CDT + GDT: Monarch Pass to Twin Lakes - First Stretch Alone in Snow
Resupply 10 | Monarch Pass to Twin Lakes
Day 41, 19.4 miles.
They say that if you want to meet up with your friend who’s thru hiking, you have to be flexible on location or timing or both. Even more so if they’re hiking in unpredictable snow. Luckily my friend Sheldon, whom I met last year when he gave me a hitch on the Colorado Trail, was able to accommodate my hike. He coordinated with his friend Zach who has a little cabin just off the trail, and eventually he and his wife are trying to build a store that’ll service CDT hikers. I showed up at the cabin in the morning after failing to show twice before. Sheldon made eggs and I repaired things before continuing on. I followed Slide’s tracks. At one point I lost them and decided to bushwhack a path up the valley instead of setting track on a slushy steep climb. I kept repeating to myself: I’m not lost, I’m finding my way. Slide set a great track down a very steep descent, but even still I caught my snowshoe in a tree under the snow once and fell on my face once. I took the lower elevation Mirror Lake roadwalk alternate to try to minimize snow and to continue following Slide’s tracks, but up high it’s snow and down low it’s all water. That’s how melting works. With all the elevation changes I got a big nosebleed, which I tried to collect with snow before using my emergency TP. My right ankle is now unhappy from carrying the weight of the snowshoe and all the snow heaped on it and stuck to it, so I’ve taped my ankle. Camp is a bit sloped but I put things under my sleeping pad to level it out and now I’m comfortable.
Day 42, 24.8 miles.
Another day following the ghost of Slide. Sometimes I feel like the Incredible Hulk trying to stamp out track: smash! Smash! When I was hiking with Slide, I trusted his decisions completely but would often second guess my own and turn to him for validation. “If you’re leading you don’t have to ask me,” he said. I think there is value in communicating your plan to your partner before you execute but he’s probably right. Maybe it’s my socialization as a woman, or maybe my former work required a lot of consensus building. Either way I’m finding that now that I’m on my own, I’m making pretty okay decisions. Maybe I do know what I’m doing out here. I say this because today I was nervous about a steep climb up a northwestern facing slope that I felt might be snowy. I was checking areas with similar slope aspects at lower elevation as I passed and saw lots of snow. I didn’t want to do a steep climb in slushy afternoon snow where I might waste energy sliding around so I mapped a route up a more gentle valley with a south western slope that I thought would be more melted out. I was right. I walked up among the creek all on dirt and avoided a large cornice on the ridge this way. Slide’s tracks indicated he had gone around the other side earlier in the day when the snow likely held better for him. Then I followed his track up the switchbacks on the south side of Lake Ann pass. This cornice is notorious for being the last to melt out. I didn’t want to stand on the edge of the cornice in the warm late afternoon so I went up the rocks to get a better view. I could see Slide’s glissade down a very steep track. I glissaded down from where I was and honestly it was the perfect texture for it. I even stopped halfway through so I could get my phone out for a video. It was so good. One of the best I’ve done. It feels like riding an elevator down the mountains. Really happy with the day.
Lake Ann seen from the pass:
Lake Ann Pass from the north side:
Day 43, 11.6 miles into Twin Lakes and 8.7 miles out, 20.3 miles total.
I went up Hope Pass this morning and had cell service. I had a text from Slide saying he had made it to Twin Lakes the prior evening and asking how I was doing. So I called him while I descended and we chatted about conditions and how we had each handled different challenging spots on the trail. He was particularly concerned with how I’d crossed Texas Creek, which was hip deep for him in the evening before and would have been chest deep for me. But it was cloudy when I went through the day after, and it was just above my knees. When I got to Twin Lakes I headed for the general store where I picked up my resupply box and talked to the owner, Bob, about conditions. Slide and I are the 2nd and 3rd northbound hikers this year, after Wild Child came through yesterday having roadwalked around the San Juans and hiking the east side of the Collegiates where Slide and I took the West side. I have Slide’s parents’ address since I’ll be mailing his snowshoes back later, so I bought them some thank you gifts in advance and the general store will mail it out for me.
I’m glad I had two weeks of no one else to talk to so I learned enough to know what to get Slide and his parents! It was drizzly all day as I hiked. It’s the first small test of my rain gear so far because I haven’t dealt with extended rain yet. For camp I wanted a flat enough spot that has been kept relatively dry under a tree and didn’t have any slopes above it where runoff might dribble into my camp and not in a depression where water might collect. All things I learned the hard way. I’m happy with this spot and I’m lucky to be small.
(Hope Pass looking north)
xx
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