Clear Creek

Mice started coming around the tent at 11pm so I didn’t sleep very well, waking up at every little noise and thinking it was a mouse I had to scare away. The tent was absolutely soaked in the morning, both from rain and condensation, so we were in no hurry to start packing up.

We were already set for a late start when we decided on 18 miles for the day. We got started at 9:30 but it still seemed doable. First we had a long 9.5-mile uphill to get started.

We stopped most of the way up at Frenchman Creek to have a long lunch and lay out all our gear to dry. Then it was a little more uphill, some downhill, some steep uphill, and a long down hill to Clear Creek.

There’s a free campground at the creek, just wide open space with lots of camper-made fire rings and a vault toilet. There were mostly RVs around but we found a spot with flat dirt to set up on with a few bushes to block the wind and didn’t mind the white noise of generators. I was hoping for picnic tables too but there were none to be found.

We set up just before dark and ending up eating dinner in the dark but it wasn’t too cold out sitting there.

We were in and out of the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness again as we climbed and descended over 4000′ each today. The high point was almost 12000′ but we are camped just under 9000′.