Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Creede, CO to Chama, New Mexico: CDT 2013

"Embrace the Brutality," the saying goes in regards to the Continental Divide Trail.
"I have a new saying," Captain told me a couple weeks ago as we were sitting inside a cabin along the trail during a snowstorm in Colorado.
"Evade the brutality, embrace it when necessary," Captain continued. "I think this also applies to life."
Captain threw another log into the wood burning stove inside the cabin, bringing the temperature inside to about 80 degrees.
"Embrace the brutality!" Captain sarcastically remarked as the flames grew hotter while the wind continued to howl outside and the snow continued to accumulate.

I did a little evading this past week as I road walked from Creede, CO to Chama, New Mexico. 5 days and over 100 miles of road walking. I know this may appear insane and even laughable, but as I said before, I reached my Colorado adventure threshold last week. As I road walked past Wolf Creek Pass and watched the skiers enjoying the snow that was still probably about a foot deep, I said "good riddance" in my mind and did not look back. The road walking was rather lousy as always (mostly due to dodging cars and trucks), but I relished the warmer temperatures and absence of snow. Fortunately, I also had five excellent campsites; all five on hillsides away from the road and legal as far as I could tell. Last night I set up camp at 6:00 pm, fell asleep at 7:00 pm, and woke up at 8:00 am to warm toes, and unfrozen water bottle, and about 13 hours of sleep. Embrace the brutality.  

2 comments:

  1. Yeah, those days are getting short, aren't they? Hopefully, you'll have some good weather the next few weeks.

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  2. Shorter days for sure, Skyhiker. Getting dark around 6:30. Sure is different from the 10:00pm sunset in Glacier in June.

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