August 30, 2013

August 30, 2013
Breckenridge to just South of Cooper Mtn Ski Resort
15 miles

Today was a nice easy day. Sort of. I took advantage of having hot water at my disposal and took another shower, followed by breakfast of French toast, eggs, toast, and tea, that was included in my stay at the Fireside Inn.

I failed to pick up new socks yesterday so I walked around town to find an open shop, then proceeded to head toward the bus station to get back to the trail, which I finally did at 10:30. Not the earliest start, but oh well.

It was a nice 2,500' climb over the first 7 miles or so, which would have been just fine, however, as I was nearing the top of the ridge a thunderstorm started to rumble. Again it was a race to get up and over before major weather hit. Once on the other side of the ridge I half ran and half walked trying to drop elevation, but the weather caught me and I enjoyed a healthy amount of rain and hail on the way down.

There were a fair number of other people also heading down to Copper Mtn including an older couple who were doing a day hike along the CT and a couple about my parents age that I ended up hiking with and talking to for about 5 miles into the resort. Ann and Don live in Breckenridge part of the year and spend the rest of their time other places. Ann is Swedish but has a place in London, while Don just finished a trans-America bike ride from Virginia to Florence, OR, averaging 60 miles a day. They were fun people to run into and even ended up buying me a croissant and hot chocolate once at the resort!

While at Copper Mtn I was also able to get ahold of my sister and FaceTime with her family in Michigan. I even saw the brand new baby, my niece, Amaya! It was great to see the Egle clan and I hope to get out there after finishing the hike to visit in person.

After that I headed back out into the light rain and hiked about a mile (maybe) before deciding to just set up camp and call it a day. It will be a couple of big days to get to Twin Lakes, but I'm hoping for better weather that will be conducive to hiking, i.e. no thunderstorms.


Alex