CDT Day 15 – Back on the Trail

Date: 7/2/20

Daily Miles: 6

Total Miles: 267

After almost a week off trail (including two days of driving to CO), we finally made it to the CDT outside of Steamboat Springs.

We returned our rental car to a very sleepy airport in a town about 25 miles west of Steamboat Springs and then had to find a way to get to the trail which was a similar distance to the east of Steamboat Springs. Beardoh made a lot of calls to various taxis/shuttles and asked several people in town. No luck, until he asked a woman working in the Passenger Services area of the airport. Luckily she had the phone number of a guy who drives for Uber and does shuttles.

So, a little before 5pm, we were dropped off back at the trail. As a bonus, within 50 feet of walking, we came across our first trail major of this hike…there were some bottles of Gatorade right on the side of the dirt road. We split a drink to hydrate ourselves after the long drive. We were excited for the magic, since we didn’t really expect to get any this year.

The walking this evening was all on a nice dirt road. After about four miles, we entered National Forest land. We stopped to make dinner and then walked for another half hour.

We are set up in a grove of aspen tonight. There are some car campers nearby, and we expect to see more over the next few days since it is a holiday weekend.

The mosquitoes are insane tonight and we can hear them buzzing in our ears on the other side of the hammock material. Hopefully they’ll be ready for bed soon too.