Hiking With Gadget Girl
It's All About The Adventure!
The wind had died down as we snoozed off to dreamland last night, but I was awakened at midnight to strong gusts rattling the rainfly. I laid there for awhile waiting to see if they were going to get stronger, but they seem to come and go. I drifted off into an uneasy sleep the rest of the night, hoping the tent stakes didn't get pulled out. Morning arrived and the tent was still holding strong against the wind.
With the wind came even colder air, bringing in those forecasted 30% storm clouds to the west of us. It was difficult to get out of our warm bags and I wanted to wait until the sun was high enough to start the warming process. My cough had returned - it must be the cold dry air that is affecting my lungs and throat. So irritating, I've never had to deal with this before on any of my backpacking trips. Hot beverages in the morning help, but during the day I have to suck on hard candy to get through the uphills. Linda had mentioned yesterday that she was experiencing some sharp pain on the downhills on her foot/ankle. That was a major bummer as we had a huge 4,000 foot descent coming up the next day. We broke camp and headed up to the first pass of many for the day and as we climbed up, we were again astonished on how beautiful this segment was. Wow, we thought yesterday was gorgeous, this beat it all to pieces.
It was super cold and windy and we kept our thermals on all day. We came over another pass and the wind was just as nasty. I wrapped my bandanna over my lower face to keep the wind and cold off it.
A bikepacker stopped to exchange a few words and he was just as cold as we were. We stopped for lunch and evaluated our options. My coughing, Linda's foot, the cold, the wind, the incoming weather... well, we had had enough. We agreed to text Dave through my DeLorme and see if he could pick us up at Stoney Pass, 4.5 miles away. (If you get a moment, look up Stoney Pass and check it out. It is an off-road Jeep and Razor favorite rocky road that runs from Creede to Silverton. Gorgeous, gorgeous.) Dave responded YES, he would come get us. Issue was, he was stuck at the Purgatory Ski Area on a steep mountain bike trail and was attempting to extract his own self.
Once the decision was made, we continued on our way and the wind was stronger than ever. We were blown off the trail several times as we attempted to get down the second to last ridge.
Finally made it down the valley and around the corner where we could see the Stoney Pass Road. Just one more uphill until we reached the road!
We weren't exactly sure where Dave was going to pick us up so when we arrived at the road, Linda stayed at that trailhead while I walked up 4/10ths of a mile to the top of Stoney Pass and looked over the other side. Oh my, what I could see was STEEP. Oh my again.
I sat on the side of the road watching as multiple Razors passed me both ways. Weather was quickly moving in and I could hear thunder in the distance and rain showers advancing. Suddenly there were two vehicles slowly making their way up the steep hill and they weren't Razors, they were Nissans. I was so happy to see that a regular SUV could make it up that road. Darn, no Jeep. One minute later though, here comes a white Jeep crawling along the rocky road! Although I was all in black and way up high, I waved and Dave beeped beeped back! Whoohoo, we were rescued!
He picked me up and we collected Linda just in time as the rain started. Dave said we may want to close our eyes during the steep scary parts, but he went very slow and there was only one spot that I kept saying, "go left, go left", but there was a vertical rock wall on the left side. Aack. (Obviously we made it down in one piece.)
Avalanche debris from this year's winter storms.
It took a long time to get down to Silverton but we were so happy to be down out of the mountains where the windy, cold, rainy weather had set in. We heard later that there was a possibility of snow above 9,500 feet. So glad we didn't have to deal with it.
So there you have it. We didn't make it to Durango, but we hiked approximately 340 miles of pretty rough terrain and very high elevation. It was a GREAT adventure, tough in a lot of places, and tons of challenging elevation. On the top of my list, I give lifetime thanks to my dear husband Dave who is always there for me, and always extracts me/us when we call for help. You are a super guy and I love you forever. I also want to thank Linda for being one of my long distance backpacking buddies; we've sure had a lot of great adventures!! And of course, all of our friends (known and unknown friends) and family supporters for cheering us on (and taking the time to read my journals)!
NOTE: If you are interested in seeing more pictures of this day, click here.