The father and two daughters we had met on our first day backpacking waited for us and we all left together, but they soon left us behind. My pack was rather heavy from the wet rain fly and food pack and my muscles were a bit sore. The three waited for us a couple times, but once the ascent really began, we didn’t see them again since we were slow and stopped often.
The hail let up shortly after we started and began again sometime on our ascent, maybe an hour later. After that, our constant companions were puddles, mud, and horse manure. Yesterday we noticed a lot of bear and game animal scat, but today was horse poop every 10-20 yards. Thus, combined with yesterday’s crap and the wind, it was decided that this (the Red Gap Pass trail) is the shittiest trail.
The 6.8 miles went by very slowly, despite the fact that it was only three hours. It was wet and cold, and some horse (or horses) must have had a laxative to produce that much horse dung. Or maybe it was a certain GOP Presidential Candidate, who could be referred to as a horse’s ass, that was spouting all the horse shit.
Once we got to the trail head, I dropped my pack and set off to get the car so I could pick up Robert and the packs. Unfortunately, I was too tired to run, but I hitched a ride with a nice couple who had seen Robert but hadn’t picked him up since they only had room for one (the two packs indicating that he wasn’t alone). I was so excited to see the car that I didn’t notice that it was unlocked… Amazingly, we had left the car unlocked for 50 hours or so and it wasn’t touched.
I radioed Robert to let him know that I was on my way after I took off some of my wet gear and picked him up.
We decided that we would just head across the pack and find a motel, there was no way we were going to unpack and set up the tent in the rain at this point. We stopped at the visitor center to let them know how bad the winds were in Red Gap Pass and had them check out Robert’s elbow (they did a concussion check too). We mentioned that we were headed through the park and they let us know that they were thinking about closing the road due to snow and that if we wanted to get over, we should go now.
The drive was not particularly exciting. All the spectacular views were covered by clouds and snow, but it meant that it took us very little time to get through. (Robert took a few pictures, you can check out his post to take a look.)
So now, after a shower and some laundry, I’m going to bed down in a very firm over-priced bed.