Day 18: CW mile 56.2 to CW mile 78.4 to Salida
8.7.21 -
22.2 miles +4,500 -4,700 ft
Total mileage: 261.9
Segments: CW 04 - CW05
Today was a brutally long day! I woke up and luckily everyone at camp was up at the same time too. No need to be quiet. I got started hiking first, right after CP rolled up to camp (I thought she was way ahead!). The trail was on an abandoned railroad bed for most of the morning, before it split off onto a single track climb, which was a newly opened trail reroute this year! It’s nice to move the trail to more hospitable locations.
The rest of the group caught up with me at the end of that new piece of trail, near Hancock Lakes. Some of us rested at the lakes to eat a snack before climbing up the last real pass: Chalk Creek Pass. The whole basin & climb up to the pass were really gorgeous. And it’s crazy how you can drive a 4x4 up to the lake! The climb was hard, but not too long. I was already feeling tired though. And the downhill didn’t help much. It was very rocky and muddy in sections, which made for slow going. Eventually, I reached a dirt road turn off, which I decided to take as it was a little bit of a shortcut, skipped a major PUD (pointless up & down), and I just really wanted super wide trail to walk on. The road eventually reached the Boss Lake Trailhead, which is the beginning of CW segment 5.
I ended up beating most of the group in front of me to the trailhead, and we all sat there and ate lunch, knowing we needed the energy for the long afternoon climb. We all ate and chilled for nearly an hour before getting back to hiking. The uphill was pretty bad in spots, but overall it was ok, especially with my nice light food bag. The trail climbed up by Boss Lake, then Hunt Lake, and then a tarn near the top of the climb. I got water from the last tarn as it would be a dry 7 miles to Monarch Pass with still quite a bit of elevation loss and gain to go.
Once I crested the ridge, there were stunning views again, but the wind was also insane. Not as bad as yesterday, but still really strong. The ridge walk was nice overall, but the little uphills were annoying! It was also not so fun walking through the ski resort. At this point, I knew I’d be staying in town and luckily had some cell reception on the mountain and called a hostel to see if they had space.
I finally hit Monarch Pass at 6 pm, and I went right to the road to start hitching so I could go to town! Luckily, a nice woman named Cherie helped me out and picked me up. She was super cool and we chatted a lot about thru hiking and life. She drove me down to Safeway in Salida, and then I walked to the hostel I called in for a bed - the Simple Hostel - and got there right at 7 pm. One of the workers showed me around, and I found Mamba and Bugsy there! I asked them if they wanted to go get pizza, since I had been texting Larry, who was also in town and he wanted pizza! So the 4 of us all got pizza together, and then went back to the hostel to take a shower and get some good sleep.