Before I started the CDT, I bought a new Garmin Enduro 3. It has lots of bells and whistles, but my biggest reason I purchased it was the tracking of distance and it is solar powered. What I wasn’t aware of is it tracks my sleep too. So when I woke up this morning after a fitful night of sleep, it immediately told me my sleep score was 10. 10?!?! Out of 100! That’s not going to help my hiking and it also reminded me that I may be irritable today. You think? And so my day started.

We had a good climb out of the gate and it was quite challenging. We were headed to the ridge line so it’s high altitude and we’re going up for the next six miles. We are in the Arapaho National Park headed towards Sheep Mountain. The views were stunning, as they are at 11,000’. I could see the fall colors of the Aspens and Willows in the valleys below, along with many of the small flowers and ground covering next to my feet.

As the morning went on, Hogged Up discovered a lower route that would keep us off the ridge line during the incoming thunderstorm. That sounded like a brilliant idea and being I had little energy to climb much more, was happy to oblige. We had lunch and grabbed some water at Troublesome Pass. First of all, if you name a pass troublesome, that doesn’t suggest clear sailing!

After lunch, the thunder rolled in and our decision was cemented. Let’s get off this mountain and take the lower route. This added another four miles to our day but it was warranted and a wise choice. And so we dropped in elevation, were rained and hailed on, had thunder and lightning all around us but instead of being up at 12,000 above tree-line, we were at 9,000’ with Aspens and Willows. And we lived to hike another day.

Sometimes, well I can honestly say, almost everyday on this trail we have big goals, grand plans and before long, we are adapting, changing and rerouting! It’s the nature of this trail. I have come to enjoy the nuances of the CDT. And this is why there is never a singular route that everyone follows. You can talk to ten hikers and seldom, if ever, will they follow the same path.

We made it to Willow Creek, which as the crow flys is close to five miles north of where we had planned to camp tonight. So tomorrow, if I dare to say, we will head back to the redline and continue our Sobo trek. But then, who knows? I guess I’ll just have to wait and see where God directs our steps.

“Wisdom and money can get you almost anything, but only wisdom can save your life.”
‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭7‬:‭12‬ ‭NLT‬‬