Posted by 25.5 miles
Today was a hilly one with multiple passes climbed and descended but kicking off with a stroll along an old narrow gauge rail line on the old CDT route along Chalk Creek. This was the old Denver, South Park & Pacific line the first of the rail lines to make it this far into the mountains. The history was amazing. The lengths gone to cut and establish the line and then in winter what was required to keep it open from snow and rock fall.
Other than that it was a run of the mill day that is too far behind now to recall well.
At the end of the day I hit a vantage point with a rock bivvy. There I met some locals from Buena Vista who had climbed the peak from Cottonwood Pass to view the sunset. We had a great old chat for about 20 minutes and they offered me a ride into town which I declined having plenty of food and no need to visit town. It was late and the sun was falling but I didn’t have to time to watch the sunset as I still had half a mile to descend to Cottonwood Pass and find a suitable tent site before it was dark.
That’s about it. I’ll leave you with some photos.
Mick Beckers 