So, I finally finished up the Colorado Trail. And what a beauty it is! Earlier in the summer, I planned to finish, but Segements 25-28 (the ones that I had left) were closed because of fires. It's been an extremely dry winter and summer. So, my friend Ginna joined me and we went out and did part of the Collegiate West. (I did Collegiate East when I went through there. It was an absolute butt kicker, but wow, it was beautiful. Made it over Hope Pass (super steep) and crossed paths with several ultra runners training for Leadville. Yes, I said runners. Running up Hope Pass. Holy shot. They are bad ass. The next day, we camped right below Lake Ann Pass, at Lake Ann. Highly recommend this spot. It was beautiful. The next morning, got up for the climb up to the Pass, which was much easier than Hope.
Anyway, I had about given up hope on finishing this year, and suddenly monsoon season hit, ringing some rain and thus some fire relief. Not as much rain as usual, but enough that those final segments were reopened. So, when I had a few days, I jumped in the car, drove down to Silverton on Sunday the 12th of August and started hiking at about 3 p.m.
It's so completely different hiking a trail in sections and alone. I have always liked hiking alone, but not a huge fan of camping alone. But, you do what you gotta do. I made about 8 miles before the thunder and lightening around me started ramping up, so I pitched my tent and burrowed in. It never really did rain on me, which was nice, to not have to pack up a wet tent in the morning, but not so great for dry Colorado. I didn't actually camp alone, because there were deer all around my tent, chomping on grass most of the night. I did pull my hiking poles in to the tent with me, because they like to lick the salty parts from sweaty hands, and I didn't want them taking a chunk out of the handles of my poles.
Packed up early and was hiking by 7. I had a short window of time to finish this up, so I planned on about 20 miles per day for the next few days. I had 75 months left, Silverton to Durango. Pretty uneventful day. Lots of up and down (imagine that :). In the mountains ) I literally did not see one other person until mid afternoon and she was hiking the opposite way. Doing her annual pilgrimage to Telluride for the mushroom festival.
