Heather and I were packed up and ready to go by 9 this morning. We drove back out to the Hwy 165 and down to the Millset trailhead just about 5-10 min north of Rye. We were the first ones there today. The beta we had gotten from the lady who gave is directions yesterday was that it was a pretty and shaded trail that wasn’t super steep and about a mile to a mile and a half in was an old lot cabin. Cool! So we started out with a ridge climb. Of course when you start at 7,500 feet you expect to climb some. The first .2 miles is on YMCA land but you soon hit National Forest. Then when you top that you cross a bench/basin to another ridge climb. It was hot. Luckily there was quite a bit of shade, but it was just hotter than. Had been in three weeks! We kept climbing and in the first mile had the up 1,000 ft. It was pretty steep for a mild trail. Then I kept thinking we would top out or contour or something or find the cabin, but in the next mile we gained another thousand feet. Still in the trees with another apparent ridge to climb we stopped to admire some apens that were really pretty. Not nearly so many aspens turning here as over by Westcliff. It is warmer here as we noticed in the night. Long sorry short we decided to turn around there as we were headed back home today and thought this was as good as spot as any. We got our elevation in today and were bored with the never ending ridges. So we went down. My guess is that she hiked the trail from the FS369 side and went down hill and along Greenhorn Creek an much better place for a cabin than a ridge with no water. I’ll try that someday, just not enough time today.
Then we headed home meeting Casey in LaJunta where he picked me up and Heather went on to Wiley to see her dad and we went home. It feels odd to be home in a bed. The house seems small and close after three weeks spent outside all day and night long. But it is nice to be here and I think Chelly is happy to be home too.
