Colorado Trail - Day 1

This is it!  The start of my big challenge for the year.  If you know me, you know I always have a challenge for myself.  It's good to set goals.  Especially ones that keep you in shape.  And make you happy.  This one does both.  The Colorado Trail is 487 miles long.  We are setting off to do the first 30.  I was invited to go with Jody and David.  It will be good to have their company on this first leg.

Unfortunately, we have to drive across Nebraska.
(When I go back in June I will fly)
It was an uneventful drive with good company.
Saw these storm clouds.  According to the radar they are in Wyoming.
It is amazing how much cell phone coverage you get now driving to Denver.
I remember back when you lost coverage for long spells.
Yes, I also remember not having cell phones and when you went on vacation you dropped off the face of the earth for a week.  That was actually pretty nice.  Very relaxing.  Kind of what I will be doing in June.....

We went to a local bar for dinner.  They had a good variety on their menu.
And they were next to a weed shop.  Bah ha ha!
Darn.  We didn't stop in to get chocolate pain killers.

I had the salmon.
Jody had the burger with bacon jam.
Bacon jam tastes better than it sounds.

This was in the same parking lot.
We did NOT eat here.
In fact, I will never eat here or anywhere that has the word "Yummy" in it's name.

The house we stayed in.
It was nice.  Plenty of rooms and the beds were comfy.
And the air conditioning worked.
It was hot in the Denver area.

My room was decorated in a style I was not familiar with.
Where do you get a light like this?
I think it had a 15 watt bulb in it.

We met Bobbie Hickman and friend at the parking lot.
She is an administrator in a hiking Facebook group I belong to.
(Colorado Thru Hike 2018)  It was nice to meet her in person.

The trail starts out kind of like any other recreational trail.
Very inconspicuous.

Ahhh the official trail sign.
The third emblem from the left is the Colorado Trail emblem.
That is what you look for while you hike the trail.
I look like a total dork.  Like a Mary Poppins vampire.
Oh well, it worked great and kept the sun off me.  Didn't have to use sunscreen except on my face.
People stared at me as I walked by.  I felt like a zoo animal.
But... a lot of people were eyeballing the umbrella and said "That's a great idea!".
It looks dorky but in the almost 90 degree heat it was awesome.

EEEEEEeeeeee!
It's finally begun.
With all of my crap I'm carrying I feel like Sam Gamgee.
Especially with my wide hobbit feet.
Bilbo would be proud, I remembered my handkerchief (bandana).

The paved road turned into a gravel road.
We hiked the road for something like 6.2 miles.
I think that's what the guide book said.
People complain about this part.
Boring, hot, dusty, road hurts your feet.

One.  One mile done.
Jody was happy at mile three when she said "Three, three miles..." and I said "AHH, ha ha" like the count from Sesame Street.   It's the little things that make you laugh when you are walking on a road.

Yep, people in CO need to come to NE to see a boring trail.
We thought this was beautiful.
BTW, that is the Platte River.

The wind did cause my umbrella to flip back a few times.
I will have to work on fixing that.
In the meantime I just held onto it.

Jody and me.
With my reflective umbrella.
We are on goat watch or sheep watch.
Mountain goats, bighorn sheep?  Can't remember which but we hear about them all the time in this canyon.

I live near the Platte River and it looks nothing like this.

We stopped for lunch and Jody climbed down to get water.
I did not.

Chilling in the shade.
I was here about 20 years ago.  These picnic tables and shelter were not here then.
They were pretty nice to have at this spot on the trail.
We were bummed we hadn't seen any sheep or goats and we were at the end of the road.

When we hit the actual trail, we came upon these guys.
Ok, no goats, sheep.  With gigantic horns.
Hot panting sheep on the trail laying on the hot gravel.
Hey guys, there is shade over there to your right.  Under the T-R-E-E-S.
We walked by them and they did not seem bothered by us.
They just kept panting.

This felt like we are actually beginning our hike in the mountains.
Shade up ahead so I put my umbrella away.

It is spring in CO and the spring flowers were everywhere.
These were vibrant delphiniums.

Our first CT trail marker.

The trail wound around into a really pretty, shady forest.
A nice break after the road.

More spring blossoms along the trail.
Blue skies to boot.

Jody chose often to not use her poles.

Not me.  See those roots and rocks?
I am really good at tripping on them.

It was warming up.
I think it got into the low 90's that day.
The forecast was for a chance of thunderstorms this day, evening thunderstorms the next day and all day thunderstorms the third day (with a high of 53 the third day)

A pretty little violet growing in a huge boulder.

I used my new pack as a chest pouch.
It looked dorky but worked really well.
It was kind of like a feed bag.  I could easily get to my snack bag.
I also brought my Spot locator and pressed the "we are OK" button every morning, at lunch and at dinner to let our families know we were doing well.  My message to them is the first line of the Lego song, "Everything is Awesome".

Ahh... stopping for water by a beautiful mountain stream.
Dave, this is not a typical stream.
Quite disappointing.

Watered up and ready to go.
We carried extra water because there are no more water sources for the day.
Ugh.

And we head up.
Up the rocky trail.

More beautiful sights in nature.
This is apparently a forest of hollow metal pipes.

Cool.
This fell off a tree.
Cool.

Yep, this is the trail.
It is rocky.



Heading up the rocky trail.



Not sure which water crossing this was but once you hit water you typically start going back up again.

According to my CO wildflower book this is a Heartleaf Arnica.  Part of the aster family.
It is blooming early.

Did you know you can get a little tail in the woods?
Bah, ha ha ha!

Facinating.
Trees are beautiful.

This is a happy foot.
A happy foot on a smooth dirt trail.
No bumpy rocks to hurt it.

Cool.
Quite a few of the trail markers have been "absorbed" by the trees.
Well, that will keep people from stealing them.

A beautiful view of the mountains.
This one is worth clicking on and making larger.

This is a sad foot.
Sadly walking on rocks that hurt it.

We passed by several campsites which were awful.
Low, in flood areas, not enough room for 3 tents.
We had to hike almost 12 miles but we found this awesome spot.
It was flat, was large enough for many tents, had really cool rocks everywhere and a spectacular view.

First things first, unload all of that freakin water.
We all knew we would need to carry more extra water tomorrow.
Tomorrow's hike would have water at mile 5 and then no more water until about 2 miles from the end of our hike.
That would be a day and a half with no water sources.
And we were supposed to go through the area with no shade.
Ugh.

Ha ha!  I'm glad Jody got this pic.
Me cleaning off a spot for my delicate tent.
The fabric is thin so I take extra care to make sure there are no pokey things.

Setting up camp.  This turned out to be a really nice campsite.
There were nice ones at mile 11.2 and 11.5 but not big enough for all of our tents.
This one was just right.

Time to eat.  Beef stroganoff.  One of my favorites.
Dave learned the value of "add boiling water" meals.
Cooking food in a pot and cleaning up sucks.

Filtering water for tomorrow's hike.
My stupid filter leaked.
It leaked all over and into my bottle.  I hope it is clean and not dirty water.
I am going to send this pic to the Sawyer company to see what they have to say about it.
I put duct tape around it which seemed to stop the leak for now.

Bear cord hung.
Good thing it is strong!
Dave and Jody had to add their pots and stove.
They got mac and cheese sauce all over them.
(add boiling water meals are awesome)

I shook these and they are not releasing clouds of pollen yet.
Almost but not yet.

A bee-you-tee-full campsite.
All tucked in for the night.
Only had to get up once and we had a spectacular night sky.
The Big Dipper seemed to almost touch the tree tops.
The stars were huge and brilliant like sparkling diamonds in the sky.
What a great way to start off this adventure.