August 22, 2013

August 22, 2013

Rabbit Ears Pass to 2 miles before Arapaho Creek

29 miles

After another subpar, but free, continental breakfast at the motel I packed up my things and made my way to the the highway. I took the free bus to the edge of town and proceeded to try to hitch a ride. Within about 5 minutes I had success! The guys name was James and he was in town to watch the race yesterday. He was on his way to Beavercreek to catch the next stage as well but was kind enough to take a different route to get there in order to take me up to Rabbit Ears Pass. He said he had some hitch hiking karma to repay for the hitching he has done in his world travels. I think James was about 30 and is taking a year away from teaching high school to travel and figure out what he wants to do for work because apparently teaching isn't it. 

As for the hiking, it was a subpar first half of the day. About 3 miles along the busy CO Hwy 40, followed by another 9 miles along the less busy Hwy 14, and then a dirt road for the remainder of the day. The dirt road was actually pretty nice and I am once again in the mountains and on the divide at 11,350'. Along the way I met a couple of section hikers. Their names are Rockstar and Medicare Pastor. Rockstar is probably in her mid-30's, and has previously hiked the PCT. she also works at VVR in the summer and gets to see and meet lots of the PCTers as they come through. Medicare Pastor is 72 years young and has section hiked both the AT and PCT. She is working on the CDT now and hopes to finish in a couple of years, since she only (ha!) hikes about 400-600 miles per year. 

I also started listening to a book called "The Icarus Deception" by Seth Godin. It is pretty interesting so far, the topic being the change in what is valued in the workforce in post-industrial society. More on that as I listen further. 

Toward the end of the day as I climbed higher on a ridge, a thunderstorm was approaching so I ended up setting up camp at 6:45, about an hour earlier than I was planning, so I could be safe and dry as the rain, thunder, and small amount of lightning rolled through.