June 17, 2000—Day 47, 762 Miles—Spring Creek Pass, Colorado—Looks like the mountain gods of the Weminuche got together and decided to give us a picture-perfect week of weather for this section. For the past six days we've been treated to stormless days with clear blue skies. Ideal conditions for a section where most of your time is spent on breathtakingly high ridges and passes above treeline (>11,000 feet).

On our first day back on the trail, after spending a rest day in Pagosa Springs, Simon started to show signs of what may have been the beginnings of AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness). We called it an early day just in case. The next day he was back to normal.

In general, the snow melt has progressed far enough to allow for relatively easy passage. There were still snow banks in places, but most of these could be crossed safely or avoided with a little extra walking. It was a little more dubious proposition if we crossed in the early morning when the snow's surface was still quite hard. In these cases we used our poles for balance and exercised extreme caution.

We reached our highest point on the hike so far at Coney Mountain (13,250 feet).

The boss here at the Lake City campground, Bob, has just offered to give us a ride back up to Spring Creek Pass. It's an offer we can't refuse after waiting 5 hours to get a ride down here. Better go before he changes his mind.

Continental Divide Trail CDT Fun Facts Though the tundra ecosystem that predominates along the CDT in southern Colorado appears barren and inhospitable to life, both marmots and elk survive and thrive there. CDT Links Continental Divide Trail Where the Waters Divide CDT Forums

Move on to Week 9 Return to Top