We started slower this morning and it was cold and foggy where we were camped. We went mostly down hill his morning to Cottonwood creek rd. The morning walk was great a beautiful fall day. It was really nice to be out. A much easier day than the day before. We got down though and had to start back up. We were debating doing Mt Yale and whether we really wanted to or not. But as we climbed up Silver Creek we were both feeling the drag from the past few days. The trail was steep and pretty relentless up the drainage. We met a pack train of 5 horses coming down and wondered if a hunting camp was set up. We kept climbing and as we climbed I tried to talk to Casey as I had service since the valley we were climbing was directly in line with Buena Vista. It was hard to talk and climb but we got to catch up a little bit. We had been out of service for several days. We topped out about 5 and climbed into a meadow below the Yale Ridge about a mile and 1,300 ft. We decided to eat supper there in the sun by the creek.
As we were eating a couple of men came over to talk to us! We were hoping that we would get some conversation – apparently I was wanting to see people 😉 So they asked us what we were doing and asked about our tennis shoes as good hiking equipment? We talked about alcohol stoves and their unimpressive heat output for winter or cold weather use and then we asked them what they were doing. They were up there hunting Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. There are only four tags in the whole unit and we met one of the four hunters! He said he waited for 21 years to draw a tag! Wow! We were about done with supper and they went over to talk with the other newcomer to the little meadow below Yale.
Cristin and I had a heart to heart about where to camp and whether or not to climb Yale in the morning. The valley we were in was windy and we were pretty much over the wind by then so we decided to camp in the meadow and visit with our new -and-only-ones-ever-on-the-trail. So we did. We set up our tent near by and as we were about done they came up and invited us to have tea with them. So Cristin and I bundled up and took our cups and 2 Snickers down to their tent. We finally got around to names as the water was boiling. Bud was from Montrose and the one with the tag. He had been up here all last week too with his son looking. But his son had to go home so Bud asked Cliff “the ledge-end” (get it?! It took me a minute but I am blonde) to come help him and stay up there with him while he hunted. They had climbed all over and glassed slopes and hunted but hadn’t caught up with one yet, but had been really close. It was really interesting to listen to their hunting and fishing stories in the Montrose/Delta and Grandjunction Area. We talked with them until way past dark! Until about 9:15 and we were all cold then we went back to our tent to bed. We hiked 9.2 mi today. A mildly easier day but that climb up the Yale a Ridge was a killer after the past few days. We are really tired! Only 18 mi to get to Mt Princeton!!!!!!! So excited
