97 Degrees + 7500 ft = Nausea (Welcome to the CT)

August 2, 2024

Mile 0-16 (16 miles)

Smooth flight yesterday and arrived to the hotel late last night. We had a great nights sleep in the AC after eating some take out and watching trashy TV. I took a quick shower, thought about washing my hair because ya know... who knows when I will again, but laziness won out. Henry and I walked down to the dispensary and picked up 2oz of flower and two bags of sleep gummies for me (it is actually insane to me how cheap weed is here after being used to Maine dispensary prices). Next stop we picked up some to-go breakfast and coffee. It was a high of 97 today and it sure felt like it, by the time we were back at the room my shirt was soaked with sweat.

We packed our backpacks and I was so glad we flew with our resupply because that meant my least favorite chore was already done. We walked to REI to buy a fuel cannister and ran into IBTAT who I hadn't seen since the AT in 2018 somewhere in New York. Henry's friend from the AT, 100 Grand, picked us up outside and drove us to the trailhead- our first trail magic before the trail even started and we were so thankful!

We took some photos with the Waterton Canyon sign and then sat in the shade of one of the only trees to reorganize some of our gear.

By this time it was noon and most definitely 97... ah the perfect time to start a long exposed walk! I used my umbrella and it did help some. The first 6 miles were mostly flat on a dirt road and we saw plenty of bighorn sheep up close! We had to pause multiple times as they took their time crossing the road and climbing up the rocky cliffs to our right.

About 3 miles in I started to feel really nauseous, enough that I had to sit down and deep breathe because I could feel vomit trying to crawl its way out of my throat. I sat on my pack with my head hung between my legs and thought about everything I'd read on the importance of spending a day or two in Denver to acclimate to the elevation. Seemed like good advice at this point. I popped a dramamine and slipped some water and after 5 minutes I felt much better. Later the sun disappeared behind the clouds and the resulting cool was euphoric. We took a break at the end of our 6 miles after a very nice fly fisherman gave us each a cold drink from his cooler. Kicked off our dusty trailrunners under a covered picnic area and scaled the slippery rocks down to the river to skinny dip.

The water was bone numbingly cold and delicious. After a snack break we started our first climb. It was hot and I was panting for breath. Down the other side to a water source where we took a break to hydrate before a 2nd bigger climb which somehow felt easier. I took 2 Aleves for the nagging headache that was splitting my skull and admired the beautiful, breathtaking view from the top of the climb.

A mama and baby deer crossed the trail in front of us and with the view in the background it honestly felt like part of a dream.

We hiked down, down, down a ton of switchbacks at golden hour until we finally reached the bottom at dark and crossed the bridge across the South Platte River. Henry scoped the banks for a camp spot while I filled up my water and splashed my face. Should I filter this water? Absolutely. Did I? No. When I say resupplying is my least favorite town chore, filtering water is my least favorite hiking chore. Henry came back to report that there were at least 20! tents lining the banks of the river. There were a few spots we could squeeze in but neither one of us like camping that close to others with no privacy. So we backtracked 0.2 to an open site we'd seen on the way down the mountain. I was setting up the tent while Henry started to cook dinner, or attempted to cook dinner. Our stove would not screw onto the fuel cannister and instead repeatedly popped off of the threads. Are you actually fucking kidding me? This exact thing happened to us on the NFCT but at least that stove was 6 years old... this one had only been used a handful of times. We both sat very quietly for awhile but I refused to give up and accept defeat. I used all of my force and it finally caught on the threads and screwed on. Now, however, we were kind of afraid to light it, what if it explodes? We placed it behind a rock and Henry cringed while lighting it but there was no fireball thankfully. I am so tired and it's still hot even with the sun down... and there's gnats all through our tent.