Platoro, CO, to Del Norte, CO
Day 3 was a zero day... I ended up staying in Platoro two nights to wait out a crazy thunder snowstorm with gale-force winds and temps that dropped well below freezing.
On Tuesday before the weather turned, I took a little day trip to explore Platoro Reservoir, which was beautiful and quite large!
During the day I took time to paint and visited with the dozen or so CDT thru hikers who retreated from the mountains seeking shelter from the snowstorm.
Around 2:30p, the sky turned black and a horrendous thunder/lightning/wind/snowstorm ensued... I'd never seen anything like it before. I was in bed by 8:00p.
On Wednesday morning, Michael made us all breakfast burritos and coffee and we got on the trail again!
I passed several of the thru hikers from Platoro, who decided to follow the road/GDMBR route for a while to avoid the snow on the CDT.
While I only climbed about 4,200 ft, most of it was above 10,000 ft and I found myself exhausting unusually quickly. I felt like I was gasping for air much of the time and had to take a lot of breaks.
On my way up Stunner Pass, there was a brief decent that had me riding in a slick water and mud-filled rut flanked by snow. A group of people in three ATVs stopped to let me pass... and although I'm pretty sure no one expected me to get through it without falling, I miraculously made it and we all let out some hollers and, "Woohoo's!"
Once I made it to the top of Indiana Pass, at 12,000 ft, it was nearly all downhill to the town of Del Norte.
I rolled in about 5:30p and stopped at Three Barrels Brewery for a salad pizza and beer!
Despite having eaten myself into a food coma and being a wee tipsy from the one beer, I still had six miles to ride to my campsite at Elephant Rock (thanks for the recommendation, Jazz!).
Sleeping without my rainfly on again tonight so I can enjoy this beautiful clear night sky before another long day tomorrow!
Oh yesterday I was given my trail name: Big Heart ❤️
Three more days until I reach Salida...
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