Continental Divide Trail – Day 54

July 16, 2023
Miles Today/ Total: 10.0 / 925.2

As usual when I’m in town, I can’t sleep in. I was awake by 6:00 am and took advantage of no one else being up to do my laundry.

While my clothes we’re washing I opened my resupply box and got all my food packed up for the next section. I sent myself 3 days of food and I still had 2 days left in my bag. This changed my resupply strategy a bit. Instead of stopping at twin lakes and hitching into Leadville to resupply, I’ll now stop on twin lakes and just pick up a day of food, charge my battery pack and move on toward Tennessee Gap. I can then hitch into Leadville from there to resupply to Silverthorne/ Dillon where I can also pick up some shoes.

I hung around the Butterfly House until about noon, updating social media and catching up on emails. I then got a quick hitch back to Monarch Pass and ate a cheeseburger and malt before heading out on the trail.

The trail from the pass went upwards and just when I thought I had reached the top it went up some more. It climbed to the top of the Monarch Mountain Ski area and followed the ridge line across the whole resort. It then continued on the ridge line to circle around Bald Mountain before dropping down into the valley.

And did it drop fast! The trail into the valley was so steep I couldn’t see the bottom of the mountain as I was descending down the rocky trail. Reaching the bottom there were several lakes descending down the valley. The trail looped through these smaller lakes as it descended toward Boss Lake. My goal for the day was to reach Boss Lake.

I reached the edge of the lake about 6:00 and took what the Far Out app said was a shortcut to avoid climbing a hill and it led right into the lake. I could see the trail further down the shore emerging from the water, but a landslide or the lake level had submerged the trail.

I backtracked and took the route over the hill. I reached the other side of the hill, crossed over the earthen dam, and started looking for a campsite on the lake shore. The first one I came to was occupied by a family and I asked if he knew if there were others further around. There was some smaller ones which would work great for me.

When I reached the end of the trail it was the perfect campsite. A bench overlooking the lake, a spot for my tent nestled in the trees, and a small stream nearby feeding delicious cold water into the lake. I set up camp, ate dinner, and enjoyed the view across the lake until it started to cool off. I retreated to my tent, cleaned up and covered with my sleeping bag as darkness began to creep in.