The trail began with a lot of distractions. I was shuttled by the hostel back to the pass and checked out the 10th Mountain Division memorial. After that there was a thruhiker trail magic box a short way down the trail (from the hostel). It was perfect for me because I hadn't had breakfast. Then not much farther was a wooden porch swingat a viewpoint that I just had to use. I slackpacked this section so almost all my gear was back at the hostel. My pack was so light and I flew down the trail. The miles went quickly but it wasn't to last.

I met four other hikers and two of them talked about the snow ahead. Soon after crossing into the Holy Cross Wilderness, named after Mt of the Holy Cross, the drifts appeared and soon became continuous. The two other hikers were going my way but were slightly ahead. I lost the trail but knew where it was going so I bushwacked up the slope to the rocky bump above Porcupine Lakes. This was near timberline so the sun revealed the trail in spots and I caught up with the other hikers on the descent. On and off I saw them but we didn't join forces until the opposite slope. The trail was gone and the other two didn't have a map only the data book so they were SOL until I came along. We contoured around the slope to a little saddle where the treadway was sporadically visible. Unfortunately we were back in the thick of the mosquitoes too. I had a headnet but my spray was out. They didn't have anything and suffered for it.

To make things worse the weather started to change. It looked like rain was soon to hit. This had me worried because I only had my emergency bivy and a headlamp. I was counting on hitching out at the lake but if the weather was bad my chances would be slim. My two new friends canceled their planned camping because of the rain, mosquitoes, and a desire to stay with the guy with the map. They also had someone local they could call for a pickup if we couldn't hitch. Bingo! We moved quickly down the slope in the rain to the deserted road. Their friend came through and picked us up. Sweet!