CT – Day 8

Daily Miles: 20
Total Miles: 159

The day started on a good note, as Sweetpea’s hip was feeling better.  We started off at a slower pace, just to be gentle with her hip as we walked.

We stopped about an hour in when we saw the perfect flat rock for SweetPea to roll her hip.  About five minutes later, our friends, Pete and Karen (Team Infinity), came walking down the trail.  They are hiking the CDT this year and we have been hoping to run into them on the trail.  We haven’t seen them for about seven months, so it was great to chat with them to see how the trail has been for them.  We talked for over an hour and it was hard to say goodbye and walk our separate ways.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.  We had a lot of climbing, and we just took it slow for SweetPea.  We took frequent breaks for stretching and massaging.  

Some of the folks we have been hiking around are planning to hike a side trail tomorrow to the top of Mount Elbert, which is the highest peak in Colorado, and the 2nd highest peak in the continental US.  We aren’t going to hike it since we are trying to avoid snow when we can, and for sure there will be snow at the top of Mt Elbert.  We have been seeing the peak looming over us this evening as we hiked.

It took us a bit to find a campsite this evening, as the trail had a lot of deadfall in the past three miles.  We did manage to find a nice spot, but there is someone in the distance doing a lot of target practice.  Hopefully he will pack it in soon so we can have quiet for falling asleep.