CT Day 8 - 15.3 miles (minus 1) We woke up this morning and climbed the relentlessly steep trail to
CT Day 8 - 15.3 miles (minus 1) We woke up this morning and climbed the relentlessly steep trail to the summit between Breckenridge and Copper Mountain. The pass was beyond beautiful. There’s a smoky haze in the air from the Lake Christine fire near Aspen, which is unfortunate, but I can’t deny the fact that it makes for pretty incredible sunrise light. We crossed the pass and went down the equally (if not more) steep trail down to highway 91. My feet ached from the repeated pounding on the rocky trail. We crossed the highway and hiked into Copper Mountain where there was a big bike festival going on. Since we can’t do as many miles today as we originally intended, we stopped into a convenience store at the resort to grab some extra food. It was weird walking through the crowds of people at this festival, drinking beer and paying for their kids to bungee jump and zip line. Normal vacation things. The next two miles skirted the edges of the resort, where we could hear the music and laughing. Mountain bikers zoomed past us all day in their matching jerseys, most times unannounced. It was all very weird. When we finally switchbacked into the forest and away from the noise, I was relieved. Despite only doing 15 miles today, we feel incredibly exhausted. I’m not sure why. I’m nervous we won’t be physically capable to up the miles in the next few days. I’m hoping after Searle & Kokomo Pass the elevation will ease up a bit. At the end of the day, we turned a switchback and suddenly we reached treeline. I wasn’t expecting to be up that high so quickly, but we continued anyways. We set up our tent in a patch of trees. The sky was clear, there wasnt any wind, so I was stoked to be up that high in clear weather. We did our normal camp chores, made dinner, and went to sleep. Just as we were falling asleep, it started to rain. We looked outside the tent to see the half the sky lit up orange as the sun was setting under some low hanging heavy thunder clouds. We could hear thunder & lightning in the distance. We questioned whether or not our campsite choice was safe, and after a few terrified looks exchanged and hearing thunder & lightning less than three miles away, we made the executive decision to pack up and book it down the trail below treeline. We packed up faster than ever and literally ran down the trail in the rain with our headlamps lighting the way until we made it well into the trees. We set up camp again in the dark beneath the shelter of the pine forest, relieved. I hate these Colorado thunderstorms so much. -- source link