September 12th
Today would be a day of many climbs. I wanted to get close to my resupply at Monarch Pass. To do so would require a long day.
In the morning I went over one ridge and came across a high bowl in the canyon. I saw something I had never seen before. A herd of deer were standing in one of the shallow ponds common in these high meadows. A few were wrestling each other. It was cool to watch them play, but eventually they got serious and wandered off.
Next I climbed down a steep descent to the North Fork of Chalk Creek. It is tough on a hiker’s psyche to go downhill and look across the valley knowing you will have to climb all that distance back up. Also annoying to me was that it appeared somebody had ridden a motorcycle up and down this trail when that was not allowed.
Once I had climbed back up, I was in valleys that formed the headwaters of Wildcat Gulch. I met a hunter. He was in camo clothing. He and I commiserated on the absence of elk in this area. He said his buddy with an elk tag was still out there somewhere.
Curiously, the trail crosses a historical anomaly. There is an abandoned alpine railroad tunnel. It connected Denver and Gunnison, was in operation between 1882 and 1910, and was a narrow gauge track. I am guessing it was not a huge financial success, especially since it ran alongside Mount Poor (I cannot make this stuff up). The tunnel, reasonably, is today sealed shut, but the rail bed provides a gradual descent for a few miles.
Next came a still active mining area called Hancock. It always amazes me there are people who hold on to stakes and are weekend miners. Hope springs eternal. A bad by product, in my mind, is dicey water. I saw a few creeklets coming out of mines that were an other-worldly color and they fed in to the main stream.
Hiking uphill the temperature dropped and the skies darkened. Near the head of the valley is Hancock Lake. I met a couple Colorado Trail (CT) hikers. They were in good spirits and that boutyed me for my third climb of the day, Chalk Creek Pass.
Just as I crested and checked for a cell signal, thunder boomed from the direction I was going. Undaunted, I went down. I ran into another CT hiker. He was struggling a bit, so I gave him as much encouragement as I could.
As the evening wore on, I followed more new silly trail. It was new, marked CDT trail. However, it was another one of those sweeping, swooshing trails that felt like a slalom course. What was silly about it was that it often crossed a straight forest service road. Oh well.
At the bottom, there was a bridge that was being repaired. Despite signs indicating there was no bridge, there was patently a bridge across the creek. Granted, it was not highly engineered, but for somebody this long on the CDT, a log and a stick are good enough.
Lastly, I pushed to get up to Boss Lake Reservoir. It was up high and had views.
Deer playing in pond
Major ups and downs
Deer hunter
Old train tunnel
Rain
Camp by reservoir
backpacking over the hill 