Day 1
Miles hiked today: 8
Miles from Denver: 8.7
Elevation: 6,200 ft
Segment 1
Landmarks: Roxborough State Park, Carpenter Peak, Bear Creek
VIEW MAP
The last week or so has been a whirlwind of activity of preparations for this hike. As many of my friends could attest, procrastination is an art form for me, and I may have really outdone myself this time. I saved several very important projects until the last night, which is why I found myself getting on the plane yesterday having had zero sleep. However I slept soundly on the plane, even despite the screaming child in the seat in front of me, because I was leaving for the trail with a clear to-do list and absolutely no worries. (as an aside here, I have come up with the idea that planes should have cry rooms, like at church)
Starting out a long trail like this at high elevation is not the best of ideas on little sleep, but I got two naps in yesterday and a good nights sleep. Still, having come from sea level and starting out at 5,520 ft I was a little concerned about being affected by the elevation, so I was drinking water non-stop. I have good friends, and luckily some of them are located in Denver. My friends Melissa and Scott put me up for the night and took good care of me. Melissa picked me up from the airport and took me on a dizzying series of errands I needed to do, and drove me the hour or so to the trailhead this morning. I cannot imagine having to do all that around Denver without their help, so many thanks to both of you. Oh, and I was sent off with two really awesome sandwiches with SPROUTS! This was true trail magic.
The first 7.9 miles of the Colorado Trail have been closed for the next two years due to a project to dredge silt out of one of the nearby reservoir. This is part of Denver's water supply, and apparently they are going to remove around 200,000 cubic YARDS of silt from the Strontia Springs Reservoir. This is enough to fill Coors Field a quarter of the way full. This means that Waterton Canyon, the traditional start point is closed and hikers must find an alternate route in. There is a suggest route, but I found a tip on a message board that suggested Roxborough State Park. I had never heard of it, but I am really glad I have now. This was an unbelievable place. A few years ago I took a special trip to a place called Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs that I'll never forget, and Roxborough is nearly just like it. I cannot think of a more beautiful place to start this hike. There are these strange red rock formations that angle into the sky like giant ship's prows, set against blue sky and a really astonishing assortment of wildflowers, pines, yucca, sage, heather, grasses, ferns and aspen. This is called the Rampart Range in Colorado, and I think they have a good name there for a range that is merely a prelude and a ramp to the 14,000 foot monsters found further west. In the Rockies we also call this the front range, because it is the first mountains you see when driving from Kansas. As I hiked ever upward, I had unlimited views of the great plains to the east, and Denver a little to the north. I climbed a 7,160 foot mountain called Carpenter Peak. It is strange to think that just on the first day, on this little knob of a mountain that is tall only from the perspective of the plains below, I have already exceeded the height of any mountain in the Appalachians. For my thru hiker friends, this may sound like sacrilege, but the Rockies are a wee bit taller. They really are.
It was a great day. After dropping off the back side of Carpenter Peak I was officially "up" in the mountains and was rewarded with shaded woods of pine and aspen, as well as rolling mountain meadows. The wildflowers are out of control. There were even butterflies. There were a series of thunderclouds that rolled by to the north, but I caught a nice cool rain shower that was actually kind of nice. The trail through Roxborough connected with the CT after 7.2 miles, which was mile marker 7.9 for the CT. To make things simple I'm just going to refer to the mileage from Denver referenced in the data book, but technically it will always be .7 miles off for the route I took.
I met a lot of people in Roxborough today, all of them day hikers. I had some great conversations with a few of them, who were amazed that I was going all the way to Durango. Haven't seen anybody since Carpenter Peak though. I think any hiker that started today would have gotten a much earlier start than I did, which was noon. I found a beautiful campsite, had an awesome dinner and am reflecting on how fortunate I am to be here. This is going to be a great trip.
