Day 85: July 4th

Miles Hiked: 21.5

Total Milage: 1409

I hardly slept at all last night. My alarm went off at 5:30 and I didn’t want to get out of bed. I woke Luke and 12 pack up and we left Telluride around 6am. Luke drove us the two hours to Silverton to drop us off at the bottom of Stony Pass. I was so sad and was trying not to cry the entire car ride. I didn’t want to leave Luke at all. The goodbye was really hard and I cried. 12 pack and I stood at the bottom of Stony Pass from 8:30-9:15am trying to get a ride to the top. If we couldn’t get a ride we would have to hike five miles back up the extremely steep and rocky road and none of it would be forward progress to complete the CDT. A very nice couple named Addie and Mark picked us up in a side by side razer they rented for the 4th of July. I was SO THANKFUL. We made it to the top of the pass in about 30 minutes instead of over three hours. They were out with their family from Parachute Colorado and we got to meet them all and explain what we were doing this summer. It’s always fun to introduce people to the crazy world of thru hiking for the first time.

12 pack and I started hiking down the trail at about 10am. I cried for the first five miles. I was just so sad about leaving home. It was honestly just a really rough day for me. All day I thought about how much I’d rather be at home with Luke and my sister taking a break for a day.

The terrain today was challenging but I feel so much stronger after last week. We walked up and down quite a few passes and by many alpine lakes. We took a break 10 miles in to the day and then hiked the last 11 miles to camp without stopping. Since we got a late start, we got to camp at about 7pm. I was so exhausted. We have to hike about 20 miles everyday to make it to Pagosa in 4 days where we will be taking a zero day.