Silverthorne, CO

DP was not feeling well today. We packed up, had breakfast at a coffee shop, the did our resupply. DP thought I didn't get enough food, and I said I wanted a light pack. We left town following the east shore of Shadow Mountain Lake, the Colorado River and Columbine Bay. We got to Twin Creek Ranger Station the followed Knight Ridge to Roaring Fork Campground. We crossed Arapaho Bay, taking the road to Monarch Lake. We then skirted the south shore, then climbed to Strawberry Bench where we camped.

We got up early so we could make some miles. Didn't work well, but it was a nice morning anyway. The walk was easy, climbing small knolls and crossing jeep roads. We came upon a porcupine before getting to a cabin by Meadow Creek. We pushed on, taking the High Lonesome Trail to Devil's Thumb Park. We took the Corona Trail to Cabin Creek, grabbing water before the climb, not knowing we would be following a creek to the summit. We got to Devil's Thumb and followed the Divide to Rollins Pass, where we were offered food by two bicyclists who were a traveling band. We took FS149 down to Riflesight Notch, where we dumped our excess water and climbed to Rogers Pass then up to James Peak; we were buffeted by the wind! We took a steep trail down to Loch Lomand, where we set up camp in the dark.

We did get up early and got moving at first light. We followed the jeep road to a signed trail that switched back up near Breckinridge Peak, then to Mt. Flora. We contoured down around Colorado Mines Peak and down to Berthoud Pass, where we sat in a warming hut with DIY for a bit. We pushed on still, climbing and contouring to Stanley Mt., where we caught up to DIY again. We followed the route around the valley, up to the Divide, then south to Jones Pass. We went down the road to Bobtail Creek, followed the creek and saw three moose, one with a huge rack. We found a great campsite under some treed and had a fire.

Woke up before dawn and it was very cold. Fall is really starting to set in. We packed up and got started before the sun came up. We continued down Bobtail Creek, briefly losing the trail before climbing up to an unnamed pass. The trail went to shit and descended steeply off the cliff sides. I was still cold and shivering and couldn't wait to get into sunlight, though the winds still made it cold. We weaved in and out of unnamed peaks, getting blasted by the wind before going down to South Williams Fork. We saw two hunters looking for elk, then started the long climb up to Ptarmigan Pass. We contoured around the ridge, then headed south of Ptarmigan Peak before taking an alternate route toward town. We again briefly lost the track but knew where to head. We hit a road that took us to Silverthorne and got a room at 1st Interstate Inn. We showered then hit the Mint, a tavern where you get to grill your own steak. Very good!

Had coffee and donuts at the Inn, then got our stuff together to slack ourselves to Copper Mt. We decided to take the bike path, as some easy walking might be a nice change of pace. We walked to Frisco, did a resupply package to Monarch Pass, ate Chinese food, then kept going. We stopped at a few sports stores looking for a new platypus bottle before finally finding one at Wilderness Sports. We also picked up some maps for the San Juan section, in case we need good maps to bail out with. We continued on the bike path following I-70 all the way to Copper Mt. We took a buss back to Frisco, did out resupply, chatted with DIY, ate at KFC, took the bus back to Silverthorne, then retired to our room.

ZERO DAY! Had breakfast at Mt. Lyon Cafe. We did laundry, updated the blog, then thought about catching a matinee. We had lunch at Wendy's, and saw Dan and Anna there! Hadn't seen them since Lander. We went to the movie, The Expendables, had dinner at Chimayo, then ran into Mike on our way back to the room. Chatted a bit, then got some R&R, watching tv and putting up our feet.