Hiking With Gadget Girl
It's All About The Adventure!
After a well rested night, Dave drove us back to where we had come off the trail on Hwy 285. Dave wanted the opportunity to ride some of Segment 6 so I took Bella on her leash. The leash has a uphaul (windsurfing) tied into it so I can make a loop around my waist and not have my shoulders pulled out of their sockets. It was quite lovely to be pulled uphill for the first mile. By that time Dave had rode three miles out and had returned and we met him on the trail. Made the handoff of both dog and doggy poop bag.
Said our goodbyes and Linda and I continued on our way. It was a gorgeous day with a light breeze. We dropped elevation in the first five miles. Stopped at a lookout over the valley and was very impressed by a horse ranch. It was huge and gorgeous.
Segment 6 is quite popular with the mountain bikers and runners. Once we arrived at the creek, we took a break and fortified ourselves in anticipation of the upcoming long uphill. We had started the day at elevation 9,850 ft and cliimbed to 11,874 ft.
The trail was once again in great shape, not too steep. We met a local backpacker named Matt who lives in southeast Denver. He was only going for an overnighter. Then we met "Walker", real name Tyler who was totally bummed that his phone's power was sucked out by a cheap solar panel and was dead. Linda took a picture of him and based on his request, she posted it on the Colorado Trail 2019 page on Facebook so his parents would see that he was okay.
We arrived at the top of the pass (Continental Divide, Georgia Pass) and enjoyed beautiful views all around.
We even passed a big patch of snow There was also a couple clumps of white fleece clinging to shrubs, so there's either sheep or goats up here. We started down the other side and the place was busy with hikers, bikers, runners, and now dirtbikers who were riding a parallel road to the trail. Whew, there was a lot going on. The lower in elevation we went, the hotter it became. Halfway down we met a bikepacker from Australia who was using 90 of his "service days" to ride parts of the Continental Divide Trail and the Colorado trail. He was currently pushing his bike up the trail because the trail was super rocky. We loved his accent!
I should have paid more attention to the water sources as I was getting low on water and we still had a ways to go. Thankfully we had a long, long downhill that didn't take much effort and I was able to arrive at the next creek with a few sips of water left. We took a break and looked at our options. Decided to take advantage of the continuing downhill and hike on for another 2.5 miles. We passed by a dog kennel that we could see through the trees. It was quite large Not sure what that was all about. After a 19.5 mile day, we finally arrived at the North Fork Swan River. This is the most mosquitoes that we have had to deal with so far this trip. Weather is lovely, no thunderstorms are anticipated today or tomorrow. May be a different story on Wednesday!