Day 26: Rainy Day Double Pass
Tuesday July 14
Sargents, CO to Carnero Pass
78.1 Miles, 5299 ft climbed, 1738.3 cumulative miles
It was a little challenging forcing ourselves out of our comfy warm cabin knowing that the forecast called for rain again. But the call of coffee and breakfast combined with our shared disciplined and determined nature rousted us and we were off to greet the morning crew at Tomichi Creek Trading Post. Just like the dinner crew the night before, the staff who served us were so friendly and warm, it would be hard to leave. We restocked our bags with purchases from the impressively well-stocked store at Tomichi and were off.
Within about an hour, the first raindrops began to fall. This began the day-long dance of temperature management while climbing and descending in mid-50s temperatures. Rain jacket on, off. Zipped, unzipped. Rain pants on, off, rolled up, rolled down. Rain overmitts on, off. Hood on, off. So many stops with the goal of staying warm while wet and not creating too much moisture from the inside out (sweating). We stopped for a lunch break in the vestibule of a pit toilet - a roof over our head and a wind break - what more could we want?
The landscape was pretty - green rolling hills and low hanging mist. Since our phones were buried under rain layers though, we didn’t take very many photos. Cochetopa, the first pass off the day, was railroad grade and went by quickly. One down, one to go! When we got to the base of the second pass, Carnero, the rain stopped and there was a break in the clouds and sun shone through! Woohoo! We started climbing and this one was definitely not gentle railroad grade. It had several long sections of steeper grade that tested our legs as it was late in the day now and our mileage was in the low 70s. We chugged along though, buoyed by the belief that since it had stopped raining, maybe by the top of the climb some of our gear would be dried out. But then it started raining again. We were both drenched by the top of the climb, from both rain and sweat. We coasted the 3 miles down the other side of the pass to our campsite. By the time we arrived, the rain had stopped so we were able to pitch our tents and inhale some dinner without any raindrops other than droplets falling from leaves overhead.
Published July 15, 2021