8/16 - Tue - Chapman to Aspen
I woke up cold and damp around 5:20 am and was hiking by 6. After my experiments with tape, bandaids, and Moleskin, I was sticking to Vaseline only for my blisters. My phone screen was black on the bottom two-thirds for most of the morning because I let it get wet in the storms. Taking pictures was difficult enough that I only shot a few. It took me forever to find the trail out of Chapman to South Fork Road because it started in a different place than shown on the map. Once my morning brain figured out that I probably needed to go down the road just beyond the supposed trailhead, it was a steady ascent once of 800’ for 1.4 mi. My route leveled out for a mile on South Fork Road to the Spruce-Norrie Trail. It was a real trail that existed for 3.1 miles and took me to Margy's spur. I was even happier to find the spur was also a real trail that gently climbed 300’ over 1.3 miles It was a pleasant change of pace.
I got to Margy’s at 11:03 am. This hut and McNamara’s were the first constructed in the 10th Mountain system, built in 1982. Fritz Benedict’s idea for a hut system was initially rejected by the Forest Service, but former Secretary of State Robert McNamara wanted a hut built in memory of his wife, Margaret. To mitigate concerns that an unoccupied building would be left on public land, Benedict and McNamara assembled a group to put up a bond to guarantee the full removal of the huts if they were not used after five years. My gear ranged from damp to soaked and it was still occasionally drizzling, so I was wearing layers to stay warm and dry them out.
Once I took the Margy’s Spur back to the Spruce-Norrie Trail, I headed south and dropped 1500’ over another 3.1 miles. From there, I turned onto the Woody Creek trail for just under a mile to connect to the trail to McNamara. It was nice with tree blazes for a while, then became a road but the blazes disappeared. The trail was so nice that I spent about 10 minutes looking for a worse path before I was convinced I should follow the road. It became overgrown and very wet near McNamara, at 10,360’. I got to the hut at 1:48 pm. Although it was still periodically raining lightly, most of my clothing had dried out. My feet were still soaked and my blisters burned, but I was getting by with the Vaseline.
From there, it was all dirt roads for 5.2 miles down to 8500’ at the Hunter Creek Trail. The trail dropped steeply along the creek with well-built staircases through large boulders for about a half-mile, then mellowed out for the last 0.3 mi to Aspen. I was relieved I didn’t run into many people on the way down, as I had some awkward hiker hobble going to try and keep pressure off my heels. It was only 0.3 mi on paved roads to the post office and downtown. Picking up a maildrop is a little like opening presents on Christmas morning, but you wrapped them yourself.
I got two 24” slices (pepperoni and Margherita) and a Princess Yum Yum Raspberry Kolsch from New York Pizza once I got downtown. There's no laundromat in Aspen anymore. It doesn't seem like a great place to let my hiker flag fly and dry all my stuff out in a park then sleep in a gazebo, so I'm being fancy and staying at the cheapest place in town. Which is $175 for 2 twins and a shared bath. St. Moritz was nice, bummer it's Aspen prices. I still love a Bavarian-style lodge, and a shower, a bed, and outlets seem like luxury really fast.
