Sunday, May 26, 2013

Monday June 14, 2010
Camp 44: Rainbow Motel, South Fork, Colorado
Camp 45: Alder/Palisades Trail


A little catch up…after hiking out of Platoro we had a crazy series of hitches to get to Highway 160.  Because we were in the middle of nowhere and far from the actual CDT we had no idea how or when we would get back on track…but it’s all part of the journey!  The first hitch was about 40 miles in the back of a pick-up truck going entirely in the wrong direction.  We hadn’t studied a map and didn’t realize it at the time.  The man dropped us off at an intersection that was 12 miles from Monte Vista on a deserted old road with no cars. Awesome.  He assured us it got busier and we wouldn’t have a hard time catching a ride…wrong.  We walked a few miles in the warm desert scrub and out of the snowy mountains.  We passed by a house where a man and woman are on their porch.  I asked how far Monte Vista was and the man says he’s heading that way (yes!) so we hopped in the back of his truck.  He dropped us off at the intersection of Hwy 160 and a woman on her cell phone stopped to give us a lift in just a matter of minutes; despite the warning from her mother in law on the other end of the phone!  She took us to Del Norte which is where we luckily got another quick hitch into South Fork with a guy and his 5 year old son.  The little boy told us their life story on the way J  I was shocked at our hitching luck as it could have taken days to get to South Fork.  We got a room at the Rainbow Motel and then headed to the local “outfitter” to look for proper shoes for Eric.  No luck, no shoes in South Fork, Colorado.  So we decided to stop at a bar and have a few cold $1.75 PBR drafts before heading to the steakhouse next door.  These days, food comes way before shower on the priority list, even if they choose to seat us in the closed section of a restaurant!  I’m pretty sure we set a record on consumption with huge steaks, loaded baked potatoes and ice cream to fill in the cracks. We slept like it was our job, grabbed coffee and a burger AND a milkshake at the malt shop before heading out of town.  I may be over my quota for red meat but I can’t say I regret a single bite!  We pieced together some trails which, in theory, would take us to Creede.  So here we are, creating our own adventure, our own trail, our own hike.  It has been a beautiful, quiet walk today and it seems the storms are making their way out so hopefully it will be nice and sunny tomorrow.  What a fun town stop and a crazy turn of events these past few days.  

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