Day 171 (CT 9)

Day 171 (CT 9): 30 miles

I finally got a good night of sleep last night for the first time on this trail. I was down around 10,000 feet and it was my first time camping below 11,500 which probably helped. I also slept inside of a pit toilet at a trailhead so I was plenty warm and protected from the wind. I still heard it howling outside though like crazy.

I did almost exactly a 12 hour day through the Cochetopa Hills, probably the most boring part of the trail. I have distinct memories of this area cause I hiked through it last year in the CDT on my birthday and it was one of the worst days of hiking all year cause it was so boring. It was redeemed at the end of the day cause I saw a big herd of elk and 3 moose, but there wasn’t any redemption today. It was just pretty boring.

It was warm, exposed, and mostly dry. I felt myself getting fried by the sun all day but couldn’t really hide much. And there were some water sources during the day but they were pretty gross. One even had a decaying dead cow in it which smelled quite lovely. I didn’t get water until 26 miles into the day where there was a semi-clean water source. But there was still cow poop all around so I broke down and filtered it before drinking. This was my first time filtering water on the whole trail. The thought started to cross my mind that I might be able to go the whole trail, but I forgot about this cow country section.

The terrain was easy for the day so I kinda wanted to go for a 40 mile day, but by sundown my back was hurting quite a bit. It’s pretty tight and I can’t seem to get a good crack. Gotta eat some more food and hope the lesser weight helps.

The best part of my day was texting my brother on my sat phone to hear OSU won 77-21. Other than that, it was a head down keep moving kind of day.

Song of the day: the rains of castamere