This was an easier day than expected. Jake and Laua, a young couple I've been leapfrogging, made it to the stream I was camped out by while I was packing up. I saw a lot of them today. They are hiking sections 3 - 5 the 5 - 3 back to the car for an 80 mile trip.

We all made good time down to Rock Creek because it was essentially a downhill walk. I love downhills in the morning because it takes me so long to get into the hiking groove. A nice long downhill seems to speed that up for me. The rest of the day had only like 1,500 vertical feet so it wasn't very bad - not like the days coming up.

Oh I met my first other thruhiker. He's from Minnesota and already seems to have his trail legs. He passed me, Jake & Laura fast quickly. When I asked about Georgia Pass he expressed doubt though because he doesn't have snow gear (or a map I found out later). Best of luck to him but I have a feeling that I will see him coming down tomorrow.

About the hike: more open vistas and views of the Divide again today. Good hiking but chilly and windy and briefly rainy. It felt good to be on the trail I had some brief conversations with a couple pairs of dayhikers and a group riding horses. (One couple I would be glad to see later!)

I ended up at Kenosha Pass with Jake and Laura. This was their turn around point and I wished them well. I also unloaded a ton of extra snacks on Jake. Too bad I hadn't done that earlier. We had been talking about the little hot dog and hamburger stand in Jefferson and since it was so early (3:00) I decided to hitch down. It didn't take ling before I was picke up by the CO Trail Foundation Chairperson himself. He had emailed me before about my Great Colorado Loop concept. So it was cool to meet him in person. He cautioned me about attempting Georgia Pass with so much snow. The weather isn't supposed to be great either.