It took us 11 hrs to hike 14 miles - snow on the trail really slows you down!  Even leaving our campsite this morning took forever, as we had to navigate obstacles like this:

Because of all the snow, the trail was extremely difficult to navigate and sometimes sketchy.  Even so, I am absolutely in love with the San Juan Mountains.  That’s the short version.

The longer version is that this section of the trail was a fantastic challenge, particularly on the north side of the mountains.  While I didn’t think any part was too scary, I WAS hyper-focused as I carefully walked on the snowy trail, particularly when there was a steep, snowy drop-off to my side.  Nick always wore his microspikes during these moments; I, on the other hand, didn’t always stop to put them on.  In my defense, I don’t think they make too much of a difference when the snow is a just a little soft - I have plenty of traction and never feel unsafe, especially because the tracks left by others were sufficiently deep. Nick, however, really hates that I don’t always put them on (I guess he really does love me) :)

Nick also hated when I took a calculated risk and used a snow bridge to cross a river.   Because of the snow, we decided to go off trail a bit, which meant crossing said river.  I have no idea how Nick crossed where he did without getting wet, so I continued to walk along the river for a while, trying to find a narrow enough spot that I could jump across.  I walked and walked and couldn’t find one.  I did, however, see a snow bridge.  Nick could tell by the way I looked at it that I was contemplating crossing there and told me not to do it.  I didn’t listen.  Instead, I threw a large stone on one end of the the snow bridge to see how much weight it could hold.  Based on the way that end of the bridge broke off, I figured I had one, maybe two steps before it would break under my weight.   Nick was incredulous.  He stood on the other side of the river and told me I was being ridiculous.  I told him that I didn’t want to waste any more time trying to find a better place to cross and then boldly walked across the snow bridge.  It did exactly what I thought it would - I took one step and, just as I took my second step to jump onto the opposite bank, the bridge broke under my weight.  Nick was relieved that I made it safely across but he was also furious.  I wanted to say something like, “told you so”, but I had to acknowledge that crossing the snow bridge wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done.  Still, it was effective and allowed is to then commence with the hiking. 

After the snow bridge incident and after we climbed up a steep slope to get back to the trail, we encountered a few more times where the trail was so covered in deep, steep snow that we couldn’t follow it down.  Instead, we decided to glissade. For some reason, glissading used to make me nervous and I’d never do it.  Maybe it’s because of the sense of being out of control?  Well, I quickly got over that fear - I had to - and now I’m 100% on board with glissading, at least when the snow is soft so its not as fast and you have better control.  Do my hands get cold?  Yes.  Do I get wet?  Of course.  But it sure beats trying to walk down.  By the way, the mats we use to sit on during breaks made for perfect sleds.

After I got over my fear of glissading, we came upon a particularly gnarly section of trail that was blocked by a blowdown. The only way around was up.  Going down was impossible because it was way too steep and there was nothing to hold on to.  Going up was incredibly steep, too, but at least there were trees to hold onto.  There were also lots of bushes.  The bushes were nice because they kept me from slipping on the snow.  However, it was definitely a fight to push my way through them. I made it, but what would have taken a mere 5 steps on a trail without snow ended up being a 20 minute endeavor.  Once free from the bushes and safely back on the trail, I of course had to take a picture to remember the incredible fight.  

The last few hours of the day were the most strenuous, mainly because the snow was so soft at this point that we were post-holing  quite a bit, often up to our thighs.  For a while we couldn’t even glissade down because there were too many trees, but as soon as we could we said screw trying to follow the trail and we glissaded down into the valley below.  

I thought all our troubles were solved when we got to the bottom, but I quickly realized it was a soggy, muddy mess, with more bushes to fight with.  Worse, since we were way off-trail, not being able to see Nick (who was ahead of me) made me a little anxious.  He did his best to make sure I knew where he was, but many times I found myself aimlessly walking through the muck.  I finally yelled for him to please just wait for me already.  :)

We did our best to navigate in the valley so we would get back to the trail, but the snow was so soft and the rest of the ground so wet and muddy that it was very slow going.  At one point I post-holed and ended up with a soaking wet foot (like I said the other day, that’s the scary thing about post-holing - you never know what’s under there.  In my case, this time it was a little stream).  

A little while after I soaked my foot (not a great thing to do when your feet were already frozen), I slipped and fell on my face as we attempted to walk on the steep snowy bank next to the river (microspikes probably would have helped me there because it was icy).  I got up laughing but felt completely spent.  Nick and I looked at each other, looked at the other side of the river where there was significantly less snow, and decided to cross, completely abandoning our quest to find the trail.

Funnily enough, we crossed the river using a snow bridge.  

Admittedly, this snow bridge was a little more robust than the one I used earlier, but still - I think it’s important everyone is aware that Nick also took a calculated risk and crossed a river via a snow bridge today.

Once on the other side, we found a trail!  Not the CDT, but it led us to it.  In fact, it took us to the spot we were hoping to get to today (although we had hoped on getting here around 4pm, not 6pm).  

I was so depleted when I finally got to camp that my legs were shaking.  

Was it really just this morning that we saw some deer (or possibly elk)?  Feels like ages ago!  

We didn’t see any humans at all today, with the exception of Tesla who staggered into a campsite not too far from ours about an hour after us.  He came in on the non-CDT trail, too, which makes me wonder if he was trying to follow our footsteps in the snow down there.  I hope not for his sake, we made a mess of it!  

Once again, I took way too many pictures (I can’t help it - like I said, I’m in love with the San Juans).

Theresa, have fun with your power!

Along the trail:

Camp: