Thanks for all the detail through the San Juans, I'll be certain to mark my maps up. I'm in Silverton after hiking 5 days from Pagosa, including the drop off from Stoney
Pass. Five of us navigated successfully, mostly with map and compass. I
am so thankful to having had the ability to hike with others who are
skilled map readers as I have greatly improved my own abilities. I wore Vasque
leather boots and the rest wore trail runners. Wet feet all day, but
that's unavoidable. They carried micro spikes, I carried my
mountaineering crampons and they definitely came in handy a few
mornings. The snow is almost entirely settled, so no avy
concerns. Some steep traverses, quite a bit x-c as most of the trail
was under snow. The biggest and most wonderful stretch was near Squaw
creek where 3-4 miles of trail! Beautiful, snow free, dry trail! Oh, the
smell of the pine forest was wonderful!<br>
Worth every ounce of effort through here.<br>Heading out here in a couple of days, Tomato and myself. <br>Ben.....your tracks have completely vanished as we thought no one else had been through yet! <br>Speedstick<br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 9:51 PM, Benjamin Mayberry <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:benmayberry@gmail.com">benmayberry@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
After hiking through Arizona, Utah and Western Colorado, I reached the CDT at Stony Pass on June 5th. I just completed the section from Stony Pass to Monarch Pass and thought I'd report on the conditions for any NOBO's that are about to enter that area.<div>
<br></div><div>-Stony Pass to Cataract Lake - Ley CO37 & 36: lots of snow but there is bare ground in places as well. The route through this area is very well cairned and easy to follow. A backcountry ranger in Silverton warned me about avalanche danger in the Canby Mountain area. If you reach it later in the day, maybe consider a lower-elevation route.</div>
<div><br></div><div>-Lost Trail Creek drainage below Carson Peak - Ley CO36: almost totally snow free until you climb back up to the divide to the east of Carson Peak.</div><div><br></div><div>-Divide east of Carson Peak to west side of Jarosa Mesa - Ley CO36 & 35: snow on and off but overall pretty good. There is a forested hillside just before the #2 note on CO36 that is still completely covered in snow.</div>
<div><br></div><div>-Jarosa Mesa - Ley CO35: the higher parts are covered in mushy, slushy, easy-to-walk-through snow. Everything is wet. Once you start to drop down to Spring Creek Pass, it becomes completely melted out.</div>
<div><br></div><div>-Spring Creek Pass to east side of Snow Mesa - Ley CO35 & 34: no snow until you reach Snow Mesa. Snow Mesa is mostly clear but the drainages not only have snow but also rivers of water-saturated snow (consistency of a slushee) that are not difficult to cross, just really, really cold.</div>
<div><br></div><div>-East side of Snow Mesa to pass just below San Luis Peak - Ley CO34 & 33: snow off and on, not as much as you might expect considering that most of this section is on the N side of the divide.</div>
<div><br></div><div>-Pass just below San Luis Peak to Razor Creek Park - Ley CO33 through 30: no snow! Other than a little bit at either end of this section (i.e. descending from the pass, climbing out of Razor Creek Park).</div>
<div><br></div><div>-Cochetopa Hills & Sargents Mesa - Ley CO30 & 29: some small patches of snow but the trail corridor is fairly obvious. Generally snow free.</div><div><br></div><div>-Windy Peak to Monarch Pass - Ley CO28 & 27: lots of snow but there are breaks. The trail is generally easy to follow. Once you get to the N of Marshall Pass, you can avoid a lot of the snow by staying on the divide rather than the trail. You'll do some extra elevation gain/loss but it beats postholing.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I hiked this section with the Ley maps, a pair of snowshoes, and a set of microspikes. The maps were all I needed for navigation, the snowshoes spent a relatively small amount of time actually strapped to my feet but were invaluable when I actually used them, and the microspikes helped a lot with traversing some of the slopes in the morning while the snow was still crusty.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Hope this helps. I'm leaving from Monarch Pass tomorrow but taking the Colorado Trail (lower elevation than the CDT) to Twin Lakes, then taking the CDT from there to Frisco. I'll post the trail conditions for Twin Lakes to Frisco after I've done it.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Ben Mayberry</div><div><a href="http://benmayberry.net" target="_blank">http://benmayberry.net</a></div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div><font color="#666666"><i>To find out more about Mary and her hike along the 3,000 mile long Continental Divide Trail please go to</i>: </font><font color="#3366ff"><a href="http://www.marriedtothetrail.com/" target="_blank">www.marriedtothetrail.com</a></font></div>
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