Buffalo Creek

Day 3

Miles hiked today: 15.5
Miles from Denver: 36.3
Elevation: 7,400 ft
Segments 2,3
Landmarks: Chair Rocks, Raleigh Peak, Long Scraggy Peak, Pike National Forest, Green Mountain, Buffalo Creek

VIEW MAP



Waking up this morning I skipped my normal oatmeal to conserve water and downed a bunch of granola bars. I haven't seen a soul since the mountain bikers passed me yesterday, even though I made camp at around 3 pm so I could take a siesta. It is deafeningly quiet in this forest, as if the fire has killed off the means for every forest creature to live here. I have never been so sure that an area had no bears as I was last night.

I thought I would make it a couple of miles farther yesterday, so I'll go a few more today. The trail has brought me out of the burn area and into a pine forest, and then as I rounded Raleigh Peak and turned south I was back in the burn zone again. The devastation of this fire is unbelievable. There are miles and miles of desolate land here, which has a beauty all its own. The grasses, wildflowers, cacti and yucca have really taken over here, which would be unable to grow in a regular forest. There are lots of birds tending to the flowers, and I am wishing I had a long lens on my camera so I could capture them.



Finally I reach the road, with a few sips of water to spare. There is a fire station a quarter mile up the road which is listed as an emergency water source. What the guidebook says is walk onto their property past the no trespassing signs, around the back of the building to the spigot, fill your water, then leave the area immediately.

There was a trailhead at the road crossing, and just so happens that today is some sort of equestrian endurance race going on. The campground is full of horse trailers and dozens of horses, all with their own 15 foot diameter portable paddock. I stop and talk to a couple with a horse named Walker, who is rather feisty. As I take his photograph he breaks free of his hitch and starts trotting nonchalantly down the road. I pass lots of people on horseback, but even more mountain bikers. This is a really unbelievable mountain bike trail, with plenty of twists and turns and roller coasters, and a beautifully maintained flat surface throughout.



I actually met two thruhikers and one regular hiker today. The first guy was just out for a few days, but he was the first hiker I've seen yet. There was a guy on a mountain bike who thru hiked last year, so he was pretty cool to talk to. He said he started almost exactly this same time. Finally, I met a guy going the opposite direction. He started in Durango 3 weeks ago. He's cruising. He said he saw a whole lot of west-bound thru hikers a couple weeks ago, as many as 15 in one day. I am apparently behind all the crowds.

I have not mentioned this yet, but the Colorado Trail is divided into 28 segments, and I'm noticing that each has its own distinct character. I'll probably mention the segment numbers time to time. I've passed into segment 3 now, and it is my favorite so far. It is same pine and fir forest that I grew up with in the Bighorn Mountains. Indeed there was a time when this was the only type of forest that I knew of. The forest floor is a carpet of pine needles, and unlike denser forests back east this is easily passable because there are few undergrowth plants. There are these strange rocks in this segment that look like they don't belong here, or anywhere for that matter. They look a little like they were just dropped here by God from outer space. They remind me a lot of Vedawoo near Laramie, WY.

As the day draws on I make my goal a place called Buffalo Creek, which is not just a creek but also a trailhead and campground. As I approach I can hear children for about a mile, they are very loud and I was wondering if my campsite would be right next to them. I was able to find a nice quiet campsite down by the river, but when I was preparing my dinner a lady came by with a dog named Jonah, who took to me immediately. When I explained that I am hiking to Durango, she invited me up to the campsite with all to the people to visit and to eat. Whooohoo trail magic! There were about half a dozen families, all with small children camped there and they were the nicest people. They gave me cold beer and I devoured some chips and salsa, and had a great time trading stories with a guy named Jeff, Jeanine, and a bunch of names I can't remember, sorry guys. It really turned into a nice night, and I made it back to my tent just before a storm hit.

South Platte Canyon

Day 2

Miles hiked today: 12.1
Miles from Denver: 20.8
Elevation: 7,400 ft
Segments 1, 2
Landmarks: South Platte River, South Platte Canyon, Raleigh Peak

VIEW MAP

I had a little scare last night as I was typing the journal entry on my phone. I hadn't seen another backpacker all day, and hadn't seen any people at all for the second half of the day. So as I lay in my tent which was near a gurgling stream, I was imagining all kinds of sounds. Then, I hear a whooooooosh followed by something physically hitting my tent. I'm pretty sure this was an owl, who must have mistaken my tent for some sort of giant glowing rabbit. It sure scared the crap out of me. Some sort of sound escaped me, but I'm not sure I could reproduce it now.

This morning was all climbing through some very nice forest with a few views. I got an early start so it was mostly cool. It is apparent that I am out of shape, carrying some extra pounds, and struggling with the altitude. After 5 hours of hiking I had only come 8 miles. I am used to being able to put down 3 miles an hour, so it will be interesting watching the transition to a lean mean hiking machine as the miles go by.





The only people I ran into this morning were mountain bikers. The first guy was carrying a large stuff sack strapped to the rack of his bike, and was doing a multi day trip. He told me there is a race that started yesterday called the Colorado Trail Race, which is for mountain bikers and only takes 5 days. Basically they are covering 100 miles a day over mountain terrain. And I thought doing 100 miles on my road bike on good roads would be tough, let alone sustained for 5 days. I did not see any of these participants yesterday because they started in the morning, and were probably 50 miles in by the time I got on trail. This guy I was talking to could only participate for a few days, but was planning on being in Buena Vista by Monday. That's 228 miles in, and I hope to be there in two and a half weeks.

As I came to a viewpoint I could see a canyon which turned out to be the South Platte River, and beyond that was terrain completely burned out by forest fire. This fire was in 1996 and burned 12,000 acres, and just a few days after the fire they had torrential rain totaling over 5 inches. This stripped the denuded forest floor of its soil and created flash floods. 3,000 cubic yards of sediment were deposited in the Strontia Springs Reservoir, which is why just now they have closed that section to remove 2,000 cubic yards of sediment.

The downside to all of this is that the forest that supported the ground water is gone, and the soil to grow a new forest is also gone. The place is a desert, complete with cacti. As I was reading up on this at lunch time on the bank of the South Platte River, it dawns on me that there is no water for the next 10 miles, and I've already done 8 today. I would need to camp somewhere in this desert area, which meant carrying all of the water I would need. And to top things off it was in the 90's with direct sun. Whoooo I need to watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly again so I can remember what a man crawling through a desert looks like.

I loaded up with 4 liters, which weighs about 9 pounds. Suddenly I'm feeling like a brand new hiker who put too much stuff in his backpack. As I'm about to leave I run into 3 mountain bikers, one of whom immediately spots me for a thru-hiker, because he recognized the pack I'm carrying. (I'm using a ULA pack, which is made by a guy in his garage in Utah. They don't sell these things at REI.) He tells me he has attempted to thru-hike the CT twice, the first time trying for 14 days, or 25-30 miles per day. They didn't make it. The second time he tried for 21 days, and also didn't make it. So now he is mountain biking the trail, with another family who they are swapping cars with at each trailhead which allows them to stay in cabins the entire way and have hot showers. Now that sounds like a mountain bike trip to me!

He was excited to run into me because I am the only hiker they have seen yet, (indeed I am the only hiker I have seen too) and he explains that these first several segments, probably as far as Breckenridge are extremely unpopular to hike because they are either desert with no water, or I'm sure just not as appealing as the big ranges to the west. This would explain why I haven't seen anybody. There are a handful of thru-hikers each year, and from an Appalachian Trail message board I know there were two starting out about the same time I did. But without any hikers coming the opposite way, and no register books to sign I have no way of knowing who is ahead or behind. Most hikers hike the CT in short trips, and even then most don't complete all the segments. So it makes sense to skip the less interesting or miserable parts.

Speaking of miserable I have about 6 miles to go tomorrow before finding water, and I have 1 and 3/4 liters. It will be plenty, but when you have to conserve water it is not a pleasant thing. It kind of reminds me of the 20 mile section out of Lehigh Gap on the AT that didn't have water. But at the end of that section there was a town and a convenience store and the best slurpee I've ever had in my life. Tomorrow I look forward to sitting down by a stream and drinking 2 or 3 liters all at once.

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

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.

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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