Day 25 to Georgia Pass

Town chores occupied our morning. I had mailed our bounce box to the Wood's Inn PO Box 2 weeks ago but apparently they rarely check their mail. I retrieved it at the post office, grabbed the last of our maps and mailed the rest home. We caught the free Summit shuttle bus and it dropped us back at the Gold Hill trail head at 930am. It had been a good 24 hours but now it was time to hike.

We'd missed this section in 2009 when we left the CT to visit John's relatives in Breckenridge. It was nice to hike but would have been a blast to bike- smooth tread, gradual climbs and descents. It also afforded great views of the ski areas at Breck and Keystone.

We found a hiking shoe to add to our list of useful items we'd found on trail. The list included a bandanna, sock, pole cage, tent stake, tarp, sleeping pad, trail mix, water bottle and treking poles. Trash we'd pack out but these useful items posed a moral dilemma. Would their owners miss them / come back for them or would they become just more trash in the wilderness? Not wanting to get bogged down with extra weight, our approach was pragmatic. If it was something we needed we'd keep it after asking other hikers that day if it was theirs. If we did not need it but were close to a trail head we'd bring it and leave it there thinking it would more likely be claimed at a trail head. If we were far away from any trail heads we'd put it in an obvious spot near the trail. On the other hand, we'd also lost a pair of sunglasses, 2 water bottle tops and a dog paw protector. Hopefully these were found and put to good use. Ok, even with all day to think, we weren't solving the world's problems (though we had a few suggestions). At least we were working on ours.

As it was getting late in the season the number of CT through hikers we saw had dropped rapidly. Today, however, we did meet the only person on the whole trip who was concertedly hiking the CDT. John from Montana had been working his way south on the CDT each summer for years. This year he'd started in Grand Lake and was headed to Leadville. We laughed. Combined we'd done the whole trail.

Both Cassi and I kept looking for Beckham. After so many days on the trail it was strange to be hiking without him. We knew he was recuperating from his sore paw and skin infection fine but it felt lonely without him. He, like most dogs, would have happily kept hiking with us until he collapsed. I was glad to not have that responsibility but we missed his company.

Afternoon clouds turned to drizzle as we climbed Georgia Pass. Trail magic from Queso and Cerveza in Fairplay (former AT and PCT hikers ) in the form of a cooler with soda and tortillas kept us walking. At the pass we left the CT for the last time and turned to the high ridges of the geographic divide. As the drizzle turned to rain we pitched tent sheltered by krummholz. We'd skipped lunch so we ate a double dinner and watched as the broad expanse of South Park below filled with clouds.

new plants seen- grouse berry

animals identified- gray jay, sharp-shinned hawk, Colorado chipmunk, red squirrel