Day 19 (May 14, 2021)

Reserve/Highway 12 to mile 18.1 on Pie Town Alternate.

The restaurant was not going to be open, so I had bought some breakfast items from the store to eat this morning. We left for the trail with Mike, the father one one of the hikers. (He is retired and had some time to come out to help out.)

Another trail choice today, but they both started at the same point at the trailhead on Highway 12. One was the slightly longer ‘official’ CDT, which was mainly trail that ended in a paved road walk into Pie Town from the west. The Pie Town Alternate was a series of dirt roads the whole way, approaching from the south. The alternate also goes over Mangas Mountain, which has a fire watch tower on top and is over 9,600 feet high. I elected to do the alternate.

Though water is scarce on this stretch as well, a trail angel has been maintaining a water cache near a Forest Service campground about 10 miles in, with the next good water source about 18 miles in, which is an actual water spigot. I planned to make the water spigot for the day with the slightly late start.

The weather started off perfectly clear, but changed throughout the day. Only 5 miles in I heard my first rumble of thunder. It was a storm behind me. Nothing to do but keep moving and see what happens. Luckily, it was not moving towards me, and actually cooled me off with some outflow winds.

Lunchtime conveniently happened at the Forest Service campground, so a real picnic table and a privy; pure luxury. The trail so far had been just some gradual ups and downs and went quickly, once again in ponderosa pine forests. That all changed after lunch. The road started a steady climb towards the peak of Mangas Mountain. And the weather changed too. It became overcast, though high enough to see the peak of Mangas. A cool wind became constant. Though not blue sky, it was actually perfect hiking weather, especially for a climb.

Not much to say about the next hours. Though never very steep, the grade was continuously up. Not grueling, but definitely more labored breathing, especially with the increase in altitude. I was disappointed reaching the top of Mangas. I knew the fire tower was closed to the public because of COVID, but didn’t know the trail/road actually didn’t go up to the tower but stayed in the trees just below the summit. Only a couple of views could be had through the trees..

After my navigation errors the previous day, I had been carefully looking ahead on Guthook today. I was then aware of the trail diverging from the main road shortly after the peak and it wasn’t obvious. Thankfully I was looking because it was not officially marked. The new ‘road’ was barely enough to be called an ATV track and was very rocky. Several hikers had built small cairns and stick arrows to help the unwary.

Though now downhill, the ‘road’ was rocky, with rocks just the right size to roll my ankle. It required more attention. Added to that it started raining twice, enough to stop and break out my rain gear for the first time. (Though it had rained before it was light enough to just put up with it or just use the umbrella.)

Though not ridiculously slow, my pace was off what I had planned. I looked forward to the trail improving. Sure enough, the ATV track slowly changed to a better maintained dirt road and became a much less steep descent. The bad news was that another storm now threatened and was definitely headed my way. I continued for as long as I dared then quickly found a spot to camp and threw up the tent hurriedly. Just in the nick of time as it started to rain. But it didn’t rain very long. Rats. I could have gone longer. The tent was up, I was within two miles of the water spigot and had enough water for dinner and breakfast, so it wasn’t worth taking the tent down and hiking for a short time. I stayed.