CDT – Day 82 – Silver Pass M2174.2 to Knoll M2203.2

7/15/15 Day 82, Silver Pass M2174.2 to Knoll M2203.2 10,817′

Tent – Nights Spent Alone: 10

829, 1545.7 Trip Miles

Partly Sunny – Rain and Hail

Day’s of Snow: 8 – Day’s of Rain: 32 – Days of Hail: 16

# of Zero days: 7

6:22 am to 7:00 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

Wolf

Buffalo

Critter Count

15 Whistle Pigs

7 Elk

7 Deer

6 Chipmunk

1 Pika

Totals

1) 530 Pronghorn*

2) 331 Elk

3) 159 Chipmunks

4) 125 Marmot****

5) 119 Lizards

6) 116 Deer**

7) 116 Wild Horses

8) 50 Squirrels

9) 48 Pika

10) 46 Ground Squirrels

11) 41 Cotton Tail Rabbits

12) 30 Prairie Dogs

13) 22 Horny Roads

14) 17 Jack Rabbit***

15) 12 Moose

16) 8 Snakes

17) 5 Coyotes

18) 5 Moles

19) 3 Porcupine

20)  2 Fox

21) 2 Rattle Snakes

22) 2 Toads

23) 1 Mouse

24) 1 Skunk

25) 1 Weasel

*181 from car, **4 from car, ***1 from car, ****2 from car

The tree above me was dead so it constantly kept dropping needles on my tent. The ear plugs helped but I knew the sound so it was hard to ignore. Later we got rain, but I have no idea how long it lasted.

It was another wet morning followed by about 8 miles of mud and cow shit. At times you couldn’t tell which you were walking in. It’s not like my feet don’t smell like I have Trench Foot already. I didn’t need 8 miles of Fesses Smoothy to add to the smell. It was also very hard to keep your footing as it was so greasy.

After Elwood Pass it got better and the sun was out for a good while. We made good time and had 15.3 miles in by 12:30 pm. We had lunch on a small knoll and enjoy the view.

Around 4 pm we got caught in a rain and hail storm. There was thunder too but I never saw lightening. We waited out the worse of it and moved on. We didn’t get far before we had to climb a saddle over 12k. With another round of thunder upon us we hunkered down in some large trees. More hail and rain fell but not for long.

We saw our window and made a break for the pass. We made it without incident. The view shortly after the top blew me away. I thought the San Juan’s were done blowing my mind. I was happily wrong. The view was breath taking. That same view is where I’m camped tonight. I’m pretty much just across the valley.

I saw elk, deer, marmots, chipmunks and pika today. I saw something that looked like a chipmunk but it was too big. I thought ground squirrel but it wasn’t right. I couldn’t count him. I can’t believe I haven’t seen a bear yet!  I’m sure to see the by Yellowstone but I’m just surprised.

Scatman

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