Day 02 to above Haskell Rincon

mileage 19.5 elevation gain 2500 feet

"Walk the CDT with no shoes? Now that would be a feet" -Tony

We woke to a beautiful sunrise over the rolling alpine tundra of the South San Juans. The majority of our day was spent above timberline following cairns along a trail that often disappeared. The CDT in southern Colorado was trail number 813 (the Forest Service numbers all the trails in its jurisdiction). When the CDT was designated as a National Scenic Trail it used as many existing trails as it could to link together and form a continuous route from Mexico to Canada. Trail 813 that ran for miles through the high San Juans filled that bill perfectly.

Mid morning we dropped down to Blue Lake which sat directly on the divide. Water levels were low as Colorado had had a very dry winter and spring. We saw two outlets: one leading to the east and the Atlantic and the second, at times of higher water levels, leading west to the Pacific. We talked to the first people we'd seen on trail, a group of boy scouts on a horse packing trip. They were packing up to move to another lake that had, they hoped, more fish. They hiked with small daypacks and the horses carried the bulk of their gear. I felt a bit sorry for one of the pack leaders who was touting a huge backpack. I guess his horse must of been sick.

Taking a break in a campsite next to the ruins of an old cabin above the lake I was to disgusted to see human waste and TP just out in the open. I am sure those scouts have better Leave-No-Trace practices than this, I thought as I moved it to a more appropriate spot and buried it. We humans do have a tendency to trash our surroundings no matter how beautiful.

Thunder storms arrived in the afternoon just as we were about to again climb above treeline. We took shelter below a large spruce tree and made an early dinner. In a few hours the rain passed and we headed out, mists rising from the valleys below. Soon the trail changed to a narrow rut overgrown with willows dripping wet from the storm. Within minutes we were soaked. We dubbed it a new ecological habitat- the willow zone- a source of beauty and frustration throughout our trip.

We camped on a ridge just below tree line. As I walked to the edge for a better view a 6 point buck sprang up from 10 feet away and bounded into the forest. I guess we weren't the only ones that thought this was a good place to sleep for the night.