Since I arrived Lake City a day earlier, I had to wait for my resupply to arrive at the post office. I was annoyed with the wait, at the same time, I enjoyed the luxurious morning at the RV camp. I took time to take care of my gear. Since I carry minimum equipment, I am always fixing things. My gear take a toll of harsh environments. As much as I need to take care of my body, my equipment deserves a good amount of care. I first stitched up my shoes. They need to last 100 more miles until I have a new pair waiting for me at Salida. Then I stitched up my backpack. I also took good care of myself. I took another hot shower, stretched and did physical therapy workouts, ate big breakfast, and headed out to the Hiker Center.

At the center, there was always a volunteer. I heard that the center would be open for the entire summer. Last year they had almost 1,000 hikers!

Finally at 12:30 pm, my package was ready to be picked up so I went to the post office. The officer said, “how was it to get here?” I said, “Epic! So much snow in San Juan.” They said, “Yeah that’s why so many hikers are bumping their boxes from here to different locations.” Apparently, many hikers skipped the section and went to other sections with less snow to hike. 

I brought the box back to the Hiker Center and started packing my food. Then I heard Casey talking to Rudy, the Canadian hiker I met in New Mexico, about the ride in early tomorrow morning. I asked him if he would be willing to take me to the Spring Creek Pass. He said Yes! About half an hour later, I was in his truck. “You’re the first hiker I’m taking to the pass this year. It’s still early for most people,” said Casey. He lives in Texas and he comes to Lake City in the summer time. He started to giving a ride to thru-hikers, and through the word of mouth, he sometimes gets a call from hikers from the trail, asking him to pick them up. People like Casey makes a big impact on me. Without trail angels, it would be very difficult to get resupply.

On our drive, it started raining. It’s the typical afternoon thunderstorm in Colorado. I got out of the car and said thank you and good-bye to Casey. Then I walked over to a tiny kiosk at the pass to wait out for the rain to pass. It became  just sprinkles so I started the hike. 

The trail climbed a steep slope to a pass then to Snow Mesa in Rio Grande National Forest. I could see table shaped  hills all the way to the horizon. With minimum snow, I was able to hike  with steady pace. Sometimes in the gully or drainage, or north-facing slopes, there were snow and I navigated around it as much as I could to avoid postholing. Still, nothing came close to what I’ve done in San Juan. 

I found water and a nice camp after 5 hours of hiking. I was able to put over 10 miles! I thought I may be able to start hiking like a thru-hiker again and put some miles till Salida. I was excited!

There was something different about the next morning. I wasn’t shivering waking up! My socks weren’t frozen either. It’s an indication that climate is becoming more mild and suitable for human needs. I also had a pair of dry socks so it was pleasant getting ready to leave for the trail. 

I went over the 12,177 feet pass first thing in the morning. I saw an unfrozen lake and mountains illuminated by the morning sky and I stood there in awe of incredible colors of the sky.

I descended down to the junction of Creed Cut Off, the CDT alternative route, and the official CDT. If taking the official CDT, the junction marks the 118 mile circle around the San Juan Mountains and Weminuche Wilderness! I was excited to complete the circle. 

I saw a hiker from the Creed Cut Off as I was descending and soon I caught up with him. I learned that he was 60 years old and he has done CDT southbound 6 years ago. He pointed the tall peak and said, “That’s San Luis Peak. It’s one of the 14ers along the CDT. The trail will take us to the saddle and from there to the summit is about a mile. If there is any CDT hiker to do it, it’ll be you. You might be the first CDT hiker to summit this year.” I noticed some snow on the top. He said, “If you do it, don’t die up there.”

I said there’s usually bare ground on the other side of the ridge so it’ll be fine. He said, “You’re a beast!” I took it as a compliment.

Once I made it to the pass, I looked at the weather and the peak. Both looked great. From the saddle, it’s a gentle ridge line. I appreciated him for the inspiration. I dropped my pack and grabbed a few items then started walking up to the peak. As I got higher and higher, other tall mountains started to look so small. When I made it to the top, I could see the 360 degrees view of the entire world. Tears welled up as I inhaled such incredible beauty of our world. What a privilege to have an opportunity to explore the most remote national scenic trail!

San Luis Peak became my first 14er summit in Colorado. Remembering the stunning views from the top, I hope I will take more chances to summit other 14ers along the way.

For the rest of the day, I hiked along Cochetopa Creek and came down to 10,400 feet. It was warm! I see aspen trees for the first time since I started hiking in Colorado. I was quite tired towards the end of the day and realized that I climbed 3 passes that were over 12,000 feet, 14,000 feet high Sam Luis Peak dealing with snow and descended from all of them down to 10,400 feet all within 16 miles.

I decided to end my day little earlier than usual. I found a great spot tucked in the trees away from the trail and I set my camp. Within 10 minutes, a thunderstorm set in and rained for hours. At sunset, I peeked out when it momentarily stopped and saw a rainbow with golden evening sky. I thought what a full day! 

The next day, I began my morning , hiking along the Cochetopa Creek. After passing the La Galita Wilderness sign, I walked into the meadow and went over a hump. The sun greeted me right then, and the entire meadow turned into gold. Aspen leaves lime green color became more vivid. The wildflowers lit up in the morning light. I heard American Robins chirping and the sound of creek running in the background. The frost on the leaves was sparkling against the sunshine. I see this every day and I am mesmerized by it. I thought what a beautiful and peaceful morning! Again!

The trail followed the creek, easy and long downhill hiking and led me to a big creek crossing. As I was hiking down, I noticed that there were a lot of beaver dams in this creek. The crossing was down the creek from the confluence of two creeks so when I looked at the crossing, the water level was high, I couldn’t see the bottom and the water was moving pretty fast. I went upstream a little bit where I saw beaver dams. I stepped in and crossed a couple creeks then walked on one of the dams to finish the crossing. Thanks to beavers, I didn’t have to go too deep in the water. I felt safe regardless of how much water was running. Even if I fell, I would just swim across the pool of water that beaver dammed. 

After crossing the creek, I walked in and out of aspens and grassland. The bright lime green color leaves entertained my eyes, and I imagined how beautiful it could be in the fall when they turned golden. I saw water evaporating from the grass, so mystical and beautiful. 

For the entire morning, I saw moose scat on the trail. Every time I saw the scat, I called them, “Da Moose!!” Finally, I saw a couple of them together! First, they ran into Aspen trees and I thought they disappeared. A few minutes later, I saw one of them in the grassland and they kept looking at me. They started running towards the Aspen tree. That’s when I saw the other one. I could see their white breath. It seemed to me that they both studied me. I looked at them, kept telling them that I’m OK and they’re OK. Then they disappeared in the Aspen tree. It was magical. What a great start of the day! One of the benefits of getting up early is increasing my chance to see wildlife and I was lucky to be able to encounter moose.

I crossed a sign that said “CDT 1,000 mile point!” around noon. I was in such joy and thought of Gila River and San Juan sections as my most challenging and rewarding moments I had for the first one third of the CDT. I overcame these challenges and I look forward to meeting whatever challenges that are about to unfold ahead of me.

For the rest of the day, I climbed a couple of passes through aspen stands, grassland and mixed forest. The trail turned into forest roads for quite sometimes and I even saw ATVers and a motorcycle while walking. Hiking on the dirt roads are sometimes hard on my feet. I cross-country hiked whenever made sense to give my feet some break.

I didn’t see any snow on or around the trail for the entire day! I felt like a thru-hiker again, cruising up and down the trail and covering the ground. I met a couple who came to mountain bike in mid afternoon and they said it should be clear of snow till Monarch Pass. That’s a great news! I thought I would just enjoy cruising till then.

The next morning, I crossed the highway then back on the Forest Road, I slowly and steady, made it to a pass, and from there, I finally was able to leave the road and hike the trail again.

All day long, the trail followed the continental divide mostly in the forest.

I climbed up steep slope to a saddle and descended to another saddle. I repeated that for the entire day.

I want to follow the continental divide so at one point instead of following the trail, I followed the divide. As soon as I stepped into the forest from the trail, I was greeted by mosquitoes! I guess it’s warm and there is enough moisture that they started to hatch. They kept me going and eventually I merged with a the CDT. On the trail there was much less mosquitoes. I climbed up to a peak and I saw small patches of snow but no snow on the trail made my travel easier.

I’ve been lucky with the weather and I know we’re heading into the afternoon thunderstorm season. By 1 o’clock I saw dark clouds started to form. Soon, I heard thunders. Luckily, I did not see any lightning, but I couldn’t tell because I was in the thick of the woods. I also didn’t have a good visibility of where I was going so I wasn’t sure about what the weather looked like in the direction that I was going. I heard one loud thunder then hailing. I went under trees and waited to see if it stop hailing soon. It stopped in about five minutes. The wind stopped as well. The sky was lighten up a little bit. But I haven’t heard any birds yet. When they sing, I usually take it as an indication of improvement of the weather. By 1:45 pm, I heard birds chirping again. I was relieved.

The final section was my favorite part of the day. It was all downhill along a creek. First coming out of the woods to a large meadow with a view of new mountain ranges. As I went down the meadow, it was a field of dandelions. Other wildflowers were also blooming all the way until I crossed the creek. I got water from the creek and started to climb uphill for another mile. Just before I settled in to my camp, I ended my hike with aspen and yellow lupine tunnel, as if the nature was congratulating me for another day of hiking.

The next day, I started early so that I could reach Monarch Pass in the early afternoon. When I resupply, I usually like to arrive in the morning so that I have majority of the day to organize my gear, take a shower, do a laundry, write a blog post, fix gear, etc. 

Walking in the dark with the nearly full moon was beautiful. I was climbing toward the peak named Windy Peak. I heard wind, but an hour before sunrise, everything got really quiet. I made it to the pass and showered by the sunshine from the east. The clouds were lit with a pink color. The trail went to the north slope to traverse to another peak and I saw snow everywhere! I stayed on the continental divide ridge line and walked on a snow free gentle slope toward the top then descended down to catch the CDT. 

Above 10,000 feet. I enjoyed walking in the woods today better than yesterday because I had a better visibility of where I was going. I went over a couple of passes abound 12,000 feet, dealing with some snow before descending down to Monarch Pass. 

From the pass, I hitched a ride down to the Butterfly House, a hiker hostel. I got a ride with three people: a woman from Mexico, Clayton, and Tiffany – thank you ! At the hostel, I was the only guest for a few hours then three other hikers came in. It’s a unique place where I felt very comfortable as if I came to a friend house. I liked all the wood cookies with hikers names that decorate the house.

Josh, a caretaker of the hostel, said, “Make sure to make one before you leave tomorrow. We’ll add yours to the wall too.” 

Looking at all the cookies with Josh,
I felt welcome. I  belong here.  I’m one of them!