7/21 - Ridge near Big Buck Creek   Miles Today: 8.7 Total Miles: 169.6

Ahh, what a classic trail day it was today. More cool stuff happened off the trail than on the trail. It was just a weird, unpredictable day, and I loved every minute of it.

I woke up this morning with my main task being to get to the Post Office for my maildrop. I arrived there a bit early so I walked around town a bit to kill some time. While roaming, I found this amazing little bakery, which had the best raspberry turnovers that I have ever had. Now, this is how to start the morning off right.

After that delightful detour, I got my maildrop, repacked my bag and killed some time in town. I only had 9 miles to hike today, so I was in no hurry to get moving. After watching a bad movie on TV, hanging out at the outfitters and checking out the rest of town, I started my hitch back to the mountains.

Well, hitching out of Lake City did not got as smoothly as hitching into Lake City. First, a lot of the people just would not even look at me. Also, I was right in downtown, and I discovered that I was trapped in a “local traffic loop”. Basically, that means that most of the cars going past were just driving somewhere else in town, and not heading up into the mountains. After a while, a woman, Midge, pulled over and offered me a ride for a couple of miles out of town, and out of the local traffic loop. As it turns out, her and her husband own Lakeview Resort, a place right on Lake Cristobol. While she didn’t have the time to drive me back to the trailhead, she did offer a bed in their staff quarters if I had a problem getting out of town. Where were you yesterday, Midge! I would have loved to stay there over the Silver Spur.

So now, at least, I am at the critical junction at the edge of town, and almost all the cars going past are heading up into the mountains at this point. Still, I stood at this corner for the better part of two hours!I ended up getting really good at the “hit the pole with a rock” game as I waited for someone to offer me a ride up to the trailhead. Finally, two very nice woman from Texas were heading in that direction and offered me a ride. Even though Spring Creek Pass was 8 miles out of their way, they drove me right up to the trailhead. Over three hours after I started hitching out of town, I made it back to the trail, at 1:30 in the afternoon.

The hiking today was just awesome. The weather was perfect and I was perfectly cool hiking without a shirt for the afternoon. The trail quickly ascended Jarosa Mesa, with sweeping views back at Snow Mesa. Where I am camped out tonight is on a mostly bald ridge with fantastic views for two different 14,000 footers, most notably Red Cloud. This amazing mountain is actually colored red and sticks out quite a bit compared to its less colorful neighbors.

Camped out here on the ridge with me is a god-camp group called Camp Red Cloud.This week, they are leading a group of Denver juvees into the backcountry for a week as reward for good behavior. I talked with the leaders for a bit before setting up my tent out of the way since I didn’t want to intrude on their camp. However, after dinner, I got invited over for some hot chocolate and "discussion”.

I, of course, accepted the invitation and was pleasantly surprised to find out how good hot chocolate can be with an Andes Candy thrown in for good measure. The kids there asked me all sorts of questions like how far I hiked, what I was carrying, etc... I made sure to show them my “This Hiker Carries Less Than 20 Dollars” sticker. Just kidding.

I got into an interesting conversation with Jon, the resident Jesus-freak,about religion and whatnot. I didn’t pull out the big guns since it was pretty evident that no matter what I tossed out for an argument wouldn’t make a dent in his faith. There was not need for a heavy discussion, anyway, as we stuck mostly to gear and to places that we want to go hiking. I returned to my tent as the sun was going down and the rain started. Tomorrow will be a long 20+ mile day if everything goes according to plan, but of course that will all depend on the weather. Gotta love Colorado.

- Chomp

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