Knowing there wasn’t a need to push the miles today, we slept in a little.  It was nice not to be in a hurry but I couldn’t shake the feeling that we should be hiking - I felt a little lazy sleeping in.  However, since the tent was covered in ice/frost, the extra time in bed was advantageous in that it gave the wonderful sun time to dry it off.  

Even though we took our time and didn’t start hiking until 8, we were still packed up and hiking before the others who camped near us.  I’m grateful for this, as I completely missed the turn for the CDT and Onion (who rode in the back of the truck with us yesterday) set me straight.  Who knows how far I would have walked on the other trail had she not been there.

It was a good hike in that it didn’t feel too strenuous (except for the few miles leading up to the highest point on the Colorado Trail (CT)), there wasn’t much snow, and the trail is very well cared for since since it’s on the CT.

Our plan wasn’t to go 20 miles today, but the lack of decent water forced us to continue on.  I’ve gotten so used to water being everywhere that it seems strange to have to plan the day around water - in fact, I ran out of water a few times today, which is never a good feeling.

One such time I ran out of water was towards the end of the day.  Since this is a short section and since we decided not to push ourselves too hard, we were only going to hike 17 miles or so.  I ran out of water around mile 15, but knowing we were going to stop soon I didn’t think much of it.  However, the closer I got to our planned end point, the more I started to worry about water because it didn’t seem like there was any around.  

Nick, being the observant man he is, said he spotted a little pond when he was up on a hill a mile or so earlier.  Sure enough, there was one.  Unfortunately, it was very muddy and full of mosquito larvae (I still took water from it because I desperately needed some).  Since the pond wasn’t a great water source (we’ve gotten very picky since getting to Colorado), we decided to hike on because the map showed there might be some streams 3 miles ahead.

3 miles later, we were where the streams were supposed to be… except they looked pretty dry.  We kept walking, though, and eventually came across a little trickle of clear water.  Finally, water! 

We’re only 2.5 miles away from the road, where we will have to hitch to Lake City.  We contemplated hiking all the way there (I mean, what’s another 2.5 miles after you’ve hiked 20), but we decided to camp here because neither of us want to try to get a hitch this late in the day.  Our plan is to sleep in again (I hope I’m able to enjoy it more than I did today), take our time, and get a hitch in the morning.

Along the trail:

Camp: