What a day. Two big climbs with lots of tough terrain between. But it is the CDT so the pain was rewarded with incredible scenery. I started the day with a steep 2500 ft climb up Parkview mountain. That took a while but wasn't too bad since it was a pick your path, ie there was no trail only cairns, so I was able to set a pace I could sustain. There was an old fire lookout tower that I wanted to camp in last night but the thunderstorms kept me away. It's probably for the best cause it was cold up there, mostly due to the wind. The views were great but the sky was kinda hazy so it wasn't the best views.
The way down the mountain sucked. Sucked big time. For this stretch I only had my phone for navigation since my maps didn't make it to steamboat on time. That meant I only had one route to follow. The bad route. It took me straight down the mountain in a talos/skree field. It wasn't the nice kinda skree that you can ski down or the nice big talos that is stable. Nope it was a mix of the two so very slippery. Slippery + steep = scary. I did make it down without incident but would have much preferred to take the new route that walked down a gentle grassy ridge then switchbacks into a forest on new tred. Ah well.
The next big hill was relativity easy. Just a bunch of up in a grassy valley with more grassy valley on the other side. I kept hiking until dark then setup my tent about 2 miles from the Rocky Mountain national park boundary. I got it up just in time again as it started raining on me right as dinner finished cooking.
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