Day 19 to Clear Creek

Today we took a short cut. Though the CDT has a designated route travelers, especially thru hikers pressed for time, don't always follow the official trail. We had decided to take the official route as much as possible but, so as not to be overly dogmatic, we came up with a rule that would allow us to take alternatives at times. After much discussion (what else is there to do when you are walking all day) we decided two or more of the following had to be true:

1-the short cut stayed closer to the actual geographic divide

2-the short cut passed through an area of greater natural or historic interest

3-the short cut eliminated road walking

4-the short cuts avoided repeating trail we had traveled in the past

We bushwacked across Texas Creek crossing on old beaver dams and downed tree trunks. Hard to say if it satisfied conditon #2 but definitely #1 and #3. Soon we left the Timberline Trail and climbed in to the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. Massive granite 14ners dotted the skyline. Stunning alpine lakes lined the basins.

That afternoon we crossed over the divide and dropped out of the wilderness in to Winfield, a not quite ghost town. Many of the old building had been restored by the Clear Creek Historical Society and exploring them was great. We heard there was new trail that took us off the road walk along Clear Creek. We climbed to the old cemetery but couldn't find trail. We even bushwacked for 30 minutes to no avail. Only later did we learn we should have gone a little further up hill.

Rain settled in so we pitched camp on a bluff above Clear Creek. Somehow I managed to loss 2 water bottle caps in Clear Creek. Fortunately the rushing water drowned out the sounds of me cursing my clumsiness and of the occasional vehicle going by.