SAN ISABEL NATIONAL FOREST, CO
I woke up this morning with frost covering my sleeping bag and a water bottle half frozen. The temperature was in the 20s but I was warm inside my many layers.
As I descended from Searle Pass in the cold I felt slow and stiff. Even when It warmed up and I took my layers off, I felt like I was slower than my normal pace.
The hiking was easy and the weather was fantastic. There was a pretty nice breeze and temperatures got into the 70s.
Yesterday I noticed the threading on my hip belt is coming undone. This has me concerned. A hip belt is real important to keep the pack weight off the shoulders. If the hip belt comes off, my shoulders are going to get really sore. At the next stop I might contact REI about a replacement
In the afternoon I passed by the 10th army mountain division cabin trail. The CDT went the other way so I continued on for a few minutes and noticed a miraculous sight. A big cooler was sitting next to the trail with the marking “CDT” on it. Could it be? YES! It looks like Scout and Frodo planted this with a bunch of sodas inside and a register. I glugged a Dr Pepper and basked in the bliss of trail magic. I had seen a few coolers in New Mexico that were empty or had just water, but this was the first real trail magic I had on trail. Based on the register, lots of other hikers had the same experience. HeHo!
About 5 pm I came to a stream crossing with an absolutely perfect campsite next to it. I hated to stop this early, but given that I was tired and I might not find anything else nearly this good I called it a day.
I expect to get to Twin Lakes in 2 days to resupply, then on to Salida.