July 15, 2020
Thought upon waking up: I love this let’s go.
Thought upon going to sleep: The sound of Needle creek next to our campsite makes for the perfect nights sleep.
Purgatory Trail
Last night was unique in that I did night hiking from 11pm to midnight before arriving at camp. It was unplanned, but necessary since the campground at the trailhead had been bulldozed over. While the night hike down was incredible, Honestly after 14 hours in the car, it was a bit much. As such I had a hard time waking today. Combine that with the altitude and exhilaration and there was little chance of a good nights sleep. This was made worse by using a shoe as a pillow. Last night after getting all settled in my cozy bag I realized my pillow was not with me. Being tired and exhausted, I couldn’t be bothered getting into the bottom of my bag for something soft. Ahh the life of a thru-hiker.
All in all the poor nights sleep didn’t matter much. I was excited to get the journey started.
Each hike takes on meaning of its own. Sometimes that meaning can be increasing endurance and maybe bagging a 14’er. Sometimes it can be helping others, developing the hiker community or seeing just new views with our eyes. For many who haven’t fully developed who God wants them to be, hiking can be finding themselves, or worse, an escape from what they’ve found. After a year at home with a new baby girl who requires constant safety and warmth to thrive, getting out for an extended time surrounded by an abundance of nature is what I was looking forward to the most.
You see so much life while out hiking. You can truly feel the awesome power of creation. Free of family life’s distractions and requirements, you are in the presence of God. It can and does consume you. For a better part of 2 years, through the pregnancy and rearing of my daughter I was fiercely focused on her needs alone. So much so, I ignored much of the ongoing creation around me. This hike would be my way to reintegrate myself back into nature and begin to retune myself into the real world. A process that will take some time.
Breakfast
We started the day with a good ole Mountain House breakfast skillet and all the protein bars you could eat. Since my goals for this trip were nothing related to food, simple no-fuss meals were welcome. In hindsight, planning the meals better would’ve led to more enjoyment thought. We haves too much food. Both in quantity and pack area consumed. We’ve got to get our food weight down before the bigger climb tomorrow. Your choices are either to give it away, throw it away or eat it. I chose to eat it.
We took off down the purgatory trail this morning and all of us were feeling strong. We took down miles quickly and with no breaks required we came to the Animas river trail.
Normally the Durango/Silverton railway runs hikers up to where our finish point is tonight. This year, due to the pandemic and a bridge washout, the train only goes halfway. This is fortuitous for us since what would normally be a busy trail is nearly empty as most would-be hikers don’t want to tackle the extra miles.
The Animas river trail is deceiving. Once your reach the river, you spend almost 4 miles walking flat but it’s hot and muggy at the lower altitude. The combination of the heat and my overloaded pack got to me. I struggled to get the last mile in which is mostly switchbacks and quick altitude gain. I was never so happy to make camp. In hindsight, my hiking stamina had been slowly robbed from me over the past 2 years and it was something I will want to pay better attention too before attempting a grueling thru-hike like this again.
Our arrival timing couldn’t have been more perfect. As the tents went up an afternoon thundershower came through. We took the opportunity to take a nap beneath the pitter patter of rain on our rain fly’s. I was exhausted and it wasn’t hard to get rest. Life was good.
After the nap we took the time to listen to Needle creek applauding our arrival. Nature cheers God through his streams. Don’t believe me? Its in the Bible. Listen closely and a fast moving stream sounds like the revelry of a large crowd giving praise to the home team. I could put up a cabin here and go no further. Surrounded by the power of the water, this location humbles me.
As a group arise from our afternoon slumber and after a bit of camp prep we all pause and offer praise and thanks to God. Next we gobble down some sweet and sour pork for dinner. After a long day of hiking this meal really hit the spot. Its definitely one of my favorite Mountain House meals. I rehydrate my body as much as possible after the hot day and head off to bed. The stars are hidden by cloud cover but after a long day I’m not interested in staying up past hiker midnight. Tomorrow’s hike will be tough with nearly 3000ft of altitude gain in 5 miles. Our destination will be the meadows beneath Chicago Basin.
