Magic on the mountain

August 11th

Last night we debated getting up early and taking the 5:30 bus and getting to Copper Mountain around 7:45 vs Ubering to the trail. We decided since there’s 4 of us (Watercolor & Rush More) to split an Uber so we all slept in a little. Well apparently none of the Uber drivers in the Dillon-Silverthorn area get up at 6:30 or 7am so we caught a 7:37 bus and got near a highway on ramp and hitched to the Cooper Mountain resort. All four of us fit into Sonja’s Subaru. She was real sweet and took us all the way to our destination. So instead of 2 hours and 3 different buses we were there in 15 minutes! We started hiking around 8:40. Today we slack packed, skipping ahead to the end of Segment 7 and into 8 hiked north towards where we had stopped at the end of Segment 6. Today’s hike is notoriously steep and strenuous.

We stopped for our second breakfast just before noon. We’re sitting around a multitude of flowers along a babbling brook, we can no longer hear the highway or the construction at Copper Mountain. We’ve climbed almost 1,400 in 3.8 miles! Jodie is breathing better and her face isn’t swollen, the acetazolamide is working!!

So grateful to be back on trail. Our zero days were not as relaxing as we had hoped. I’m sure our bodies are more rested and we may have been really fatigued but everything felt harder than it should be. Simple tasks seemed unreasonably complicated. What we’re doing takes a toll on our bodies that we don’t always realize or give ourselves credit for.

We climbed above the tree line and hiked quite a ways along the ridge. One of the ski lifts from Breckenridge was on the other side as we crossed a saddle. We could see all of the Copper Mountain ski area on the mountain across from us and the resort where we started hiking from that morning had disappeared somewhere far below us. The clouds were looming in the sky all around us but still remained high and I kept watching for changes in the weather. We were very exposed. We summited at 12,506 feet, from 9,801 that morning.

We headed down the other side and stopped for lunch with views back across the mountains we had come from 3 days ago, Dillon reservoir and Breckenridge. We finished lunch and looked at the time, it was 3pm and we still had 9 miles times go!! It took us so long to get over the summit and up the mountain. We passed so many hikers coming down as we were going up we figured we were the last ones to summit that day. We headed down following the other side of the ridge for quite a ways. Jodie said she could see a mountain goat ahead. I saw him too, standing in the trail way ahead of us just looking around. I zoomed in and started taking pictures as we slowly walked towards him on the trail. He started slowly waking towards us. Oh cool I’m thinking I’ll get a couple of better shots before he takes off. He didn’t stop walking towards us. I started talking to him thinking he would startle and take off, he kept waking towards me on the trail. He was all white and majestic looking and had an air of confidence and swagger. I started to feel like I was playing chicken with giant goat and I probably wouldn’t win, he wasn’t getting off the trail and kept coming. Jodie and I both at the same realized we needed to get out of the way. She hollered ‘get off the trail!’ But I was already moving downhill. I hopped down about 20 feet dropped my walking sticks and tried taking a submissive crouch. I knew I didn’t want to be above him because he’s a climber, I didn’t want him to see me as defensive or aggressive, but submissive and nonthreatening. He sauntered by and looked at me as he passed. He was close! Then he casually walked on by Jodie. Our hearts were pounding! We felt giddy and blessed to be visited by such a magnificent creature. We felt it was just for us. No one else that day mentioned seeing him and there were a lot of people on the trail. It was magical!!

The hike down was slow and painful. So hard on the knees. The miles were long. The clouds came down and it started to sprinkle. We decided we weren’t interested in stopping for dinner, we just wanted to get to the highway before dark. We were feeling pretty beat up then we saw a brilliant rainbow and that brightened our spirits and we felt we had another magical moment that many others were missing. We passed many hikers and had smelled their hot dinners but they were all in their tents now, tucked in for the night and we were still hiking.

It got dark and the trail was rocky and difficult and we just couldn’t move fast without risking injury. Miles and miles of rocky, rutted out trail, often slick and slippery from mountain bike use. We stopped and got our headlamps out and finally made it to the highway around 9pm. We walked along the highway and under a creepy overpass to get to the bus stop we were at 3 days ago. The bus would take until midnight to get back to the hostel. We splurged on an Uber. Too tired to care about hot food. Zach, from Shred Life Eco Hostel, called worried about us, what a sweet guy!