Journey Day 431 | CDT Day 94

Rabbit Ears Peak peeking over darkened ridge.

9/16/87

Up early, I hike past a string of lakes, cross a Continental Divide Trail and descend to the Percy Lake Trailhead. In Willow Park, I take my breakfast. Then hike on, lost when a logging road crosses the route. Follow the road, end up by a clearcut by Rabbit Ears Peak. Descend after a dead end through aspens until the road ends. Bushwhack through cattle, scare a male elk from a lay. On down to a meadow, hike to a road, past ranch buildings, out to the right road, but the wrong place.

Up the highway, no hitching luck until I pass the correct exit spot, dirt biker in brush by Grizzly Creek. Middle-aged Walden couple take me up to where the trail heads into the road (Spicer Ranch Club: Conservation Through Proper Utilization). Pass logging, hay bales. Follow the route in heavy winds. The weather's been threatening all day, everywhere else is a storm.

Break in an aspen band out of the wind after at least 10 miles from Willow Park. Push on dragging, skies ugly. Herd of elk nearby in meadow, aspens. Sounds like antlers against trees. Pass a ranch house, to Arapaho Creek's confluence, where I camp beneath lone, leafless aspen amid cowpies. Cook, etc., before darkness.