Yesterday we did 35 km till Clear Creek inspite of Szolt having pain in his leg. We walk out of the valley till we hit a steep accend. It winds trhough the forrest till Anna Pass at 3830 m. There is a snow field of about 30 feet we have to cross at the very crest. I go first with Cherokee and let the others follow, them finding their way through the snow individually. The Trail goes down steep  across some rockslides and then drops down to the lake. Guarinis Rope comes loos twice and the second time it does not face him, that the other horses are on the other side of the lake. But as soon as i get closer to him, he desides to go where the other horses are. Soon we hit the road and Apache jogs all the way down to where the trail goes north again to Twin lakes. There is a beaver pond, we let the horses grase and drink, while i look for a place where we can have them grase in the rivervalley, that is full of bush. I find a spot of dried swamp, where there is new and old grass plenty and we fence the horses there.  We just finished making camp, setting up the burner to heat water, when the 3 big ones walk up the old riverbank onto the road and start trotting back up to the beaver dam. I follow them running, while Zsolt turns off the gas and follows bringing the ropes. As i catch them, it was Apache who obviously had not enough to drink, for he was the one leading the group. We brought them back, doubled up the fence and put new batteries in the fencing kit.

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Simone is taking our truck to the next destination, which is Twin lakes, which we should reach in about 3 days. In the morning we saddle Guarini as pack horse, cause I am riding Apachee. While Szolt is saddling him, he titens the back chinch to far in the back and Guarini kicks him, hitting him on both knees. He still has his iron shoes on, which now causes Szolt to be in great pain. 
Never the less, we are able to continue, but Szolt is complaining about the pain now expanding into his groins. Not a good start....  We load all the electronics that where charged at the Lodge and ride up the steep mountain side to the CDT again. We are crossing two mountain passes today, 3700 m (12140 f)  and 3560 m high, And while the trails are in excellent conditions, we do have a couple of trees we need to walk around. On one occation, Guarini gets stuck between two trees and instead of waiting to be helped he forces his way through and tears off one of the two bags. We need to fasten them with ropes and it takes about 30 min. till everything is back to go. We pass the house Simone had told us about and as we desend we are find a truck parked at the lake, on top of a offroad trail. The truck from Texas made it up here, with 3 fishermen, which we saw earlier. We wont make it to Mirror lake as planed, but at the next valley we find good grasing and water and so we decide to camp right there. In the evening we meet a Lady from Denver who is south bound (sobo) and she decides to camp near by.

The Camp Host does not really know, how to handle the horse situation, but since the camp is only on one site of the road, the other side being BLM Land, I can convince him, that the horses can stay on the other side. They give me a ride down to the Lodge, and take Simone to the next town, so she can get a rental car and we could pick up the Trailer and truck at Johns Circle Ranch. 

The Lodge is really nice and they let me have breakfast and use their w-lan for free. I work on the maps, downloading info on the trail and uploading facebook data. About 2 hours later I receive a message from Simone, that she is not able to rent a car, because she cannot get a insurance coverage from the rental place. (only the big ones have insurance to sell). Ask your  liability insurer in Europe for a letter, stating your  I try to find another rental company in the surrounding cities, but some of them are closed for over 3 years, with the website still running, and others cannot access their reservation data, for their system is down, for the entire week. After 4 hours of telefones and running around in 30 degrees temps Simone ends up renting a uhaul truck 15feet long 7,5 tons, for us to fetch our car at Circle Ranch. 

In the morning we see smoke on the horizon. We are leading the horses down the creek in the valley and as we reach the cross valley we are assending again, riding on a small trail with beautiful spring flowers in blue, white, yellow and red all along. Its like riding through a park with flowers. We jog a lot along the trail, cause it will be 40plus miles today till we reach the Monarch Pass. As we reach the pass, we try to get a beer, but on BLM land alcohol is not sellable. We follow an old skilift slope down to the Campground and find a place for the horses just right next to the campsite, where we will take a 0 day off.. 

As usual we had fenced off a peace of grasing for the horses for the night and let them roam free out side the fence  just with their bells on, so we can hear them. As we where putting our bedrolls down for the night, and preparing our evening meal of freeze dried food, they kept on wandering off, so Zsolt put them inside the fence. A couple of hours later they where all outside of the fence again, grasing in all different directions. Somehow there was not enough feed or something else made them want to mouve on, anyway we made the fence bigger, (we have 320 yards (m) of fencing with us), cleared the bush, where the fence run, but the battery fencer on and finally the horses where content. 

We have a ground sheet each, which also doubles as rain poncho, on top of that that pads of the horses and the blanekts, a downfilled mat, 7 cm thick, and weighing about  700 grams. On top of that I have a summer sleeping bag, (winter  bag can be pulled over it) and my wool poncho, that doubles as blanket on the horse during the day. As headrest we use the cantle bagroll, and support it with the saddle.

I did not sleep very well, allways having an ear open for the bells of the horses. Them wandering off last evening left an impression on my mind. And it was cold. In the morning my second sleeping bag, was covered with frozen mist.
​After breakfast we immediatel had to climb and all day long we rode from peak to peak (about 10 of them) and ever so often, we run into some off road bikers, that waited very politely as we passed by.  After about 6 hours of above the tree line hiking, we decended into a valley where we found a spring, and let the horses drink. Further down there was a creek running and a beautiful medow, where we set up camp again. As usual the horses where grasing outside the fence (sparing the feed for the night) We where cooking our evening dinner, when 4 offroad bikers roared by and the horses took off up the mountain we came down on. I chased after them, Szolt and Simone following me, and I cought them again an the Spring, we had watered them before, about 6 kms up the hill. Halfe way down the mountain, Szolt and Simone arrived and we brought the horses down to camp again. They where put inside the fence and we finally could sit down to eat. We had covered about 40 km today. 

On off Road Trails we ride over hilly and wooded Country north. It is easy riding and the there is water and Gras in abondance.  Kino Kiowas blister has drained and we are happy that it is getting better, that well. He is without pain and we pony him along. After 35 km we find a good resting place with lots of grass and build camp. Simone being with us is riding Apachee and she is doing well.

Szolt feels better again and we have Simone with us for a week. Getting us started again. Kino Kiowa has developed a blister, that wont pop and so we decided to go see the vet, if he wants to lance it. We drove over to his place and surprised him, ringing his doorbell at office hours 8 am. He stated, this had never happend to him before, but an hour later we where on our way again, without lancing, but with 10 days of antibiotic.  We drove down to Johns Quarter Circle Ranch, just north of Creede and stayed there for a night.

Two hours before he is supposed to arrive, Antonio lets us know, he wont be riding with us. Well, that kind of brings the whole thing to a screeching halt. We cannot continue with 4 horses, and just dropping one of in unknown hands, does not sound good either. Additionally, the problem is our ability to communicate, is like 0. We can only make calls, over the internet. Mark is definitely going back to Albuequerque, where he has to get his life started. We need some time to organize our self and so we decide to return to Larkspur and see, what we come up with. I need to get better cell service, the Gimbel needs repairing and we need to find a third rider. Simone from Germany, would be a possible candidate. lets see, what comes up.
Whatever will be, we will be riding again June 22. Szolt needs a break too, him not having eaten much and having no appetite. Hope a couple of days rest, will improve that situation also.
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