Bikepacking the Colorado Trail, Summer 2013, segments 23, 22, 23

In 2013, four friends decided to bikepack the Colorado Trail; Mark, Chris, Barry and Morgan. I'm not sure whose idea it initially was, but I think we were inspired by Lynda Wallenfels' (friend's) trip report from 2012. I'd met Lynda, bought a training plan from her in 2008 for TransRockies, followed her blog. We came up with a plan where two of us, Mark and Morgan would ride up from Silverton to Stony Pass, and start riding east toward the other two friends, Chris and Barry, who would be riding from Spring Creek Pass. Once we met, we'd all point our bikes west and ride to Durango together. I don't remember how we intended to get from Durango back to our cars, but Chris' wife Kristen could help, and Mark and I had left a car in Silverton, to which we could return via the historic train.

Things didn't quite work out as planned. That's how adventures work, right? Chris got altitude sickness, and couldn't join us. I had atrial fibrillation, starting around 2009, which affected me during this trip, and the monsoon season in Colorado in August 2013 was significant, leading to some of the worst floods the state had ever seen, later in September. We also didn't know what we were doing; the afternoon storms definitely need to be avoided, and we rode right into them. We ended up bailing from the CT in Silverado, drying out at Chris' in-laws in Grand Junction, and riding the sunny trails there. But we had unfinished business, and Mark and I planned our return to ride the Silverton - Durango CT segments in the future...

Read Bikepacking the Colorado Trail, Summer 2015, segments 25, 26, 27 & 28, Silverton to Durango

I brought a little notebook and a pen. This is what I wrote. I'm publishing this nine years later, and I don't remember everything I meant, when I wrote these words as notes to myself. I tried to interleave photos from the trip in this post, but blogger (Google) is not great at allowing integrated access to google photos, surprisingly, so I've included some, but you're best off just viewing the album for the trip. I will embed gps records from the trip as well.

8/3
6A - +1hr CST
OAK -> GJ / 2D before L big toe
Pleasant drive
Junk food / spot ok
sinclair, slc
storm cel @ sunset
hit in price, ut
~10pm hard rain light thunder
arrive GJ, quality inn
wifi corridos
free breakfast
bed ~midnight cst
8/4 QI GJ

Slept well, 7hrs
last shower, free breakfast, toe not bad

8/4 Mark woke me up
greasy breakfast QI
In car, sfwy stop
salami cheese
gummy bears
jolly ranchers
bandaids etc ziploc
silverton by 11?

Riding by 1?

Chad Cheeney Annie Chops
Water hot spigot
8/4 cont

Long grind stony creek, many 4x4s, pu's, atvs, motors, some friendly

Afib towards top
Lots of walking, 240bpm, had to walk most of upper.
Over pass unclear (deficient '08 CTR track, topo)

Which way lat 40 map said cont

sgltrk

down stony pass, found it, left
(in margin, 'pole creek / ct intersection')
diverged from ctd
sheep, dog, afib

This part deserves some explanation. I had atrial fibrillation, which is this awful heartbeat problem, where your the heart doesn't beat normally. The atrium - the part where the blood comes into the upper two chambers - doesn't beat, or pull in blood in one continuous, coordinated way, delivering it to the ventricles, the two lower chambers. Rather, the atria muscles just quiver, as they're given a staticky electrical signal, rather than a regular pulse of electrical signal. This means oxygen isn't delivered to the muscles in the normal volume, and the person feels weak, light-headed, miserable. The heart beat appears extremely rapid, and that rapid heart beat feels to the body and the brain something like panic, like dread.

I was in this state. I've had afib since about 2009. We'd just done a massive jeep road climb from Silverton to Stony Pass, and had begun riding the single track of the Colorado Trail. The valley below us was full of sheep. This giant, white sheep dog had come running up toward us. Mark saw this big dog running toward us and skedaddled, ahead of me. I would have, but I couldn't. This dog - seemingly as big as me - came up to me and challenged me, barking and aggressive. It was a working dog. I saw no people, no rider on horseback, but presumably there was one. I was a dead man, laid out over my handlebars. I was thinking "Come what may." I could do nothing. I put my hand out as my heart was vibrating in my chest and this big, purposeful white animal walked toward me and then just leaned on me, leaned all over me, and I stood their petting it for what seemed like forever. Surreal.

dog barked but let me pet him
consulted data book kept going to 1st campsite at mile 9.
Met three young hikers come from spring creek pass. 2m 1w
Garmin dead batt

Said cold rain & thunder, no lightning. Friendly
1 tent at site, friendly
wet feet, 2 socks
Mark sent "OK"
plat fill, filter
yummy spghti mtbls,

sat w/ Mark

Diamox, bed

Rain storm rolling in over silverton @ dark, lots of flashes and booms as I write this

good night

Spent the first night in a big storm. Lightning everywhere, and we were high up, maybe 11,500', and not smart enough or fresh enough to pack up and get low, so slept through it. When we got to this spot there was a woman thru-hiker, Jo with her dog Tiago, and she told us the next morning she'd packed up and gone down to tree line with her dog.

8/5
Lady hiker fr Durango thru hiking, at our camp with dog started June 30 Denver, asked weather, 22 -> most beautiful
Peed 3x during night. diamox?
Nausea & headache.
Poor sleep
Montbell ss down #3 sold as 'long', but no way; circumference and length insufficient
knocked crosspole out pre-dawn
lightning incrsd, then left
cloudy, then sunny in AM
Discovered I'm short on esbit tabs. Mark will cover me. Not sure how I did that; packing in Silverton, distracted?
1 esbit raised near can seems suff.
TJ's bandana
Tarptent condensation
Lost, then found pen
Filtering
Dunked data book
Jo + Tiago had a 'chipee' (chipmunk) for killerbfast
8/5
7
Mark went back to creek where Leadville people were, to get water.
At beginning of long jeep road climb to high pt (13k) of section 22.
3 leadville people 2m 1w thru from Denver, met Grad Ryan & College student Scotty @ 5.7mi.
Fairfield -> Florida -> Bay?
Met Spaceboy & Spaceman in Valley before that. Gave Spaceboy (Reese?) my biz card.
22yo CS grad from MN. Asked for advice. 'Date lots of women, travel, not everyone should be a parent; dogs are good. Do what you love, take time off, don't worry too much about money.'
Before that Jinead and Luke "14k thruhikers" showed them our map, ct surprised them
helped them get to next peaks.
Hiking to climbing every 14er too
Before that older couple at first summit, from PA, Wellsboro, PA. Grand Canyon
TODO Glue glove, get AA, lighter, esbit
Today is my birthday 45
Tarptent drips
Montbell too small.
Can't inflate neoair firm enough.
TODO rear caliper and washers
Excellent descent from 12900. Afib on climb before that.
You really suffer for beauty here, esp flatlanders, esp afib
"Riding the Colorado Trail with a broken heart"
Need to streamline camp set up / tear down, get earlier starts, need better sleep.
Alt + afib sucks.
Goal for today yurt after bk (13k?)
will not meet Barry & Chris @ Sprg Crk Pass, ride toward them tomorow am.
Lucky w/ storms so far. Scared of lightning.
W/ alt + afib I am sitting duck if high.
Brake pads made of marijuana!
4x4s and motos on climb to 13k
22 & 23 are young?
Immature trails
Better for hiking than riding, can't imagine ctr winner; 4d Dur to Denver!
Averaging 2/3 of a section at current pace.
Mark & I are slow. Do I let riders go & get to Durango after 8/11?
Fuck afib!
Did I mount front bag right? Mark's sits lower.
Every 4x4 asks "OK?"
Ref 2-Epic & Jennyjo & Chris, then Barry & Mark
Mark loves high country and the 'packing' part. I'm still trapped in 'bike' part, but digging self-supp and beauty.
The CO Trail is too damn high!

We rode east, where we'd meet our friends coming up Spring Creek. I was pretty miserable with the afib and altitude, and it was way rainier than we expected. Turns out we did this trip (8/2013) at the very beginning of the ~30 day rain cycle that resulted in those awful floods in Colorado, that wiped out towns like Lyons. So instead of afternoon storms, as usual, it just rained and rained and rained. Still, beautiful. I was having a really tough time, and we had to do an extra push because of ... I forget, but we pushed to this yurt we'd heard about. I was so messed up at this point, barely alive, cold, wet. We could see it across a meadow. The slight gradient and maybe 200' vertical it took to get there felt like the LONGEST YARD. We were afraid it would be full, but we found it empty, stocked with wood and propane. It was heaven, after days of constant rain. Mark had hot cocoa packets and it saved my life.

8/5
Goddamn Carson was hard.
Afib all way, slow motion & monster storm rolling up on us, black w/ lightning & fast right behind.
Like cartoon char slow-poked it over top just in time to get down a bit, find a low in some rocks, ditched bikes & gear, put on rain gear, squatted among rocks as storm approached.
Cold rain, lightning all around us, clouds boiling. Had to cover neck with hands to prevent hail sting. Hard hail. Strikes close. Waited extra 20 min as sun shone again, then got up.
Happy birthday to me!
Sadly carson pass is not a descent NE, but a frustrating series of rollers at 13,000' on a mesa. Five times I'd go downhill only to see another climb.
Heart was completely haywire and I could barely move.
Occasionally saw Mark in distance.
Kept hoping for descent to yurt.
Finally found it, crazy rock switchbacks, unrideable.
Was a zombie, hr in basement but no oxygen delivered. Nauseous, no motor skills, cloudy thinking.
Punch drunk.
Dark thoughts. (hitching to Durango, fly home, etc)
Move 20', almost faint, put head on arms, wait 30s, continue
Found Mark waiting at tree line. Crawled thru rainy woods to valley, lightning & rain again approaching from rear. Could barely move. Crawled upslope to yurt.
God bless the FOTCT! God bless the yurt. Laid, wet & half-dead on floor as storm hit hard outside.
Nauseous, miserable.
Eventually rushed outside to bike, gathered clothes, etc, rushed in.
Warm clothes, fire, propane, hot water, cocoa, mac & chili, forced myself to eat, felt better, bed.
Not good sleep b/c of afib, but better than prev night @west fork pole crk.

8/6 Sunny morning, still afib.
Wrote in guest book
$20
Discussed options; ride east, meet C&B, either down 3322 or all way to Spring Creek Pass & down & up & down 149 to Lake City, then hitch / ride to Silverton
OR
turn around w/ C&B and experience the misery of multiple climbs at 13k again?
Bike is kind of a liability on 22 & 23. Almost better to backpack, then pick up bikes in Silverton.
Backpackers may be faster than bikepackers, or 'bike-portagers'.
Mark discusses morning sun creating anvil clouds, monsoon systems, similarity to tornado behavior in the plains.

Next morning we waited most of the day for Barry and Chris. They were supposed to meet us in the morning, but only Barry arrived in the afternoon. Turns out Chris had really bad altitude sickness - we were all Bay Area people at the time - and he was laid out in Silverton. It was late in the day, and with the bad weather and our rough previous day, we decided to hold tight, with more rain coming and move out in some direction in the morning. Our friend Chris was planning on meeting us the in two nights in Silverton, if I remember right. We decided to get up early, filter water and do a big push all the way back to Silverton, which had taken us two days, in one day. We did it, it was like 14 hours of riding/pushing.

8/6 Barry arrived around one, no Chris, he and Kristen dropped Barry off @ Spring Creek this AM.
Chris has headache and nausea; presum alt. He will wait in Silverton.
He expects us tomorrow (8/7) night. But my with Barry's late arrival and a rainstorm moving in, and the prospect of being a long time @ 13k in it, we agreed to spend another day & night in the yurt, to get an early start tomorrow 8/7, and to make Silverton EOD 8/8.
Barry same exp's as us; elevation, beauty, difficulty.
Spent the day napping & reading & talking.
We had an early dinner & agreed on a 5AM wake-up
B set alarm - and a 'magical thinking' goal of Silverton by nightfall.
Rain & fog all day, but no lightning.
In hindsight we could have made some ground, but we'd be cold & wet, not warm & dry in the yurt.
Pess goal: 8/7 to Cataract Lake, 8/8 to Silverton
Opt goal: 8/7 to Silverton
Really, my afib is our limiter.
Afib all day during yurt rest day
Chris expects us in Silv 8/7

The journal ends. I wrote, rode and photographed all of this nine years ago. It's a bit blurry in my memory, and blurry in the photos, due to time and storms. What happened was, we started to return from the yurt. I still had afib. Barry and Mark and I were soaked through from a storm that went all day. The storm wasn't your average, afternoon monsoon-season thunderstorm, it was an all-day storm. Mark was starting to show signs of hypothermia. We decided to push through the storm, once again going over the highest point on the Colorado Trail, Coney Summit at 13,271', all the way from the yurt, at mile 8.7 of segment 22 to Silverton, 36 miles. It was an ugly, all-day, wet push. We got to Silverton at 8:30 or 9:00PM, got a room at the hostel, through all our wet stuff off and down. We were famished, and ready for 'real food', but everything was closed. It's a tiny mountain town, maybe you've been? Finally we found a Mexican restaurant that was closed/closing, but we begged them to cook for us. They did, and of course - imagine! - it was wonderful. Chris and Kristen met us the next day. We considered heading back up to Molass pass and continuing to Durango, but between my heartbeat and the unending rain, we decided to go to her parents' place in Grand Junction, dry out, warm up, relax and ride fun terrain. We did that, and it was amazing. My afib calmed down and IIRC, turned off at ~5000, GJ altitude.

We hadn't reached our goal, Durango, but the fire was lit, and two years later Mark and I would complete that section of the CT.

Read Bikepacking the Colorado Trail, Summer 2015, segments 25, 26, 27 & 28, Silverton to Durango

Read Bikepacking the Colorado Trail, Summer 2022, Denver to Durango