The bus stop was just a few metres from my hotel so getting back to Copper Mountain was super easy. Gotta love public transport.

I spent way too long walking around the resort, which is just lovely, and I would have loved to have stayed there last night, but the prices were a little bit too rich for my blood. As it was, I spent nearly $200 for a room in Frisco. Colorado is expensive in comparison to Georgia! I popped into the Starbucks, which is right next to the trail and had a toasted cheese sandwich and an amazing strawberry frappe at for Breakfast.

Jason, a fellow CT hiker and Colorado resident was there as well, and we chatted for a good hour or so. It was definitely hard to get away from the comfort of the coffee shop but we eventually managed it. It was 11am by the time I got on the trail. About 4 hours later than I usually start.

Again, it was a day of climbing, though a little gentler than yesterday.

This section of the CT was, without a doubt, the most gorgeous day of walking so far. Most of the day the trail meandered through a mountain meadow, complete with river, wildflowers and my usual accompaniment of butterfly’s, bees, chipmunks and squirrels.

It was pretty late in the evening by the time I made it to the top of Searle pass. I was planning on camping somewhere on the other side, I was quite high up, over 12,000 feet and above tree line, so I’d be taking a risk with the weather but the alpine scenary was breath taking. And not just because of the lack of oxygen.

Strangely, I got a burst of energy after the pass and decided to push on and finish the climb for this section, making for an easier time into Leadville tomorrow. Elk Ridge was the next target, and it was tough, with lots of false summits, but again there was elation on getting to the top. After that it was a quick mile or so down to Kokomo pass (felt weird walking down to a pass…). The sun was all but set by the time I started heading down from the pass. Apparantly there were some good camp sites a few miles after Kokomo, but I could not see them in the dark, so I pushed on for another few hours, always descending, until I finally hit one of the few good campsites in this section at 9:30pm. You could tell that campsites were rare here, because there were about 5 other tents set up already.

I did my best to set up my tent quietly, no easy feat in the dark, and fell asleep almost immedietly.