journal

Today’s hiking day would be dubbed a “nero.” It’s a day that you don’t get any significant miles in, but you didn’t take the whole day off. I spent most of the day with Grant and Eli exploring Leadville and Twin Lakes. It’s really nice to share some of these moments with people I know and love.

Today my main goal was to get to town. I found a lovely trail angel to drive me all the way from Twin Lakes to my Airbnb in Leadville and I didn’t want her to have to wait around for me. So that means I had to hike almost 14 miles by 11:30am.

Do you ever go through an entire spectrum of emotions in 1 day? Well I have. This morning was perfection. It was warmer than usual and I left camp at a great time. The 11 miles in the morning were great. Challenging in a couple of stretches, but not exhausting. And there were a lot of easy flat-ish stretches through the forest where I had time to think. My mind was clear.

This morning was COLD. I wake up at 5:00 every morning so that I can start hiking at 6:00, and this morning was particularly chilly. It makes it a little harder to get out of my quilt, but I would rather be cold for a couple hours than miss the sunrise.

So. Incredibly. Exhausted. This was definitely the hardest day yet. The ascent today was a long and steep 8 miles. The view at the top was breathtaking, but knowing I still had 9 more miles to go when I was that tired was a little disheartening. Regardless, I stuck it out and made it to a beautiful campsite where I can finally relax ?

I’m not going to lie, it was head to sleep last night knowing that I would get to see Grant today! I miss that guy like crazy ? As soon as my alarm went off at 5am I was up and packing! Usually it takes me an hour to pack up camp, eat and get water, but today I did it in 40 min ?

Beautiful day for a 17 mile hike! But damn that first 12.2 miles to the summit ridge got me good. I just kept telling myself, “Just put one foot in front of the other. You’ll get there eventually!” Georgia Pass was epic! 360° views of gorgeous mountain ranges and valleys, makes every painful step totally worth it.

So I DID NOT get eaten by a bear last night! ? I actually didn’t hear a single sound all night long. Everytime I woke up throughout the night it was completely silent. I didn’t even hear insects. I guess it was so cold, even the bugs had to snuggle up on their bug houses to stay warm ?

I was a little slow getting up this morning. 1) because I was a little nervous about the 3000ft elevation gain today, and 2) there were people playing loud music at a cabin close by from 10:30pm until 4am! ? And I mean it was LOUD! Why on earth do people come to nature to just ignore it? I will never understand this!

Today kicked my ass! I tired to knock out as many miles as I could on Segments 2 & 3 since they have the least amount of elevation gain and they’re known to be a little boring compared to the rest of the trail. I still think it was beautiful! The first 7 miles were great! Most of it was uphill, but I started at 6am so it was cool and I was ready to go! The following 3 miles were a little more difficult since the sun was coming up and there was little shade.