Brian’s Microblog

July 19, 2026

Another chilly but fairly calm night. We got up around six. We only made one round of hot drinks and we managed to get on trail at 7:35 just as the sun finally made it over the ridge to shine on our campsite.

We hiked down to East Mineral Creek and filtered some very chilly water that looked a little yellow before filtering - a well-named creek. Then we hiked steeply up and over a ridge. From there we crossed a rock jumble below a cliff where we stopped for a snack in the shade. After that we began a three and a half mile climb of 1300 feet up to 12,700 feet.

The climb brought us over a ridge to completely different country - a high, rolling, plateau with huge views of distant mountain ranges. It was warm on the plateau. We stopped for lunch and Jim, a hiker we had been leapfrogging since the day before, walked by and mentioned that it suddenly felt like North Dakota but 7,000 feet higher.

After about five miles we arrived at a canyon that provided a way off the plateau. For two miles we dropped 1300 feet to Highway 149 where we waited for an hour and a half for a shuttle from the Lake City Presbyterian Church to pick us up.

We’d made reservations at the Matterhorn Motel and the friendly volunteer driver from the church dropped us off there. We unpacked a little, showered, and washed some underwear in the sink since everything was dirty, and then walk a block and a half to the church where they were hosting a hiker dinner.

For a dozen Sundays in the summer, the church provides a main course and church members bring potluck sides and desserts. Through hikers on the Colorado Trail or Continental Divide Trail are welcomed and cheered. It was an amazing feeling of generosity. They even have volunteers who will do laundry for hikers because there’s no laundromat in town. We sat with a couple of the hikers we’d met on trail, one we hadn’t met yet, and some of the church members and had some good conversations during dinner. One of the volunteers said she’d do our laundry, so we grabbed some laundry bags and walked back to the motel to fill them with dirty clothes, then returned them to her.

After dinner we wandered around the town a little. There are lots of historic buildings and some nice shops.

12 miles over about seven hours.