Pagosa Springs and beyond

June 04, 2022

The last day of the South San Juans had some interesting hiking on steep slopes on the south side of both forested and rocky ridges. However, the forest became a pile of matchsticks at every pass which allowed wind to pass through. Crawling over and under trees for hours, I became eager for town. There was a ridiculous final obstacle though...a steep north facing slope, rich with snow and broken trees. It felt pretty dangerous to cross...I constantly collapsed up to my hips in rotten snow, one hand hanging onto tree branches so I wouldn't skitter down the slope to land in a sharp pile of broken trees below.

there is a "trail" under those trees.

this takes between five and ten exhausting minutes to cross.

The going became so slow, that I gave up on the trail completely. I'd passed above a lake and knew there was a road a bit West of it. After a particularly irritating stretch, now with soaking feet and exhausted body, I turned resolutely downslope and found my way to the road below. An hour of walking brought me to the highway, and another forty minutes to the pass.

I was lucky enough to meet up with El Flaco and Yeti at wolf creek pass. We tried hitching for almost an hour in freezing wind, but no one stopped. El Flaco had an old friend from the Appalachian trail who lived in town, Smiley. He and Lea came and picked us up...a godsend! We got burgers in town (mine with green chilies...I loved these and tried to get them on everything for the next meals). Yeti and I called several places for a place to stay, but came up empty... The combination of weekend, of the memorial Day holiday, and the large number of other CDT hikers in town thanks to the New Mexico forest closure, meant that not even a place to put a tent could be found.

Here is where the amazing generosity of individuals in the hiking community came to bear: Smiley and Lea somehow found room for us in their beautiful home, along with, of course El Flaco, and Gargoyle and Mishap, too. After a great Mexican food dinner down the street, we got absorbed in Survivor, Season Three (from twenty years ago?), and just felt warm, safe and happy sprawled in Smiley and Leas living room.

The next day, some folks went rafting, Smiley went to work, and I busied myself in the backyard seam-sealing my Lunar Solo tent to prevent leaks in heavy rain. We all ate as much as possible, too. The coffee shop across the street had huge cinnamon rolls, banana bread, warmed with butter, quesadillas with pepper jack cheese and green chilies. Mmm!

I found a place to stay for the night at a kind of corporate hotel chain. I didn't spend much time there. After a trip to Walmart to resupply, we went to a Chinese restaurant for a delicious farewell dinner. I got to the hotel at about ten... Showered, organized my pack, and got ready to leave town.

me, yeti, Gargoyle, Lea, Mishap, a friend of Lea, El Flaco, and Smiley at the Chinese place.

In the morning I walked back to the coffee shop (three miles! Town is too spread out), where Mishap and I finally got the coveted cinnamon rolls. Gargoyle and I discussed a book he was reading about the continental divide, and I quickly got it into my Kindle for reading in the days ahead. Lea got her hiking gear, and drove us to the pass... It was even colder up there than before. She hiked up with us for a few hours. We talked about the consciousness of rocks...I said they are like us, only "sleeping," and not yet developed so far along lines of subjectivity as first the plants, the animals, and finally us. Gargoyle joined in too, mentioning an interesting movie where the participants find themselves in different dimensions... I've got to get the title from him.

Gargoyle, Mishap, me and El Flaco getting a ride to the pass from Lea, thank you!

Because I'll see him again. We travel at different paces, but when you consider the rythym of rest days, we're always coming back together. I ended up charging ahead and camping at a lake about 9 miles in. My feet were wet because there were several North facing, snowy slopes to cross. Happily, that was the worst of the snow for this leg. I believe Mishap got a bit ahead as well...I met Ranger (his trail name);a day or two later, and he said she was alone, but not sure if the others were ahead or behind her. It's often like that. You just go, and for so long, that even five or six people can become lost in the vast landscape. I quite like coming together with people for a day or two, then we separate again for an hour, a week, a month.