2024 CDT #5 Chama NM – Pagosa Springs CO – Lake City CO

“Some pig!”
Quote by E.B. White in Charlotte’s Web

And this was Some hiking!                       
The 4 days from Chama NM to Pagosa Springs CO will stick in our minds for awhile from the unexpected challenges that confronted us there. Our introduction to Colorado was like a slap in the face, a rude and sudden”wake up”call. Questions of successful completion of this section were on our minds. I doubted whether we would have enough food to get this  done in time as despite putting in 12 hour days, we couldn’t meet our estimated distance target.

The jump up to 12,000′ + simply took our breath away and slowed our pace. The path often took us up and over 3 high passes in a single day! This was wild country waking up from winter where snow still dominated.

The terrain ranged from ridge top open meadows that reminded us of the tundra to intimate steepsided valleys. Water rushed down from drop off streams all around and gathered in wet flatlands. The hurrying spring snowmelt was determined to keep our feet wet.

The trail varied from a well defined footpath to a trough of running water to snowpack to an obstacle course of blowdown trees to non-existent. A tough piece of trail this was!

Yes, we were aware of the hiker “noise” about depth of snow and wise timing to enter this area. But few if any reports of the hard details of this section existed for this season. Fellow hikers who had just completed this section used words such as, “easy” or “there is a glissade at mile so and so that is tricky but you will figure it out.” Well, I would choose my words more precisely if I was asked!
Here is a breakdown of our most eventful half day:
The digital map showed that the first 2 miles were downhill. Oh yeah!! But we discovered that although they may be slightly on the decline, the path is a snowpack traverse on a steep slope with various hikers’ tracks choosing various ways. Great! A slow and questioning start. We don our microspikes and plod along. Soon a well tended trail led us up and out of that valley into a gorgeous tundra like plateau rimmed with rock faces. The day was going better!

Again on the descent into the next valley long marches on steep snowpack were involved where the snow was frosty in sections but soft and granular in others. Each foot step was a cautious undertaking. We now found ourselves hiking up to a snow encrusted overlook from which we couldn’t see over the lip. There were fresh bum prints of other hikers that had chosen to slide down over the edge!!!! I began to envision dead bodies at the bottom of this slide! We retreated and chose to descend this cliff along its side where steep soil meets a steep snow tongue. It began to hail. I considered hiding under my foamie if the hail got bigger than pea size. We step by step our way down and are happy not to find remains of the bum sliders.
Now where to find the trail? Our only guess is to cross the stream and climb up the far side. Finally, an hour later, at the pass we reconnected with the CDT. We found ourselves ascending an open tundra with lots of wet marshy areas but no trees. It started to thunder and lightning. We were the tallest things. So we hiked as fast as we could to dash across this plateau. Finding refuge in a dip of land and the shelter of a juniper tree. We took a break. The storm moved on. We had advanced 6 miles in 6 hours! Twice as long as normal. No boring days on trail in Colorado!

On the brighter side, this section has offered us opportunities to elk spot. Most mornings we find clans of them either grazing in valleys and or on the upper mountain ridges. Sipping our coffee and watching their silhouetted progression along the ridge is so magical. Blisters are gone! Water is abundant.

The Rocky Mountains are so expansive. The land is immense and goes on forever. It is hard to take it all in in a day. We see an average of 13 valleys daily (personally counted), all with their own character and layout. Every couple of miles we are in a new environment! There are lakes and more lakes.

The stretch from Pagosa to Lake City took us 7 days. Like a roller coaster we hiked up and down constantly. We encountered far less snow yet bountiful wildlife.

The CDT has now joined up with the Colorado Trail. Trail maintenance and improvement is apparent. Are we getting accustomed to the elevation? What about the wind/rain/hail? Time will tell!