Miles 6.4
Camped at mm 145.3
Anji can multi task. She can make coffee, let the air out of her sleeping pad, roll it up, and put on her shoes all at the same time.
I can watch my water boil.
She also has a faster reaction time than I do. I feel like I would come to the same conclusions she comes to, but it would take me an additional two to three seconds to make that decision. It keeps me on my toes to try to think as fast as she does. All the time. About everything.
And she cleans up my Social Faux Pas. Like when I was talking to a thru hiker about dirty hippies when the thru hiker declared herself a dirty hippie and I had to try to separate her dirty hippiness from the actual Dirty Hippies that I was referring to and the thru hiker couldn’t figure out what I was talking about and it got awkward and Anji gracefully changed the subject.
*sigh*
Anyway. Anji is the best.
Today started with sunlight lighting up some mountains in the distance with the most gorgeous, heavenly pink glow.
Anji’s troubled breathing and the edema in her ankle area seem to be mostly resolved today. We don’t know why we aren’t acclimating to the altitude, but we just aren’t. We decided to take the Collegiate East route. This is the original Colorado Trail and still counts as a thru hike. It is just as long but is lower in elevation and stays in the trees.
The Collegiate West is above the treeline and has better views but more risk of lightning. If we had to run from a storm, we are literally incapable of doing so. My feet are so bad, and our breathing is bad enough that we would not be able to run for safety.
So Collegiate East it is. And we know nothing about the terrain, the area.
Nothing.
But it’s the right thing to do.
Anyway, the path today was smooth and gentle for the most part. There were some steep uphills, but that led to an old, abandoned railroad bed that we walked on for miles before we reached a road where we hitched into Leadville.
Though yesterday was one of the best “feet days” I’ve had on trail, today was one of the worst.
But we got to rest my feet a lot in town even though we were incredibly busy. Just like every town day. No actual down time.
We went to the post office and got our box of food. We exploded our packs all over the courthouse lawn and identified some rarely used items that could be mailed home and did just that. We ate breakfast and charged electronics. We went to Melanzana, and I actually bought a Melly beanie! I was so excited about my little status symbol. I also put in for their raffle, and Anji took a photo of me outside the store.
It’s freaking cold! Anji reported when she got out of the shower at the laundromat. When I went in for my turn, I held my breath, but the water was hot and delicious, and we didn’t have any shampoo, but we did have Dr. Bronner’s, so we made do. And we didn’t have any laundry detergent, so we just threw everything in under a hot water wash, and it seemed a lot less smelly, so that seemed acceptable.
I ate some food and then felt like I was going to pass out from hunger, so I ran back to the store.
Give me five pieces of meat and five pieces of cheese, I told the deli guy.
What kind? He asked.
I don’t care. I said.
We have a lot of different kinds, he said.
Just give them to me. I said and squatted down, almost sitting on the floor, everything going black with a buzzing sound in my ears.
Pretty quick, he had some meat and cheese for me.
Ma’am? Ma’am? Here you go! He said.
I stood up and got the hell out there. I put my head down on the picnic table outside and stuffed cheese and meat into my mouth until about ten minutes later, when I could lift my head up without feeling terrible.
I texted Anji. I’m ready to go whenever, I said.
I went back to the laundromat and collected her and my stuff.
We hitched a ride with Gracie and Michael, who were on their way to Vail, and they dropped us off right at Tennessee Pass, where we immediately started walking the wrong way.
We identified the error within about 59.6 feet, though, and got back on track. Back to the woods where we belonged.
On those soft, rolling paths we now call home.
lead a life uncommon 