CDT. If going northbound and thru-hiking, you would inevitably encounter snow in the San Juan/Weminuche Wilderness. If I can make it between mile 733 and 977, that would be amazing. 

For that, I need to rest up well. I was spent by the surprise winter storm. I didn’t have the right equipment to do that. I will reevaluate the plan and adjust my resupply locations. It’ll be a few days. 

Meanwhile, let the snow melt and someone else break the trail.