The last week has been a lesson in patience and working through disappointment. The original plan for the trail was to leave on June 1 and attempt to finish the trail on June 30. Unfortunately, Colorado weather had a plan that differed greatly from our own. Extremely late May snow (the latest in something like 44 years) meant I would have to adjust my plan to leave on June 5 and attempt to finish on or before July 4. When reports came back from the trail that massive avalanches had left mounds of debris (in some places 30ft high) on the trail, we decided to take a few days and leave on June 8th.
The most profound disappointment I’ve been grappling with is that I might not be able to complete the trail at all this year. The last I’d heard, the trail foundation doesn’t believe they will be able to get the whole trail cleared and repaired before the end of the summer, leaving me anxious about just how bad it is out there. I haven’t seen reports about many of the sections, but as it stands only sections 1-5 and 14 (out of 28) are considered passable. It wouldn’t be safe to attempt climbing over the avalanche debris, so we had to adjust our plan yet again.
This new plan largely consists of changing my mindset from “completing the whole trail no matter what” to “hike as many sections as is possible and hope conditions further down the trail improve with each passing day.” Actual logistics will depend primarily on the conditions we encounter. I’m hoping we will be able to complete more than the first 5 sections, but I know I will be able to get through at least those first 72ish miles.
Whether or not I am able to make another attempt at the CT later in the summer is still up in the air. If I am, in fact, unable to complete the entirety of the CT this summer, I hope to accomplish some other goals instead. From attempting to complete 14 14ers in 14 days to working more generally on my technical climbing skills, I have plenty of ideas for spending my waking hours in the mountains this year. Regardless, I will definitely find a way to do the CT at some point in the coming years. I have plenty of goals, and this is definitely one of them.
I had certainly been looking forward to escaping for a month into the wilderness with scant cell reception and little to no social media. With nothing but time to think and explore I hoped to ponder what other kinds of things I would like to accomplish. I will surely still be able to think on these things, but I can’t help but feel as if those last 3 weeks of self-exploration and healing have been stolen from me. Even still, I am excited to accomplish whatever it is I can and explore a trail I haven’t been on before. I will still turn 25 while on the trail on the 9th, and I will still enjoy spending up to a week in the wilderness. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate having lived another year.
More updates to come (and I am working on getting the last of my gear lists and pictures put together, too). Stay tuned!
