Brian’s Microblog

July 03, 2026

We got up a little before and a little after six respectively. We had only one hot drink this morning and split a protein puck. We wanted to get an early start so that we could get into Breckenridge and Frisco to deal with some things before the Fourth of July. We ended up getting on trail at 7:45.

The trail climbs fairly steeply out of the valley where the Swan River is. We climbed 1300 feet in just 2 1/2 miles. We took a couple of little breaks to eat some protein bars on the way up. Near the top, we met a CDT hiker with trail name Trash Lobster. We talked to him for a few minutes while some mountain bikers rode by. He is over two months into his hike.

We noticed that much of the forest we walked through this day had been thinned, both small trees and mature areas.

As we walked around the high point of the trail for today, around 11,000 feet, we got views of the Keystone ski area.  We talked to several other people, I think partly because this part of the trail is the Continental Divide Trail as well as the Colorado Trail, and also because people from Breckenridge and Frisco access it for day hikes or rides - there were lots of bikes.

We passed the 100 mile mark on the trail in the afternoon. As we finished a little song we sang there a CDT hiker arrived. We spoke with him a bit and it turned out we were able to give him some water so he could make it over the hill to the Swan River where we’d come from.

We arrived at the bus stop on Highway 9 just six minutes before the free bus to Frisco arrived. Instead of going directly to our friend’s townhouse in Frisco we were looking for an optical store because one of the nose pieces of Julie’s glasses had broken. Some local folks on the bus recommended a place near the transit station and gave detailed directions.

We found the Eyetech store. Julie showed them the problem and they quickly replaced the nose pieces on her glasses and then refused any payment. Since we were at a shopping area we picked up a bottle of wine so we wouldn’t arrive empty handed. On the bus back towards the townhouse we talked to some other through-hikers and they had some advice about bypassing the closed trail segments.

With all that feeling of generosity we arrived at our friends John and Norma’s townhouse and their generosity was overwhelming. We sat on their deck and had wine and appetizers.

We showered while they got dinner ready. We had planned to take them out to dinner but they pointed out how full the town was and that the restaurants would be packed. They served a simple but tasty dinner and we caught up and talked about our trip and logistics. Then we got to sleep in beds with real pillows.

13 miles with substantially more descent than ascent over 7 hours.