CDT Day 82-83 Back to the Mountains 

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8-9 July

18 miles

Grand Lake (1194.9) to Never Summer Wilderness (1212.9)

I had all the best intentions of taking a leisurely day hike in the nearby Rocky Mountain National Park. The US postal service had other plans for me. Leki kindly sent me a replacement pole for the one I broke several days earlier. But the postal service hadn’t sorted their mail in the morning. So I took the day off and relaxed in the town of Grand Lake. The pole was waiting for me in the afternoon, thank you Leki.

Lucky and I had no intention of leaving town early. An all you can eat buffet breakfast followed by an early lunch had me sufficiently loaded with calories. We navigated a road walk out of town followed by some back trails that slowly had  had us climbing. The views were limited by the tree cover until we hiked above 11000ft. The views opened up as the air got thinner.

By 6pm we started to plan where we might camp. Hopefully near water. But I started feeling sick. I was ready to vomit. My hands started shaking. I’ve felt like this many times in the past and knew exactly what was going on. I had depleted all the stores of energy from my body. I completely bonked.  Having eaten so much before leaving town I wasn’t hungry while hiking. I stopped, forced some chocolate in my mouth, drank some water and waited to feel fine. Twenty minutes later I was full of energy and heading down to camp.

We reached camp around 7pm. I got a fire going and Lucky cooked us some Hot Dogs for dinner. We planned a luxury campfire meal for our first night. I felt so much better after eating 3 Hot Dogs covered in tomato sauce (ketchup) and mustard.

We looked at our maps and were surprised to find we had hiked 18 miles during the afternoon. That’s a lot more than we thought we might do. I guess if we keep it up we’ll be in Wyoming sooner than we think.


Next – Day 84 The Last of the Tall Peaks

Everything you need to know about hiking the CDT:
Complete Guide to Hiking the Continental Divide Trail
CDT Resupply Guide
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About the Author:
Brad is an Australian who has completed the hiking Triple Crown after he hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail and Appalachian Trail. He has hiked on every continent (except Antarctica) and has cycled from Alaska to Ecuador. He is an expert on outdoor gear currently living in Chile.

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10 thoughts on “CDT Day 82-83 Back to the Mountains ”

    • I didn’t realise it at the time but my body was suffering more than expected at this point. I was glad not to di the extra miles. No regrets.

      Reply
  1. 7-19: So, several times on this year’s hike, I’ve gone thru a real calorie-burning day or 2. I completely lost my appetite which of course added to the massive lack of energy. Was nauseous several times on each occasion. Couldn’t force down anything requiring chewing. Switched to more of a liquid electrolyte strategy which seemed to help. But I’m not really sure of the actual cause & effect. Ideas? Your experience seemed to resonate and hope you will continue to talk about those issues in the future.
    So far this year, I’ve taken about 30 zeros which felt like the right thing to do. Past years have been more focused on making miles. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” This year has been the best so far. Lots of serendipity. ADL

    Reply
    • Giardia? Symptoms are very similar to those you describe. It’s the number 1 most common infection hikers get.

      Reply
  2. Great scenery. You are in my part of the world now—Colorado and Wyoming. Funny to see you wolfing down so much ketchup and mustard—the real yellow American mustard at that. Glad you finished the day feeling well.

    Reply

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