Leaky Tent, Diarrhea & Holy Cross Wilderness

August 11, 2024

Mile 132.8-151.9 (19.1 miles)

It rained all night and I woke up off and on feeling anxious because the tent was leaking and our quilt was only becoming more and more wet. I would wake up, pull the foot of the quilt up as far as I could out of the growing puddle, fall back asleep for an hour and repeat. I woke around 6:30 and dozed until about 8:30 listening for the rain to slow and eventually stop. We packed up slowly, dumping out the puddle and shoving the soaked quilt in Henry's pack.

This morning was our latest start yet which didn't bode well for us trying to get in 20 miles to make it to Leadville at a decent time tomorrow. We walked past an old WWII bunker which was kind of spooky (we both agreed though that in a storm we would hunker down inside without hesitation). I had diarrhea for most of the morning and early afternoon and felt generally terrible. I have Imodium in my pack but generally try not to take it unless it is a true poop emergency.

In the afternoon we found a beautiful patch of sun streaming through the trees and laid out every piece of wet gear we had. We sat, stuffing our faces with whatever snacks were near the top of our packs while taking turns to stand and flip our gear, moving it to stronger patches of sun as it moved across the sky. When we realized it was 4 and we'd only done about 13 miles we both took some caffeine pills and hiked hard to get us as far as we could. We entered the Holy Cross Wilderness and the views were spectacular.

Dark clouds began to gather as darkness fell while we descended off the ridge. It began to thunder and we hiked faster and faster, pausing to inspect a few areas hoping we could possibly turn them into campsites- but they were all so slanted we knew we'd never get any sleep. We finally came to the perfect stealth site right after filling up at a water source just as darkness fell. I set the tent up in record time just before it started sprinkling. Hambone sat outside in the light rain cooking dinner rather than try to cook in the vestibule laying down. The sprinkle slowed to a stop and the "storm" was over. Choked down some ramen for dinner, now bed.