Day 24 to Gold Hill Trailhead

new plants seen- alpine paint brush, scarlet gilia

animals identified- Abert's squirrel, mt chickadee

Easiest day of the trip as we dropped down from the 10 Mile Range to Highway 9. We were at the trailhead by 930am and soon met my parents who'd driven from Fraser. We spent the morning eating breakfast number 2 at the Butterhorn Bakery in Frisco. We all checked into our room at the Wood's Inn and spent the afternoon cleaning up, watching the Olympics and of course more eating. It was as close to a zero day as we could muster. We did go by the grocery to buy food for our last 5 days and I did get new light weight hiking shoes at the Outlet mall next door in Dillon. I had been using trail running shoes but they really were not up to the job. Within one week on the CDT I had broken the laces, delaminated the soles and rubbed holes in the side mesh. Judicious use of duct tape was the only thing that had kept them going this long. Depositing them in the trash I realized they were the only piece of our equipment that truly wore out. We celebrated my new shoes with Blue Bell ice cream from the shop next door.

Beckham was glad to be off trail. We got him some antibiotics though he did end up at the vet 3 days later for a shot. According to my parents they wondered if he was OK because he spent the next 5 days not moving, pretty much just sleeping and eating. I told them not to worry. That's pretty much what we did when we finished.

Before leaving for the night Bob and Helen treated us to pizza at the Frisco Brewery. They were amazed at our appetites. "Just making up for lost calories.", we replied. Cassi and I stayed up late watching Olympics. It was the first bed I had slept in in 24 nights.