CDT Day 49: Stony Pass to Cataract Lake

Daily Miles: 10.0, Total Miles: 818.8

Not a big rush this morning as I wanted to check lodging in Lake City. The place gets a little overrun in the summer. Just as well – early morning rain in Silverton so hung around until 10am.

I started walking out of town and soon got picked up by a Silverton gentleman who also has a mining background. He took me up Cunningham Gulch to the Stony Pass fork. Thanks John! Thought some ATV’s would come by but after 30 minutes I started up the road. Two hours later I’m almost at Stony Pass and a fully loaded Jeep goes by. Racking up more unofficial mileage.

Now back on the CDT, I worked my way around Canby Mountain and headed north and then east into some high country of the Rio Grande NF. A few snow patches and crossings but very manageable.

Threatening showers prompted me to knock off early after finding a nice flat spot at just over 12,000 ft near Cataract Lake.

Once in my tent, a marmot came to investigate and I shooed him away. While eating dinner, I thought I heard a clanging sound – I thought maybe a hiker but didn’t see anyone. After dinner, I got out of the tent and noticed a hiking pole I had left leaning against a rock was gone. I found it 30 ft away – the marmots had drug it off and tried to chew the cork handle off, doing a pretty good job of it.

This section of trail is also the Colorado Trail and I met three SOBOs today.