8/19 - Fri - Ute Trail to Miller Creek Trail
I saved a few sips of water for the morning and continued descending to Aspen. My quad felt better than the night before, but I was still in a ton of pain. It took about 25 minutes to hobble 0.4 mi down to Ute Rock. I snapped a few photos then kept limping down, forgetting to restart my watch. When my watch auto-saved the activity, meaning a half-hour had passed, I wasn't even at the trailhead. Meaning my pace was less than 2mph going downhill. I had no water, but some Ricolas and Juicy Burst Fruit Snacks kept it manageable until I got to the trailhead just below 8000’, where I could finally refill my bottles.
I hiked to CO 82 and took a bus downtown to get my maildrop. That left me with an hour to kill before the post office opened, so I got an Eggs Benedict at Poppycocks, and more Gatorade and snacks. Also replaced my sunglasses. Once the post office opened, I grabbed my package and jumped back on the bus. Back to CO 82, and headed towards Smuggler Mountain Road. I was a sight, barely able to walk up the road, and filthy. The Aspen morning dog walkers weren't very friendly for some reason.
Once I got beyond the split for the Observatory Deck, I stopped to put some lcy Hot on my quad and finally took some Aleve I should have taken last night. The road turned to dirt after a couple miles, which began the 3.8 mi out and back to Fritz & Fabi's. The road climbed about 1800’ along on the way, and my leg was starting to feel a lot better after the Aleve.
There were showers around to the south and I'd heard a few rumbles of thunder while it looked clear to the west all morning. I got to Fritz & Fabri’s at 12:35. The weather had looked to be getting better, so I didn’t put my rain jacket on and it started to rain on the way back. I put it on as the hail came. I failed to perform the silly superstition of wearing rain gear to keep the storms away, but I would not be fooled again.
After the 3.8 miles back, I began the long trek north towards the Vail area and Eiseman Hut. Down to 5 huts and about 80 miles to go. The wildflowers in the Aspen area were the best I’d seen on the trip. I climbed 1200' over 2.5 miles just to drop down to 8500' again near the ghost town of Lenado. My quad still didn't feel great, but it had gotten much, much better since taking the Aleve.
I climbed back up to 11,000’ over 6 miles on Larkspur Mountain Road. I didn't have to descend much on Koney Park & Hannon Creek Roads to get to the Rocky Fork Trail, only about 1000’ over 2 miles. The connector trail to Miller Creek climbed gradually from 10,000’ to 10,200’ and followed that contour, then rose to 10,400’. I wanted to continue down to the woods road that would lead to Frying Pan Road but it had gotten dark and I couldn't figure out where the split was.
Once I had made camp and gotten onto my sleeping pad, I noticed my knee was twice the size of the left one. It was probably good I stopped. I was surprised since it seemed to feel better than the night before. It still didn't hurt at all when I wasn't moving. I cooked delicious ramen in the dark and planned to find the trail (if it existed) once it was light out.
