Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5
Kennebec Pass to Junction Creek (South Terminus)
CT Section 28.
Highlights: Kennebec Pass, Gaines Gulch, Junction Creek
21.2 miles
Our highlights came early on what would turn out to be our final, and longest day on the trail. Three deer bid us farewell as we packed up camp and approached Kennebec Pass. We had some good final views of Lizard Head and the Wilsons, before crossing the highest point of our day.
Then came the best moment of the trip for me: sunrise. I took a couple dozen pictures of the picturesque scene, complete with Colorado wildflowers, peaks, sunrays, and puffy clouds against a blue sky. In a matter of seconds, the scene was gone, but I was glad to have been able to be a part of it.
Then: the long descent across the talus slopes, and down, down, down into the forests. Goodbye, mountains.
At the falls at Gaines Gulch, Greg asked what I thought about finishing the trail today, instead of tomorrow as originally planned. I was tired at the moment, but I liked the idea.
And after that—we never looked back. It would be a 21.2-mile day to finish off our 80 miles from the Animas River. This involved a 1,000-foot rise in the middle of the day, but otherwise a long descent from 11,700 feet to 6,900 feet outside of Durango.
This wouldn’t have been too bad, if not for the heat. The last ten miles or so were mostly in the sun, and it felt like a descent into the desert. It was also extremely dry. Besides the area around Gaines Gulch, most of the remainder of the trail was as dry as the past couple days. We were both getting low on water by the time we finally arrived at Junction Creek, less than three miles from the trail finish.
At 5:45pm, Greg and I stepped into the Junction Creek parking lot, the southern terminus of the Colorado Trail!
