Post CT

  • CT Day 25, July 24, Monday
  • Start: Durango CO
  • End: Lemitar NM

Departing the hostel, I took a trolley (free this month) to the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNGRR) train depot, where historic steam engine excursions depart and arrive daily. My son arrived to give me a ride back to New Mexico.

But first we spent some time browsing the (free) museum housed in the roundhouse building that services the locomotives.

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Terminus CT

  • CT Day 24, July 23, Sunday
  • Start. CT mile 472.9
  • End: CT mile 486.0, The End, and hitch to Durango
  • Miles walked: 13.1

I had camped halfway up a mountainside, so the morning starts with a climb to 9.6k . Someone had recently come by with a weed-whacker to knock down brush along the trail.

I chatted with Goldie, a CT hiker who would also finish today.

During a long descent, I finally get to altitudes where pine and Gambel oak are dominant, and spruce and fir are gone.

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Last Summit

  • CT Day 23, July 22, Saturday
  • Start: S26 mile 10.8, CT mile 443.9
  • End: CT mile 472.9
  • Miles walked: 29.0

My alarm sounds at its regular 4:45AM. At the beginning of the trip, this was exactly right, getting me on the trail at 5:30, just late enough to be able to walk and see without a headlamp, but still way early in the morning, so I get the most walking during cool temperatures. After almost a month of hiking, sunrise time has changed so that I would need to adjust my alarm, if I were not finishing soon.

I am cowboy camping (sleeping out under the stars, with no tent). Colorado has been so dry this trip that I cowboy camped the last ten nights. Waking up briefly at 3AM, the Milky Way is clearly visible. Just before dawn, several satellites are visible. Shooting starts streak past every night. The weather is quite a change from my trip through Colorado in 2014, which had regular monsoon thunderstorms each afternoon for half the trip.

Some critter is nearby, making small noises. I don’t bother it, and it doesn’t bother me. Last night’s camping spot was among spruce and fir, at about 10k, too high for pines.

In the distance are snow-capped ridges. We might make some final visits to these peaks today.

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