Miles Hiked: 19.4
Total Milage: 112.3
Location: Copper Mountain, CO
This morning I woke up feeling very well rested and ready to hike. I honestly wanted to spend more time in town but I knew if I stayed there too long the day would drag on in a bad way. I took the 8:30am bus from the front of our hotel straight back to the trail. I love being able to take a bus back! It’s awesome that they run every 30 minutes. I was the first person of my tramily to leave town. I knew the rest of them would be at least a half hour behind me. I was really craving some alone time so I was very excited I got on the earlier bus. I enjoy hiking with people a lot but I feel like I just need a break and some time to do my own thing for a little bit. This next section of trail should be great for getting some alone time in. I don’t like hiking alone when I know that we have some crazy terrain or navigation coming up. This next section of the trail I expect to be very mellow and there will be plenty of day hikers out and about so I won’t feel totally isolated.
The trail was very well groomed and there were lots of mountain bikers flying by me. I hiked through some green Meadows and pine tree forest before ascending to a ridge. Once I got on the ridge the wind was absolutely insane. I think today was the windiest day Ive ever hiked. The wind was so strong I was actively pushing against it just to move forward. My nose was running and I had snot blowing everywhere. My sun glasses ended up getting covered in it which was really gross. When I was on the ridge, I saw two Mountain Bikers and ski lifts for Breckenridge ski resort. On the way down from the ridge, I twisted both my knees and ankles pretty bad because I was trying so hard just to stand up in the wind. I hope it doesn’t end up bothering me tomorrow! I’m kind of worried about it just because it felt like a bad twist. I didn’t take hardly any breaks at all until I reached Copper Mountain Ski Resort. Someone told me I could go to Starbucks and they close at 3pm so I was trying my hardest to make it there in time but I was pushing it. When I finally saw all the businesses it was 2:45pm. I walked all over and couldn’t find Starbucks but there were lots of other places open! I didn’t know what to expect but I definitely wanted to get a cold drink and relax until my friends caught up. It reminded me a lot of the Mountain Village Core where I work in Telluride.
I got an iced chai tea and enjoyed some time relaxing in one of the lawn chairs. When I was looking for a bathroom I found a scale in a gear shop. I weighed myself and found out that my pack weighs 35 pounds and I weigh 127. I don’t think I’ve weighed under 130lbs since highschool! I was honestly kind of shocked because I have been eating as much as I possibly can everyday. I think as long as I can stay above 120lbs I’ll be a healthy weight for hiking but wow I can’t believe how much food I have to eat just to maintain. I ended up hanging out there for about two hours while I waited for everyone else. My plan was to enjoy my morning alone and meet up with everyone at the end of the day and hike to camp. Around 5pm we all hiked the last 6 miles to camp together. We ended up stopping earlier than planned which I was a little bummed about. We are planning on hiking three 23 miles for the next three day including today so that we can take a zero in Leadville. Since we hiked less than 20 miles today that means we will have to hike at least 26 miles tomorrow which I’m not looking forward to. I made sure I took Meltonin and a lot of edibles so I can fall asleep early and start hiking early tomorrow! I want to bust out the first ten miles as fast as I can just so the rest of the day goes smoothly.
Happy Trails!
-Early Bird
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