Day 13 to Ricon Quemada

mileage 24 elevation gain 1900 feet

"I wish I could drink the sound of wind through aspen leaves." -Cassi

Thick fog and clouds blanketed the valley and enveloped our tent. We had thought of climbing 14000 foot San Luis Peak but with weather like this we would not see a thing. We stuck to the trail. The atmosphere was one of fantasy and mystery. Eroded volcanic pinnacles poked through the mist looking like stone trolls from the Hobbit.

At the saddle below the peak we began a descent that would last for almost 20 miles. We followed Cochetopa Creek from its headwaters on the flanks of San Luis Peak to the rolling high prairie of the Cochetopa hills. Cochetopa is Ute for buffalo pass. The divide drops to its lowest point in Colorado here and this area had been used for millennia by Native Americans. It was amazing to go through so many ecosysytems: alpine tundra, willow, spruce forest, aspen forest, and eventually sage brush and Ponderosa forest.

Coming down from the pass we arrived at a dirt road and trailhead at Eddiesville. A kind couple took from us plastic bags someone had dropped and we had found back in the wilderness. We kept walking. It was our longest day of the trip and our knees felt the relentless descent. In the afternoon we were almost happy to leave the creek and start some climbing. We were entering a dry stretch so we took enough water (12 liters) to last us the next 24 hours.

Save for CT and CDT hikers the Cochetopa hills are not well traveled. We saw only 3 people after Eddiesville. Our back country camp was a ponderosa covered knoll with no signs of previous human use. As I set up the tent I realized we'd lost one of the stakes. "Will this do?", said Cassi as she picked up some one else's lost tent stake from among the pine needles. Serendipity or perhaps just a reminder how ubiquitous we humans are. We were serenaded that night by alternating choruses of coyotes and owls.

new plants seen- ponderosa pine, big sagebrush, senecio

animals identified- snowshoe hare, pika, golden-mantled ground squirrel, Colorado chipmunk, white-tailed prarie dog, Abert's squirrel, mt bluebird