Lisa and I had planned to do a shuttle hike from East Vail to Silverthorne - 14 miles with about 3000 feet of elevation gain. Our friends Jen and Witt (and son Quinn) drove us to Vail and joined us for the first few miles of the hike then turned back, leaving us to complete our hike. We hiked alongside Gore Creek for another few miles after our friends departed only to reach the portion of the trail where it crosses the creek on a bridge...that wasn't there. Presumably, the high water of the creek washed away the bridge, and turning around wasn't much of an option (since we had no vehicle at the trailhead) so we continued on. We took of our shoes and crossed the 34 degree water - rest assured, that's an extremely painful feeling... Once on the far side of the creek we continue to hike through marshy land that had snow covering it days before, then more and more snow - over 5 feet deep in spots. We managed to move only about 0.5 miles in an hour, the day was slipping away from us, and the snow was getting worse all before we reached the pass...so we turned back. We managed to pull off a running jump across the creek higher up (just barely) to avoid the barefoot stream crossing, but that required us to route-find through the forest and cross hundreds of smaller streams until we rejoined the trail a mile back. Thankfully, our friends are awesome and came back over Vail pass to pick us up! The trail was beautiful and the hike was quite enjoyable (except for the snow and marsh parts)...I'd recommend it to anyone once the snow melts!
