Mon, 27May - Pagosa Springs, CO

Sunday, the terrain is easing but the toll of hiking on icy slopes and post holing is wearing me down.  Muscles are sore and its getting harder to avoid stumbling and making a bad footfall.  Looking forward to a rest in town.  Large sections of dry trail with great views but its mixed with more and more forested sections which have lots of deep soft snow and its hard to follow the trail through the wooded sections.  Finally a little tired of the snow we tried to drop down to Alberta Park Reservoir after Railroad Pass to avoid another high ridge and a long switchback section through wooded terrain.  Figured it would be impossible to follow the trail there.  Our route however involved extensive steep descent on soft heavy snow to the lake.  And that's only the start of the difficulty as the route around the lake to a dirt road was some of the worst postholing through blowdowns so far and included some wet stream crossings.  Finally at the dirt road it was a simple hike to the pass and a hitch into town.  Last night we enjoyed a free beer sampling at a new micro-brewery that will have its first opening day today.  Joined a few other hikers in town for dinner and today will be a rest day.  Heading to the brew pub to celebrate their opening for dinner tonight.