We left the trailhead at 7:30 after getting a ride with Mich.
We saw lots of fresh elk tracks on the way but no elk. The only animal except birds that we saw were cattle. They don’t much like us.
There are some tremendous views in this area. So much it is hard to take in.
There was a little uphill early on then to my surprise the incline was nice and easy until about 1.5 miles from the summit. It then resembled the path on the south side of Hope Pass on Colorado, Steep with some long switchbacks. We are currently camped about 2000 feet from the summit. We will summit the 11,301 ft mountain in the morning. Before we camped, the wind was blowing about 20 mph and the temperature was 57. As we had walked 19+ miles and had over 3000 in elevation gain we decided to hunker down in a grove of trees. Within this grove there are patches of snow, some 4 ft deep. It may be quite cold tonight. We will be sleeping with our water filters and cell phones.
My miles are messed up due to the alternatives we have taken. I will work on that at the next town stop which will be Cuba, NM.
Continental Divide Trail 