15-05-28.    Day 47.     Capitulation – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking Along The Continental Divide Trail

Mark Trail CDT 2015

When I awoke at 5:00 I was done. In order to hike the trail you need full blown winter hiking gear. All of it. The problem is I need to hike 18 plus miles a day to reach Canada by September 15th. We’re hiking 1 mile per hour. Thats thirteen miles in thirteen hours. Ouch. Also all that gear is breaking my back. If I continue doing what I’m doing I will be done. Someone told me that I have to be flexible and open minded in order to hike this trail..

The snow is brutal. Snow camping is hard. Fingers and toes are important. With all that said, we decided to drop off the red route and take a lower route. Done.

             As we were enjoying the decent on frozen snow we ran into She-ra and Restless. We followed their tracts all day off and on yesterday. ” Hey there they are… Why did they go that way?  Wow that’s a great way to go…”

It was 8:00 am and they were ready to go so we all hiked together to the El Rito Azul river. Instead of hiking back up to the divide. We took the Conejos River trail to the forest roads. By the time we reached 10,000 ft we were out of snow and on Tera Firma. …  There is hope…. We hiked FS 250 then FS 380. Talking about the trail ahead. Do I flip to Wyoming? Do I find a low route to hike? Do I road walk? Lots of optiong… I know one thing, I cannot hike the crest and make it to Canada by the 15 of September. ….

By Iron Creek FS 380.    20 Miles

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