Day 29: Mile 400.8 to mile 412.1 to Silverton
8.19.21 -
11.3 miles +2,300 -1,700 ft
Segments: 24
Wow. It rained on and off all night and into this morning. Definitely was not expecting that, and the weather forecast while in Lake City definitely did not predict that. I didn’t get the best sleep in the world because of it, and the rain would hit the tent, causing the condensation inside to fall off and drizzle onto me. Kind of like it was raining in the tent a bit. I purposefully slept in until 5:30 this morning since I knew it would be really dark below treeline. I did my regular morning routine, but slower just because everything was so wet, the inside of the tent was pretty wet and it was just hard to get ready when it’s so dark and wet. Did I mention how dark and wet everything was?
Eventually, around 6:45 I started hiking, fully donned in my rain gear. I sped down the descent, doing 6.5 miles in around 2 hours. Redbird passed me along the way as we quickly talked about Silverton plans. The trail was actually really cool and was like a mystical wooded gorge with Elk Creek running below. It drizzled on and off all morning, and the clouds were super moody, though prevented me from seeing any major mountains.
I hit the bottom of the descent around 9 am and crossed the train tracks, which you could technically use to take the train from the trail to Silverton! But not for a few more hours. So it was up the climb to the highway for me. I was dreading this 2,000 foot climb, but it was actually graded very nicely with switchbacks until the Molas Lake Campground area, where it got very steep in short spurts. Eventually, I reached the highway and only had to wait about 10 minutes before a nice woman with kids stopped for me and took me to town.
At the highway, I had service and texts came in from Larry and Matt about their plans - both were still in town! My hitch dropped me off at the grocery store and I quickly resupplied. As I was organizing the food outside, I heard my name: it was Matt! It was so good to see him. He was attempting to hitch back to the trail. It’s always funny how you run into people out on the trail. I hadn’t seen him since Breck! Sometimes you never see each other again, but when you do it really does feel like trail magic. After resupplying, I met Larry at a spot for lunch. I was hungry!
Next order of business was to do laundry at the laundromat, and I further organized my food and threw out some trash as I waited for my laundry to be done. Then, check-in time at the hotel! I stayed at the Wyman and it was literally the nicest bunk room ever! Each bed had its own little cubby almost, with a black out drape to block yourself from view and a very long shelf with charging outlets next to the bed. It was heavenly! I took a shower and organized my things, then used a blow dryer to dry my tent from the night before.
I saw lots of other hikers in town when I was out and about: Deep Thoughts and Splash and Chaney! So we all decided to do a hiker trash dinner, meeting up with Squid, Berry, Stretch, Larry & Bullwinkle as well. It was quite a nice night! Always fun to have hiker meals together. We are all planning on finishing Monday as well.
I got a phone number from Splash for trail angels doing rides to the trailhead all day the next day, so I arranged a pick up at 7 am to get back to the trail. After dinner, it was time to relax, FaceTime Mom, and watch Bachelor in Paradise as I fell asleep. The last night in town, and I can’t believe the trail is almost over!
