000 Anneliese’s Continental Divide Trail Pages Page Nine - Today’s Date is 29 July 2002

My CDT Hike 2002 July 4 - Grand Lake Trailhead 00 Robert and I left Phil's house about 6:00 AM and drove via 470 and 70 to Mill Creek Road at the Dumont I-70 exit. We left Robert's Subaru at the trailhead parking. Then we took I-70 to 40 across Berthoud Pass. At Winter Park we made a breakfast stop at a restaurant called "The Last Waltz". From there we continued on 40 to 34 and Grand Lake. We followed the instructions on Page 100 in the Guidebook to reach the trailhead. At 10:30 AM we were off heading south on the CDT. Segment 10 from Grand Lake to Monarch Lake Trailhead is 13.7 miles. It is considered to be easy, but then that is relative. Robert has not been on more than an overnight hiking trip since '98. The trail goes along the Shadow Mountain Lake for a good while and once it veers away through forest and meadows; then follows the Colorado River for a bit before skirting Grand Bay and Lake Granby. Grand Bay may be grand some times, but right now the water level is extremely low. In spite of this there were people boating and enjoying the Fourth of July holiday. The trail then went past three campgrounds; the first one had a ranger station and a convenient picnic table where we cooked our dinner. We had no desire to camp in the campground but had to hike 1.5 miles from the Monarch Lake Trailhead before we found a good campsite at the edge of a lovely meadow. We hiked 15.2 miles and were pretty tired.

July 5 - Good Trail Markings 00 We got up early but had a camping version of cafe mocha: hot cocoa and a little instant coffee. Then it was uphill on the trail. As a matter of fact, most of it today seemed to have been uphill. The trail has been well signed with CDT signs - kudos to the Sulphur Ranger District. Someone even did trailwork because there were trees with fresh saw cuts on limbs that probably had blocked the trail. Most of the trail was through forest and meadows. There were nice views of peaks in all directions. As we were having lunch two backpackers were heading north and since they appeared to be CDT hikers I asked - and sure enough. Their names were Bob and Karen and they stopped and had lunch with us. We listened to their stories and some of their experiences on the trail. Camp tonight is about 1.5 miles past Devils Thumb Trailhead. We are very close to the trail but out of sight on a small knob to the right of the trail with a creek to our right and left. This is pretty much ideal as we have a good water source to cook dinner with and replenish our water supply. As I am writing this a thunderstorm is directly over us. It's like a bowling alley above my head, but I am safe and snug in my tent. This is the first time my tent is getting rained on. It's too dark to write more now.

July 6 - Camp at Rogers Pass 00 We were camped about 1.5 miles into the next segment. It is a long uphill with a creek first near, and soon farther away from the trail. Finally, we got above treeline and there was an abundance of color from a variety of wildflowers. Now the trail is mostly directly on the Divide. The real truth is that mostly there wasn't a trail, but just cairns now and then. At Rogers Pass there was a CDTA volunteer promoting "The King of Trails", as it was National Trails Day. We picked up four water bottles which have a label and if you test drove a Mitsubishi vehicle then the CDTA would receive $10. If you bought one then they would get $100. The company also donated a brand new SUV to the CDTA. It's a great vehicle which would no doubt get you to any trailhead. Robert needed to take lots of breaks and on one of them we watched a half-dozen snowboarders climb up and then negotiate down some remaining snowfields opposite a peak from our field of view. The sky looked threatening all day and finally it decided to rain a bit. We got to Rogers Pass, elevation 11,820 feet, at about 5:30 PM, and we decided to make camp there just as it began to storm. We hurridly put up our tents and had to wait about 45 minutes before it quit raining. We were able to collect enough rainwater from the tent's runoff to cook dinner with. We had a rainbow and even though there are still dark clouds while I'm writing this, it probably won't do anything else. It's time now to get into the sleeping bag as it's getting windy and cold.

July 7 - Guidebook Needs More Detail 00 We were awakened early by a ptarmigan clucking about. It's another beautiful morning and we have the climb to James Peak this morning. It's 1300 feet right out of the gate. There's evidence of fresh trailcrew work. At about 6:30 AM we saw a hiker couple passing our campsite at Rollins Pass. They both were members of this trail crew and were using their day off to hike to St. Mary's Glacier, one of Colorado's few year-round glacier fields. They told us to follow the flagging where the trail ended because it would be easier to hike as it switchbacked up. once on the top we had a fabulous 360-degree view. Of course we now got to lose all the elevation we just gained. As we cautiously made our way down we spotted three lakes, one still with ice on it, and strangely enough it's called Iceberg Lake. The mountains here are really rugged and from James Peak we were able to see the Divide north of us very clearly, and I was amazed how far we had hiked. Coming down toward Loch Lomond Reservoir we were able to hike on good trail. As we came to a bristlecone pine forest we decided to take an early lunch break and I cooked up angel hair pasta and sun dried tomato pesto. This meal gave us a big energy boost, and we were now ready to travel on a jeep road to make the connection with the Mill Creek Jeep Road. This is a tricky section to find and hike through. We consulted the Guidebook and map frequently to find the intended path. 00 In general we were able to figure it out, but describing additional obvious landmarks and giving more detail would certainly have been helpful. For example, on Page 120 of the Guidebook, last paragraph: ... follow the road's steep descent "(avoid road to left)" and again... and crosses Fall River (turn right uphill). I put pink flagging on a little pine tree shortly after getting on ... an old road that climbs away from Rainbow Road to the south... (Page 125, Segment 14 last paragraph) at ... flattens and begins to descend (Page 126 first line, first paragraph) I put a flag on the right side of trail. At the end of paragraph four, same page, we put another red flag on a cairn beside Mill Creek Jeep Road. Rob and I took this road to a crossing of Mill Creek (turning left when we first reached the road - a southbound hiker would turn right and go uphill to the T-junction as described in the Guidebook) and then a trail along the south side of Mill Creek to paved Mill Creek Road and marked Trail Parking, where Rob's car was found all in one piece! 00 It was 5:15 PM and now we needed to go to Grand Lake where my car was parked. As we got near I-70 we could see the backed-up returning holiday traffic and Rob was glad he had taken Monday off and didn't have to go home in that mess tonight. We stopped at a restaurant in Winter Park and had a good but sort of expensive meal. Then off toward Grand Lake and ultimately we ended up camping at an Arapaho Recreation Area campground at Shadow Mountain Lake. We would have preferred camping in the woods someplace but it was getting late and so it was expedient.

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