The great crossing of the United States from south to north - episode 2

An extraordinary adventure

Episode 2: Crossing the snowy Colorado in the middle of summer!

Last summer, Pierre-Loïc set out to cross the United States on foot from south to north by following the Continental Divide Trail or CDT. The CDT is a 4,800 km long trail that follows the watershed between those that flow into the Pacific Ocean and those that end up in the Atlantic Ocean.

In this second episode, we find Pierre-Loïc on the border between New Mexico and Colorado. Pierre-Loïc has just crossed New Mexico for 25 days. After passing through arid and semi-desert landscapes under a blazing sun and as he approaches Colorado, the CDT begins to gain altitude to 2500 m and more. Result: a radical change in weather occurs. All of a sudden, Pierre-Loïc finds himself with snow, a lot of snow on the route. His last campsite in New Mexico is freezing. There is so much snow that he even has trouble finding a place to pitch his tent.

Snow, snow and more snow

Pierre-Loïc had known for several weeks from talking to other hikers on the CDT that there was going to be a lot of snow this year. However, he didn't think there would be snow almost all the time in Colorado. With so much snow, one of the difficulties was even seeing where the trail was. The first hikers on the CDT had passed just 10 days before and they were equipped with crampons and an ice axe. Note that the ice axe is not necessary for climbing. Hikers take it with them when there is a lot of snow to use it as a safety if they start to slide on a large snowy traverse. It is the only way to stop a slide down the traverse.

Seeing the snow accumulations, Pierre-Loïc decides before setting off to cross the Colorado to turn back towards Santa Fe in northern New Mexico to equip himself and face several weeks of snowy trails. He buys snowshoes to be able to walk in the snow and sets off again for a crossing of the Colorado that will last 32 days. During this month of crossing, he will have 15 days of 'complete' snow, 15 days of snow on the path from morning to evening. Crampons prove to be essential. He alternates between walking on snow, walking on slush and even sometimes in icy water when he has to cross rivers. His feet are wet almost all day and at night, his shoes freeze. He finds himself, as he says, with 'wooden clogs' in the morning when he has to leave again. It was almost impossible to put them on. He learns quickly and decides to prepare campfires in the evening to dry his shoes. And he keeps them in his tent at night under his rain pants so they are no longer completely frozen in the morning.

A crossing at very high altitude

During the Colorado crossing, the CDT is at a minimum altitude of 3000 m over a distance of 1200 km. So it is high mountain hiking. And over half of this distance, the CDT is even at more than 3500m altitude. And in terms of snow cover at this time of year, this additional 500m of altitude at 3500m makes a real difference. In addition, the trail is often on a ridge line. This means that hikers find themselves very exposed to wind, hail and the risk of potential storms. The tree line in Colorado is at around 3600m altitude. And since the trail is often at almost 4000m altitude, there are many passages without shelter, where Pierre-Loïc finds himself completely exposed. He was lucky, there was no lightning that struck near him during his trip through Colorado, but he heard that for other hikers, lightning sometimes struck quite close to them. The only solution if a storm was coming and the lightning was getting closer was to go back down in altitude so as not to be completely exposed. But some nights at very high altitudes, there was no other solution than to pitch the tent in the open and hope for the best if a storm were to break out in the middle of the night.

At these altitudes and in these remote areas of Colorado, another challenge was having a network to stay connected. Since Pierre-Loïc had kept his French subscription with an international extension, he did not have much access to the network and in any case much less than American hikers with local subscriptions. Even if he did not have access to the network every day, by having downloaded the route and recharging his phone regularly, he could ensure that he stayed on the right track to follow the CDT and not stray from the route. This required being able to manage his autonomy in electric charging over a long period in addition to his autonomy in water and food. To be autonomous in electric charging, Pierre-Loïc bought a solar panel before leaving that was attached to his backpack. This allowed him not to have to stop too often, unlike other hikers who had to stop mainly to recharge their batteries literally, and perhaps also figuratively.

Since the CDT trail is located at high altitude in Colorado, another disadvantage beyond the cold, the snow and the exposure to the wind and the elements, is the scarcity of wildlife, at least visible wildlife. Pierre-Loïc saw a lot of tracks in the morning in the snow, tracks of coyotes, foxes, maybe even wolves, but he didn't see these animals during the day. He did see his first moose, deer from the elk family. The moose is also the largest species in the deer family. Moose have large antlers that grow every year in the spring and they are very imposing in size. They can weigh up to 500 kg for a female and 750 kg for a male. They were reintroduced to Colorado, since they had disappeared from this state in the United States. They are now a protected species in Colorado.

The passage near the legendary Hard Rock course

Pierre-Loïc is an ultra-trailer who has run many 100-mile races in the United States. And one of the most famous 100-mile races in the United States is the Hard Rock in the San Juans massif. Pierre-Loïc has never participated in it but by deciding to cross the United States following the CDT, he passed through Silverton, the city where the start and finish of this legendary race take place. A small pilgrimage of an ultra-trailer and a nice stopover during his crossing of the United States. This passage near the famous rock of the Hard Rock that the Finishers kiss by tradition after having completed the course, it was almost a symbol of the junction and the link between all of Pierre-Loïc's experiences as an ultra-trailer and his new one as a long-distance hiker that he discovered during this crossing-odyssey of the United States along the Continental Divide Trail .

Passing through a burnt forest the day after the fire .

Last significant episode for Pierre-Loïc in Colorado, at the end of the crossing of this state the day after the American national holiday, so on July 5, he saw a fire in the distance with a column of smoke. He bivouacked and that night, it rained non-stop. In the morning, he left again and found himself at the scene of the fire since the CDT path passed exactly at that location. The fire had been extinguished naturally by the rain during the night. Pierre-Loïc was the first on the scene and he ended up crossing a team of firefighters further on who were arriving by the path in the other direction to deal with the fire. This fire in a fairly remote and isolated part of Colorado most likely had a natural origin, namely lightning from a storm. During the CDT, Pierre-Loïc crossed other huge areas that were completely burned, these fires being part of the natural cycle of regeneration of the 'wild' forests that he was crossing.

 

Views to infinity

Thinking back to the landscapes that Pierre-Loïc was able to observe in Colorado and in comparison with those of the Alps or the Pyrenees, what struck him the most in Colorado were the almost infinite views of valleys and peaks that follow one another on the horizon. An impression of absolute immensity. There is less verticality than in the Alps, but these successions of valleys and peaks as far as the eye can see are very impressive. Since the CDT trail is at high altitude and follows the watershed, Pierre-Loïc could almost visualize this natural watershed by following the ridge line and looking on each side of the ridge. To his left as he walked from south to north was the west side of the mountain and therefore the side where the waters flow towards the Pacific Ocean and to his right, the east side of the mountain where the waters flow towards the Atlantic Ocean. The name of the crossing, the Continental Divide Trail, took on its full visual meaning.

In the end, the crossing of Colorado lasted 32 days and, adding up the 25 days of hiking in New Mexico, Pierre-Loïc left Colorado almost two months after starting his incredible journey a few meters from the Mexican border.

In the third episode of this extraordinary adventure, we find Pierre-Loïc as he prepares to move from Colorado to Wyoming.