60 Mile Day to Durango- THE END

August 30-31, 2024

Mile 422.8-483 (60.2 miles)

The alarm went off at 4 am and I snoozed it until 5 am. We drank coffee and packed up as much as we could while staying in the quilt because damn it was cold! Possibly our coldest night on trail yet. I had spent the night curled into the foot of the quilt with it over my head so it had to have dropped around twenty degrees. When the inevitable time came to emerge from the quilt I pulled on every layer I owned, not caring that I would have to stop in a mile or two and take them all off.

As we started hiking I didn't let myself think about the sixty miles because I didn't want to overwhelm myself. The trail was nice and not terribly steep. We crossed over a creek that was turning the rocks white- from some kind of mineral I suppose? I didn't drink it because it seemed unnatural lol and since my stint with giardia have become more leery of my water.

Henry was ahead of me when we were about 10 miles in for the day and I spotted him talking with a lady in a parking lot with a huge bikepacking gang. They were a guide service and had brought their guests sausage egg and cheese sandwiches and offered us four extras! We gratefully took them, vowing between the two of us to save one for a hiker we knew wasn't far behind us.

I finished Assassin's Blade already and sent my thoughts to the book club group chat when I got a bar of service. At one point the trail was exposed and hot, I tried to shield myself with my umbrella and thankfully it didn't last long before I was back into the protection of the forest.

Henry and I met up at a water source and I cameled up with electrolytes, I was really doing my best to hydrate well and eat enough today. When we packed up to continue on we spotted a small bear in the brush that took off running! We had seen a bear on our first day and our last day!

Hit twenty miles around 3 pm and was still feeling really good. At twenty five miles I cracked open my bag of Nutella biscuits and ate the entire thing- 2800 calories to fuel me for the next five miles.

At thirty miles the sun was setting and we reached a campsite and water source where a few other hikers were staying. We sat by the spring eating as much food as we could. My body chilled the longer we sat but I made myself only pull on one layer because I knew I'd warm back up when we got moving. Darkness was falling as we stood to continue, headlamps ready. I took my first dose of caffeine for the day and we started our final climb of the trail.

Henry struggled more than me surprisingly. I thought the climb was fairly easy and marveled at pinpricks of stars in the sky. It's almost a new moon, all the better to see them.

We took a few breaks but I didn't want to stop long because it was harder to restart. The top of the mountain was rocky and kind of sketchy, if you fell sideways you'd basically roll off the mountain into eternity. We took careful steps, our headlamp beams focusing on our next steps.

I thought the descent would fly by but the miles crept slowly. I heard a ping which meant cell service and scrolled on Instagram while walking to distract myself for awhile. At the bottom of the first descent we stopped at a creek to fill up on water and I was starting to feel tired and slow so I took another dose of caffeine. As we left the creek I felt like I was in another universe, time had no meaning and all that existed was a strip of dirt trail surrounded by dark forest that went on like a treadmill track. My body mechanically moved on its own with no thought required from me at all. At this point we were at mile 40 and allll of my food was grossing me out. Everything I ate started to taste the same and felt like it was leaving a chalky, sugary coating on my tongue and mouth, making me gag. Because of this my stomach was pretty empty and the caffeine hit hard. At mile 48 I knew without a doubt that I had this in the bag and I felt giddy and talkative, chatting Henry's ear off. Twelve miles to go and I felt GOOD.

The sun came up and I felt like we were almost done but the last four miles went by the slowest. My knees were starting to get stiff and if we stopped to take a break my feet would throb when we restarted. Henry stopped once to poop and I laid down in the dirt and immediately fell asleep, waking a few minutes later when he came back. As we continued on after that I felt like I was tripping on psychedelics. The last mile was impossibly slow, we started to see day hikers with their dogs. One lady said when she came back to the trailhead she would give us a ride to town if we were still there!

Finally we reached the sign. We had a long kiss and a hug and sat on a rock in front of it, me feeling dazed, accomplished and hungry for any type of food that wasn't in my pack.

Our trail angel bestie came back to the trailhead and we loaded into her car with her dogs and asked her to take us straight to Durango Diner. We ordered huge plates of food, the owner (a thru hiker himself) added celebratory cool whip and sprinkles on my pancake for our accomplishment.

Once our bellies were full we could finally put some thought towards our next steps. With some research it was clear there was absolutely nowhere to stay in town because of a motorcycle festival and Labor Day weekend. We had originally planned to rent a car and drive back to Denver to fly home because it would be cheaper but really only by $100 so we decided to just fly out of Durango tomorrow. We rented a car anyway since there was nowhere for us to stay and we really wanted to shower before flying out of common courtesy so we weren't horrendously stinky. We drove south into New Mexico and found a cheap hotel in Farmington. I crashed for two hours upon arrival, falling asleep curled in a ball on top of the scratchy blanket. When I woke up I took a long shower and we went to Olive Garden and ate a celebratory dinner. Back at the room again I crashed and bed rotted while taking turns icing each knee which would barely bend they were so stiff.

This was one of the wildest ways I've ever ended a trail and I am still in awe of myself and my body and what she can accomplish. I have no doubt I could have dug deeper if I needed to which means someday I'll have to break my record.