A diversion - San Luis Peak

I woke up a bit cold, with everything covered in condensation and ice - sometimes you just need to relearn the lessons of campsite selection, I guess. But today's hike was great! The trail was above treeline, in alpine tundra, for most of the day, and everything is still very green. I made good time, but had to hoof it up San Luis peak because of threatening thunderstorm coming my way. But I 'bagged' one of the most remote 14ers in Colorado, and had it all to myself. There was actually a coyote climbing up the ridge on the other side - I thought we might meet at the top, but he turned away when he saw me.

I guess I'm in the thick of the CDT thru-hikers. I met Wrongway today, who also hiked the PCT last year. We didn't meet him though. He started way earlier than we did, and was off the trail for a month.

Getting into Creede from the Colorado trail is a bit of a challenge. You hike about 2 miles off the CT to a trailhead, which is at the end of a 4wd road. If you can't get a ride from there, you walk about 4 miles down the 4wd road to another old mining road, which leads to Creede in about 10 miles. As I was getting close, I saw 4 hikers ahead of me, and thought, sweet! - an easy ride into Creede. But as I caught up to them on the trail, they turned off some different way. It turns out you can get down to the trailhead a little quicker by bushwacking. Anyway, as I got close to the trailhead, I could see they were down there, just hanging around. I thought maybe they were waiting for me, so I sped up to meet them. I was literally 50 feet away when they all jumped in their pickup and drove off. I waved and smiled and stuck out my thumb, but to no avail. But here's the thing - the road is really, really rough, so I was actually keeping up with the pickup walking. So here I was walking 50 feet behind their pickup, trying to make it obvious I wanted a ride without looking like a menace, but being completely ignored. At one point they came around a switchback, and we were looking right at each other. I guess they must've been convinced I was a ne'er-do-well by that point, because they wouldn't even make eye contact. So there went my chance at the easiest ride into Creede ever.

After about 4 more miles of road walking, though, a nice family from Fowler, CO picked me up. They were on vacation in Creede and out fishing, so that worked out well.

There weren't many hotel rooms in Creede because of the 4th of July weekend, so I ended up staying in a froofy bed and breakfast with yellow, baby blue, and pink decor. I felt a little silly, especially with all my gear spread everywhere, but oh well.

Brent