Continental Divide Trail – Day 44
June 14, 2023
Miles Today/ Total: 0.0 / 767.3
The bed at the San Juan Motel was wonderful and I slept until 7:30. I went down to the Motel breakfast and met Lynx, another CDT hiker. We talked about the last section and what he foresaw for the next section to Silverton. He had heard it was more of the same for another 4-5 days then so would get better.
This helped me make my mind up to sit out for about 3 weeks and let the snow melt. I have faced many challenges and reduced to some degree my fear of steep snow travel, but I have not had fun the last 5 days and I’m here to hike a trail, not mountaineer over the Continental Divide.
I made arrangements today to get a shuttle to Durango in the morning and fly home from there. I have a doctors appointment on July 6th in Tulsa and at that point I have 2 options: 1) fly back to Durango after that and continue where I left off. Hopefully the trail will be 90% snow free by then and not 90% snow covered like it is now. Or 2) flip-flop to Glacier which is already mostly snow free and finish at Pagosa Springs. This option also gives me a little longer weather window to finish.
Pagosa Springs is famous for its hot springs, slightly sulphuric, so plug your nose, but the private springs look great (I sunburnt my legs so even a hot shower hurts them now so I didn’t get to enjoy these). There are several free hot springs along the banks of the San Juan River, but the snowmelt had filled the river and covered the springs. Also I ate at Kip’s Grill and Cantina 3 of the last 4 meals. The food was great and it’s a very popular place.
