DESTINATION Goldhill Trailhead to Copper Mountain - CT #7 1 Photoset
2015-07-07 | |
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| Backpack | 14.00 Miles |
3,674 AEG |
| | Backpack | 14.00 Miles | | | |
| 3,674 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | After losing Aaron to a family emergency, it was a little hard to get back on trail. Having someone to hike with relieves certain anxieties, and because you don't want to leave your brother in arms alone out on the battlefield, you feel a certain level of commitment to be out on the trail for each other. When you're alone, your time on the trail is much more introspective.
I started a few hours later than I had intended, which isn't ideal when you're traversing above treeline. The general rule of thumb is to be back below treeline before noon, when thunderstorms usually make their first pass along the ridges. This would bite me in the pumpkin later in the day.
Immediately from the trailhead, the trail begins its long ascent up the Ten Mile Range. From the trailhead, the peaks looked so far away. It was around 8 am and the weather was already looking ominous. Not long after starting, it began to sprinkle. I set my pack down and dug our my rain jacket from the bottom.
After a 1,200ft climb, the trail gives you a short break with a 200 ft descent into Miners Creek. Of course, you'll have to climb those 200 ft again! What goes down must come back up on the Colorado Trail until you reach the 13,271 ft high point in the San Juan's, hundreds of miles away. I took a short break near the creek and enjoyed the sounds of the creek.
From here, the trail begins the real steep 6 mile ascent up to the pass. It was the first time I've ever wanted switchbacks. At some points the trail heads directly up the mountain. Somewhere along this stretch, my first doubts about finishing the trail crept in my brain, but I kept going.
Approaching treeline, I looked back to observe the highway and Breckenridge far below. It's interesting how the trees can hide your progress, but once you reach an opening in the trees it can amaze you just how far you've climbed.
A short distance up the trail I met my first hiker of the day, trail name Millionaire. It turns out that Millionaire had a connection to Aaron through family relations (a friend of a brother-in-law, if I remember correctly). Millionaire had just gotten back on trail after 3 days of rest in Breckenridge to fight an infection he had acquired on trail.
We greeted and I passed him, treeline was now in sight and the weather appeared like it was going to be perfect for an alpine traverse. Small snow fields were scatted across the trail as it approached treeline, but they were easy to navigate due to the footprints left from previous hikers. I entered the tundra and saw one hiker ahead of me who was booking it.
After some more steep climbing, the trail levels out a little for a short distance and contours the mountain. I had a feeling I would pop out around the corner to a wall of dark clouds. After following the trail a little further up the mountain and crossing some more snow fields, that's exactly what happened. Internal alarms went off, "oh feces!!" and I immediately turned around and started moving with a purpose back to treeline.
For the first time I really felt out of my depth on the trail. As I scrambled back to treeline, the seeds of doubt which I had planted in my brain earlier in the day had grown and become overwelming. A year ago I was nearly 400 lbs, I would get anxious about getting lost in the city, and even car camping. Even though since then I had lost over 90 lbs, I had done dozens of 2 - 3 day backpacking trips into the backcountry, and I had racked up over 1000 cumulative hiking miles (day hiking and backpacking), was I really ready for this? Had I bitten off more than I could chew?
When I chose the Colorado Trail, one of the factors was that it is relatively short compared to other long distance trails. Before I left, and even on the trail, I heard from more experienced hikers that "if you can do this trail, you can do any of the long distance trails." This confused me at first. Trails such as the PCT and the AT are 4 - 5 times longer than the Colorado Trail. But what I had failed to consider were attributes such as average grade, altitude, and weather. Not all miles are created equal. I still remain somewhat skeptical of this claim, hopefully some day I'll be able to test it out.
Once I reached the treeline again I was ready to give up. My immediate plan was to get off the mountain and call for a pickup. Before I got too far I saw another hiker making his way up the hill. I told him about the wall of clouds I had seen on the other side of the ridge, and he said "yeah, it doesn't look so good, I'm going to wait it out here. You made the right decision to come down." I decided to stop and wait it out with him. Not long after we sat down, it began to pour.
We sat under a nice group of trees and got to know each other more. Lucas was a 22 year old bio-chemist from the midwest. Although this was his first long distance hike, he had spent 50 days in the Arctic and some time hiking in the Himalayas at 16,000ft. He said these adventures had changed his life. With flashes of lightning hitting the ridge top nearby and grumpy (read: thunder) beginning to rumble around us, I asked him if he felt comfortable so close to treeline, he said whenever he climbed 14ers he was always comfortable when he hit the trees again, as long as they weren't stunted shrubby looking trees. He had plenty of nightmares to tell about being above treeline in a thunderstorm, and now he always played it safe. I relaxed a bit and pulled some dried fruit out of my pack to eat.
A few more hikers came up the trail and joined us under our spot. Two of the hikers had completed the PCT and AT, another was on his first long distance hike and had little experience. I picked the brains of the two experienced hikers and asked them about the difficulty of the PCT and AT vs the CT. They confirmed what other hikers had already told me, the grades were much gentler on the PCT (made for pack animals), and the weather played a much bigger role on the CT.
After waiting around 45 minutes to an hour, the storm began to clear up. Feeling much more comfortable around so much experience, I picked up my pack and was set on making it to the other side of this damn mountain! We headed for the tundra.
The two experienced long distance hikers out paced us and were soon two small figures on the mountain side. After reaching the point where I had turned around earlier, the trail again becomes extremely step as you crest the Ten Mile Range between Peak 5 and Peak 6. Above 12,000 ft, the air is extremely thin and every step becomes laborious.
Me and Lucas reached the top and immediately had huge smiles on our faces. "It couldn't last for ever, could it?" Lucas referred to the long, steep climb. The views were spectacular, definitely some of the most beautiful scenery I had seen. We took each others pictures and agreed we ought to be heading back down because the weather could turn ugly again at any moment. Lucas mentioned how he was nervous being up this high at 2 pm, "what I'm I doing up on a ridge at 2 pm..."
We began the long, steep descent to the Copper Mountain ski resort. While walking the alpine ridge, all of my doubts and fears temporarily faded as I strolled along the ridge and soaked in the views.
Before dropping back into the trees, I stopped and waited for Lucas and the other hiker to catch up. I kept thinking to myself "don't quit, this is why you are here." I sat on some rocks, put on my headphones and enjoyed the scenery while listening to Neil Young and munching on some more dried fruit. It was peaceful.
After Lucas and the other hiker caught up, we dropped back into the trees. Me and Lucas would leap frog with each other on the way down to Copper Mountain, occasionally discussion things such as gear and his adventures in the Arctic and Himalayas.
Once we reached the bottom, we crossed highway 91 and it started to storm again. We entered Segment 8 and headed towards the Copper Mountain Ski Resort. I was mentally exhausted at this point after having gone from complete despair near treeline to complete bliss on top. I was still unsure if I wanted to continue on the trail. I told Lucas I was going to get something to eat at Copper Mountain and followed the access point from the trail down into the resort. I messaged my dad and told him I would rather spent the rest of the night with him. I needed to think this all over. |
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