CDT – Day 63 – Gold Hill Parking Lot to Janet’s Cabin

6/26/15 Day 63, Gold Hill Parking Lot M1791.7 to Janet’s Cabin, 11,628′

Hut – Nights Spent Alone: 7

20.9, 1156.9 Trip Miles

Mostly Sunny

Day’s of Snow: 7 – Day’s of Rain: 19 – Days of Hail: 11

# of Zero days: 6

10:39 am to 7:50 pm

Gila Crossings Final Total:  221

Tick Count: 4 (4 more crawling on me)

Wanted List

Mountain Goat

Grizzly Bear

Sasquatch

Black Bear

Bighorn Sheep

Velociraptor

Mountain Lion

Beaver

Unicorn

Critter Count

5 Squirrels

2 Elk

2 Chipmunks

2 Cotton Tail Rabbits

1 porcupine

1 Marmot

Totals

1) 530 Pronghorn*

2) 169 Elk

3) 119 Lizards

4) 116 Wild Horses

5) 112 Chipmunks

6) 73 Deer**

7) 40 Cotton Tail Rabbits

8) 35 Ground Squirrels

9) 34 Squirrels

10) 27 Marmot****

11) 26 Prairie Dogs

12) 22 Horny Roads

13) 17 Jack Rabbit***

14) 11 Moose

15) 8 Snakes

16) 8 Pika

17) 4 Coyotes

18) 4 Moles

19) 2 Porcupine

20) 2 Rattle Snakes

21) 2 Toads

22) 1 Mouse

23) 1 Skunk

24) 1 Weasel

25) 1 Fox

*181 from car, **3 from car, ***1 from car, ****2 from car

Soft and short bed last night but I woke up feeling good. As usual I was starving when I got up. We packed up and walked to the PO. On the way we hit a place called The Red Buffalo. It was okay. My burrito was frozen. Ugh! Not what I had in mind.

We met our second NoBo (Northbounder), Safety. He was at the coffee shop.

With the PO out of the way we called Figit and she drove us back to the trailhead. I told her the Scatman Story and she loved it. She also has a connection to Shamus who gave me the name. She’s going to get his contact info.

The hike started with a lot of up and not much shade. The sun was intense today. I stopped to shit and Rafiki passed right by my poles I left right on the side of the trail.

I thought he never went by so I waited some. Then I thought he was in front of me because people said a kid with ear phones was waiting up the trail. I caught said kid and it wasn’t Rafiki. What the kid, Nero it turns out his trail name was, didn’t tell me was that Rafiki was in front of us both. Not knowing this I stopped and sat down for 30 minutes. Of course during this time Rafiki was moving further away from me.

I text Rafiki to learn he was in front of me. I wouldn’t catch him until Copper Mountain Resort. Before that I had to gain the ridge of the Ten Mile Range just south of Peak 5. From there it was steeply downhill to Copper.

As we hiked to tonight’s cabin we passed Restless, Banana Pants and G-funk. All who are NoBo’s. The climb was bad but I was tired as I was hungry. Rafiki once again got way ahead of me and I didn’t catch him until the top. We cooked in a meadow as it was so pretty. We had a great view down the valley we just climbed up.

On the way up we both saw the cutest baby bunny. I’m talking it could fit in your hand. It had to be only weeks old. So cute.

The cabin is one of the Tenth Mountain huts I think. It was unlocked so we’re taking advantage of our good luck.

I went out to get water then came back in took off my shoes and then realized I hadn’t wasted yet. I put my shoes back on than headed back to the creek. As I return I ran into a big ass porcupine under the deck of the cabin. I ran to get Rafiki and the porcupine was gone. Turns out he was just inside this box that held an aluminum ladder. We let him be so he could get out and go about his business. No pictures this time.

Scatman

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@ScatmanAT

Get out there!