On the Trail! - Rampart Range

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

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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.

Colorado Trail

I just learned the other day that I will have a longer summer than I was planning, a glorious 5 and a half weeks of time off. Last winter when I was plotting my next escape the Colorado Trail was at the top of the list, but after spending some time researching and even ordering the guidebook I learned that my time off would be constrained, and began to look at other trails. But that has now changed and as I look over the resources I was poring over last winter I grow more excited by the hour. I booked a plane ticket to Denver within several hours of learning I will now have the time to do this.

Ever since hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2008, I have had many “Springer Fever” spells (the need to leave for Springer Mountain, the start point of the AT) that can only be quenched by more hiking, preferably on a long trail. Being from Wyoming, the Rockies always call to me, even though I do love Appalachia. 2009 was a good year for short hiking trips for me, having made it up to the Adirondacks for the first time and summiting Mt. Marcy. But it was a trip to the Wind River Range in Wyoming with my dad last summer that was a wakeup call to me that I have left my beloved Rocky Mountains neglected and largely unexplored. I grew up haunting the Big Horn Mountains near Sheridan, WY and know them well, having made good use of the many campgrounds and day hike loops, as well as a handful of trips into the pristine Cloud Peak Wilderness area. But because I did not start seriously hiking until after moving out of Wyoming, and for reasons that remain a mystery to me I never before had visited the glorious Wind River Range, and the only parts of the Colorado back country I have visited are those near I-70. It is time to change all of that!

So I will be setting out August 6th for another adventure of a lifetime. I have learned much since my early days as a young blood thru-hiker huffing up the many peaks of Georgia, my pack has grown lighter and I bought a hat. (as I will be hiking much of the time above treeline, the hat is as important a development as any other, I think.) I am looking forward to the daily challenge, adventure, wonder and awe that is the life of a thru hiker, if only for a few weeks. I also look forward to writing a journal again, which I had a lot of fun writing on the AT. For anybody who will be on the CT this August, I hope to see you out there!

Powder River

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