Day 1, Wednesday June 17, 2015
Start 41-032WT near Dumont Lake, mile 1457.5
End Buffalo Pass, Summit Lake Campground, mile 1469.7
Occasional patches of snow turned to frequent patches, then turned to mostly snow with bits of ground sticking out along the trail.
Snow underneath the trail seems to melt first, so I can often make out the path from the tiny bits sticking out from the snow. Frequently I lose the trail altogether and must navigate by gps waypoints. Speed is cut way down from the normal two miles per hour to one mile/hour, which is worrying, because I do not mind the tough physical hike but would really not want to run out of food.
By dinner time I wonder if I need to bail from the trail and start again later, or skip up to Rawlins, where the elevation is lower and the snow is all gone. I could walk 13 miles along a forest road and get back to Steamboat. But if I can hike the next couple of days with even higher elevation, the rest of this section should be mostly snow-free, hopefully. I will sleep on it.