Day 64: Granby Lake

Miles Hiked: 22.3

Total Milage: 1022.3

Location: Junco Lake Trail Head

This morning we woke up around 6:30 am and left Karen’s house around 7:30 am. Before we left town we all wanted to grab breakfast and 12 pack needed to find a phone charging cord. I grabbed a bagel sandwich at a local place called “The Hub”. Eventually we all left town around 8:30am. The hike started out by walking through some residential streets until we reached a trailhead near a lake. The trail continued around the lake and through rocky mountain national park. As the day wore on it just kept getting hotter and hotter. We passed the headwaters of the Colorado river where we saw a lot of people fly fishing. 12 pack and I took a break to see if anyone could catch any and let hummingbird catch up to us.

Shortly after we started hiking again I saw a great swimming spot so we all got in the water for a little bit. I couldn’t believe how hot it is! After taking a dip in the Colorado river, we continued hiking. The trail went up on a ridge through a massive amount of blown down trees. Luckily trail maintainers have been able to cut pretty much all of the blown down trees in the section! It must have taken so long to finally have a clear path again. 12 pack and I saw our first moose of the trail during this stretch as well. It was a small one that was eating some sort of vegetation in a swampy area. While we were climbing the ridge I was drinking as much water as I possibly could and also sweating profusely at the same time. It was HOT. Eventually we found a refreshing spring running down the side of the ridge and I filled up all of my bottles. I was absolutely starving because I forgot to eat much at all today. When I stopped for lunch I ate about 1,000 calories of Mac and cheese and some ginger ale I packed out. While I was at Karen’s house I weighed myself for the first time in a very long time and I weighed a lot less than I normally do. I try to eat as much as I can but sometimes it’s hard to get enough calories in. After lunch in the shady trees along the shore of the lake, we hiked through a campground and past another lake before ascending approximately 2,000 feet. Today I saw more people on the trail than I have this entire trip so far. Lots of people were out fishing, running, swimming, and picnicking. Everyone we passed wanted to talk to us which was super nice but also held us back a lot as far as making miles goes. We were supposed to hike 25 miles today and at 4pm we still had 13 more to go! I ran into 12 pack around 8pm about 3 miles from where we planned to camp. He asked if we could camp a little earlier then planned and I was so thrilled. I was so tired and ready to just lay down.