Colorado Trail Day 10. Friday, August 8, 2025.
I fell asleep before dark yesterday and slept pretty much all through the night. I woke up at 5:15 AM and started writing, as I was too tired to do it yesterday. Normally, we would have gotten up fifteen minutes later, but I prioritized finishing the writing, and Inger was able to sleep a little longer.

We weren’t in a hurry today. At 6:10 AM, I gently nudged her and said it was time to get up.

We were hiking an hour later. Our first goal was Tennessee Pass, 7 km (4.3 miles) away. On the way there, we crossed the highway and a railroad line that looked like it wasn’t used very often. The road went over the 3,180-meter (10,433-foot) Tennessee Pass, while the railroad went through a tunnel beneath it.

After crossing the railroad tracks, we came out onto a flat area before starting the climb up to the pass. We found ourselves on a path that I immediately recognized as an old railroad grade, based on its gentle curves, consistent gradient, and cuts in the terrain. The grade was likely used before the tunnel under the pass was built. We met Merilla and Chuck on the grade, and we walked with them until we reached Tennessee Pass.

Our plan was to hitchhike to Leadville to resupply. It’s 15 km (9.3 miles) from the pass to town. After 10 minutes on the highway without getting a ride, a pickup truck came out of a forest road. The driver, Daniel, asked if we needed a ride to Leadville. At the same time, a few more hikers came from the trail. Inger and I got to sit inside the pickup, while the other four hikers sat in the back with Daniel’s dog.

We arrived in Leadville at 9:30 AM, and the stores we needed to go to didn’t open until 10:00 AM. We grabbed a coffee at a cafe while we waited.

The town has an old and interesting main street with many historic buildings from the late 1800s. As the name suggests, it was a mining town, with lead, silver, and copper being the main minerals. Of course, there’s a mining museum here, and old mining equipment is displayed around town as monuments.

We made the necessary purchases and had a hot lunch before walking about 1 km (0.6 miles) to the edge of town to hitchhike back to Tennessee Pass. We stood by the road for about five minutes before Joie stopped and drove us to the pass.

Section 9 of the CT starts at Tennessee Pass. The trail went gently up and down for the first 5 km (3.1 miles). We then came to a sign that said Trail Magic!

Hooray, Trail Magic today, too!
It was Rainman who was hosting this one. We got comfortable chairs to sit in. Rainman made us grilled cheese sandwiches, and we were given cold soda and some snacks. Sneaky was already there when we arrived. Eventually, more hikers showed up, and, as usual, we had a great time. It’s tempting to sit there for a long time, and maybe even have a beer, but we had to keep going.

We hiked 6 km (3.7 miles) until we reached the Holy Cross Wilderness Boundary. We found a nice campsite there and decided to stay, even though it was still early in the afternoon. It’s good to have some easy days to rest and recharge.

A while after we had set up camp, a Swiss hiker named Slowman arrived. He is hiking the CDT from Mexico to Canada. When he got to Colorado this spring, there was too much snow, so he skipped Colorado to continue toward Canada. Now he has come back to hike the Colorado section of the CDT. Slowman hiked the PCT in 2022, the same year I did. He started a few weeks before me and finished a week after me. I must have passed him on the trail somewhere!

We had a good, calorie-rich lunch—grilled cheese sandwiches in the afternoon—so we didn’t feel the need for a hot dinner. In the river running nearby, we washed our feet and socks. There’s still a lot of ash dust on the trail.

My water filter isn’t filtering as fast as it did at the beginning of the trip. I’ve tried backflushing it to clean it, but without success. When there’s a lot of lime in the water, lime residue builds up in the filter and is difficult to remove. In Leadville, we bought some vinegar, which I ran through the filter. Vinegar dissolves lime, and after backflushing it, the filter worked much better.

Today’s section was 18 km (11.2 miles) with 510 meters (1,673 feet) of elevation gain. We’re camping at 3,344 meters (10,971 feet) above sea level.