7/19 - Saddle of San Luis Peak   Miles Today: 11.7 (plus ~3 round trip to San Luis) Total Miles: 143.8

The title of this journal should be “The Best Laid Plans...” Things were going so well today until about 1:30 this afternoon when the shit completely and totally hit the fan. Its days like today that remind you that Mother Nature is the undisputed boss out here.

I woke up very peacefully this morning by the river, that is if you don’t mind a few heffers wandering through your campsite. These guys get everywhere, unbelievable. Anyway, considering all the cow patty water that I drank yesterday, I was fully expecting to have my morning movement look very similar. In fact, I went next to an actual cow patty to compare my deposit to theirs. As luck would have it, the patties and beaver fever had no effect on me. That did get me to thinking, though. Do cow patties look that way because the cows drink from this terrible water? I quickly dismissed this idea since it is a classic chicken/egg scenario. Which came first, the cow patty or the dirty water.

Well, onto some actual hiking. I left camp and within a few minutes I had to ford the Chupakabra... er, the Cochetopa Creek. I thought that I had found a way to avoid getting my feet wet in the wide creek, but on the attempt I rather ungracefully went into the drink. No matter, the sun was out and it was quickly getting warm. I made my way up the creek and into the La Garita Wilderness, the section of trail that I had been looking forward to for several days.

Well, La Garita did not disappoint! Great views were prevelant right from the start, getting better with every step I took up into the mountains. I arrived at the saddle with San Luis Peak around 12:30, with more than enough time to make the 1.3 miles to the summit and back before 2 PM.

Well, the climb up was very nice, but near the top I noticed that already some black thunderheads were starting to form. This had happened just about every day, and it usually takes a while for these clouds to turn into full blown thunderstorms. I took some quick pictures at the summit, but noticed that the clouds had obscured the sun, the wind was swirling and the thunderheads were grumbling. Not good. Then I reached down to grab my hiking poles and I felt static electricity jump from them to my windbreaker and me. Now, it was officially time to panic. I literally started running down the mountain. Every time that I thought it was safe to stop running, a bolt of lightening would hit close by and I would start running again.

The thunder didn’t sound like thunder either. Rather, it sounded like missiles being fired, followed by a large explosion. ZZZZzzzzzz.... BANG! You could hear the electricity searing through the air just before it make contact with the ground. I suddenly felt like an Iraqi living in Baghdad, not knowing where to run, not knowing if the next bolt was going to hit me. In short, I was terrified.

Bolts were coming down at a rate of about 1 per minute, and they were hitting everywhere, not just on the summits. I saw one bolt hit a saddle on the next ridge over, a bit lower than where I was standing. I felt very vulnerable, especially in this totally exposed environment. Where do you hide when the closest tree is almost a mile away?

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse than this, the storm kicked it up a notch. I was about 1000 yards from my pack when the hail started to fall. Wait, fall is a bad word, since it was coming in sideways because of all the wind. Marble-sized pieces of hail were pelting me with such force that I had to turn my back to them, and squat down so that I could hide the skin on my exposed legs. Not a big deal, I thought to myself, after all hail only lasts for 5 or 10 minutes, so I just need to tough it out for a few minutes. Twenty minutes later, I realized that I was in trouble. I made a run for my pack, found a reasonably flat spot and set up my tent as quickly as possible. Eager to get out of this storm, I just jumped right into the tent. I was cold, wet, my fingers didn’t work and my feet were numb, but I was safe, at least temporarily.

Again, I figured that this storm was almost over, so I just sat in the tent, waiting for the sun to break things up. Over an hour later, after shivering in my wet clothing and lying in a pool of slush, I realized that I might have to be here for a while. Reluctantly, I got out of the tent in the middle of the storm, and POURED all of the water that I could out of the tent. I used a shirt to dry things out as well as I possibly could, given the circumstances. Then, I started to get things set up for the night, and I put all of my gear in the tent, trying not to get things wet. Finally, I got naked, left my wet stuff outside and climbed into the tent and slipped into my sleeping bag, waiting for warmth. It was 2:45 in the afternoon.

As I laid in my bag, shivering, I was thinking that a bolt of lightening could hit my tent at any moment. I could hear that they were hitting nearby, and suddenly my friendly tent felt like a trap. I was getting warm, but the tent was still very wet and there was nothing that I could do about it. I thought of home. I thought of my buddy Colorado Kid, only a few hours away in Telluride. I thought of my dad in his new house, and of my mom in Florida trying to deal with losing her father. I thought of anything that I could but my current situation, because for a while, this situation was very bleak. Lying in my tent, borderline hypothermic, lightening crashing all around, no where to move because of the painful hail. This was, in case you couldn’t tell, the scariest day of my life.

It is funny, though, how quickly the human mind can adapt to degrading conditions. Lying in my tent, sleeping bag half wet, body shivering from the cold, I found peace. I found one, and only one, position where I was able to achieve some warmth and comfort. Curled up in the fetal position, getting most of my body on my sleeping pad and avoiding the piles of snow under the tent floor was my only escape. Funny as it sounds, when I found this position, I was happy. In fact, when I did finally move from this position, oh, two hours later, my legs were completely cramped up because I hadn’t moved at all.

OK, enough melodrama for now. The storm continued for a while, but by 5 PM it had lost most of its intensity and I was officially in the clear. The winds kept up throughout the day, however, which also brought about a very nice side effect; a lot of my gear is beginning to dry! As of right now, I am at about 85% comfort level, so things are much improved from a few hours ago.

My plan, now, has changed a bit. I was hoping to have an easy 10 miles into Lake City so that I could take a bit of time off my feet. After those long days, my feel need a small amount of time to heal. Alas, plans out here are always in flux, since you can’t control the weather or the trail. Speaking of which, the clouds look as if they might start to break up a bit. If there is a clearing out tonight, that could mean an excellent day tomorrow in the rest of La Garita. Despite this shake up, all is well.

- Chomp

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