Whisper made us a big breakfast this morning before we hit the road. We took a couple of little scenic detours on the way to the trail so I could see the area a bit more. We dropped one vehicle off at Tennessee Pass with our full packs in it, then headed back to the Camp Hale trailhead to start slacking the first portion of the day from where I had gotten off trail.
We walked right by some old army bunkers, which were pretty neat. There were also signs all over warning of potential old munitions on the ground in the area. Hopefully there aren’t too many of those left.
Taking two days off had me breathing a little harder today than I had been, but overall the trail was very nice and clear and not particularly steep so it was a good day back.
We reached Tennessee Pass on foot shortly after lunch and explored the 10th Mountain Division Memorial there. Then we grabbed our full packs and kept going up the trail.
There was a metal box full of trail magic from the Leadville Hostel just in from the trailhead. My first trail magic! I was pretty loaded down with food already so I didn’t take much, just a small bag of chips. A little farther into the trail, there was an excellent wooden swing so we had to break and sit there for a while too.
We reached Wurtz Ditch, where we were expecting to camp, only to find the creek bone dry. There were two deep, wide streambeds with high footbridges going over them, so I can only assume the water was diverted somehow. My guide listed it as a more reliable water source and so far even the less reliable sources have been flowing just fine. Luckily there was more water within a mile so we kept going.
We got to camp pretty early after 10.3 miles so we set up and collected wood for a fire. Even with a huge dinner and sitting at the fire for a few hours, we went to bed before 8:00. Perfect night.
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