I’m getting ready for a long walk in the woods. Preparation for about 5 weeks living out of a backpack is a lot more complicated than perhaps it should be. Some people can throw their gear in the pack and pick up food along the way, but I have a health issue that means I absolutely have to have gluten free food. Because the trail towns on this particular trail are so small, this means I have to have my food arrive on the trail every 5-7 days. Often the USPS follows through on that. This year Emily is going to help me out in three spots as well which is lucky for me because it means I’ll get a shower and clean clothes as well!
My gear remains pretty consistent. I will swap out a warmer sleeping bag after about a week as the elevation gains and by then I should have better trail legs. The Colorado Trail starts at about 5,000 feet at the edge of Denver, CO and goes almost 500 miles to Durango. The AVERAGE elevation of the trail is 10,000 feet and the higher you go the colder the nights get. I expect to find freezing temperatures before the end of August overnight. On this trip I will carry a lightweight single walled tent, my trusty ULA Circuit pack, the big 10 of safety, and some weaving and journaling supplies. Oh, and this time, I’m carrying a bear canister. The bears are getting far too used to people as this trail gets more and more popular and it is only fair to protect them by carrying that extra weight. It also makes a fairly nice food-prep station and sometimes a chair.
This poor loom. It sits in the middle of our living room because it is too large to go downstairs to my studio. It becomes a catch-all for things when it isn’t being woven on. Right now it is guarding the resupply food boxes for the hike. Three of those will be mailed, the rest I’ll either start with or Emily will deliver them.
I fussed a lot this year with gear. I swapped out a Tarptent for a Gossamer Gear tent saving myself a pound. I got a new water filter so I could carry less water weight and could more quickly fill up my reservoir without removing it from my pack. And I’m going to put my new-last-year ULA Circuit pack to a real test this summer. I think it is up to the workout it’ll get. Let’s hope my body is also.
I wrote a post this week about my fiber set-up. I’m looking forward to a fairly slow start (thanks to Emily being willing to add another resupply) and some time drawing and napping as I climb to the high country which starts before Breckinridge and stays high for the rest of the trail.
I’ve done a fair bit of training. I was going to start this hike three weeks later but as I’ve watching the rain that Colorado is still getting in spurts and find myself holding my breath on the wildfire threats and smaller fires around the state, I realized that the only thing holding me back from starting earlier was training. So I’ll start slow and find my trail legs on the way. May the fires hold off or if we’re lucky, not materialize in the way they did last year at all. (It would be very very lucky if that happened.)
I took this photo for my ultra running friend Muck. His shoe collection is VASTLY superior to mine. I realized later I actually have two more pairs of Brooks Cascadias (obviously the crocks and Keens are not going hiking with me). Hiking shoes. Always a struggle. I’m lucky to have excellent hiking feet. I don’t have weird toes or bunions nor do I really even get blisters of any note. But Brooks has changed these shoes and I’m not happy about it. The #13s top left in blue are my favorite and they will not make it 500 miles. So I’m trying to narrow down which of the other newer shoes will be my second pair. My bets are on the largest gray ones as feet tend to swell and going up a 1/2 size is probably wise by the second week.
Shoe collection… Hike on!
One new piece of gear is a watch with an alarm. One of the biggest advantages of running my own business (besides being able to go hiking in the summer!) is waking up without an alarm. But it looks like I’m walking into a strong afternoon thunderstorm weather pattern and that means I have to get up with the sun. Ten before ten as they say (ten miles in before 10am) means that I can get 16 miles in before the afternoon showers hit if I’m lucky. Some days I will be, some days I won’t. High mountain passes and long stretches above treeline where lightening danger is high have to be carefully considered along with those dry stretches with little water (ironically, these can be the same sections). And the best approach is to hike early. So, I am the owner of this little digital watch. Now to learn how to set the alarm.
The slogan on the edge of my Gossamer Gear The One tent says it all. Let’s go for a long ramble, shall we?
“Take Less. Do More.”
I’ve taken the advice of one of my physical therapy friends and have trained and trained. I’ve also done a lot of work strengthening my glutes because that is the key to not having IT band problems. I hope it works! I’ve also trained a lot in the heat because the first day on the trail it will be 97 degrees in Denver. I do not like high heat, but I’ve gotten used to it and realized that my body does a great job of sweating to cool me down. The first 6 miles in that heat are along a river, so I can drink as much as I want and before long I’ll be wishing it was 97 degrees because once I get above 9,000 feet a few days in, it’ll never be anywhere near that hot again and that puffy jacket will be used a lot.
I have done a few training hikes on the actual trail. And on a short trip to visit some friends I used to work with, I stopped at the resupply spot in Twin Lakes and had a look at Hope Pass. I’m pointing to it in the photo below. I’ve not done the Collegiate West route of the Colorado Trail before so I’m looking forward to seeing this beautiful high-altitude section of trail from Twin Lakes to Monarch Crest. It is super high and rarely dips below treeline, so my fingers are crossed that the monsoon thunderstorms have passed by the time I get there. The two things I’m the most wary about on the trail are #1 Lightening and #2 Surprising a bear. The third is Idiot humans (fortunately most thru-hikers are just stellar people). I can be cautious and smart about #1 and #2 and be quite safe, but #3 is a tough one so I don’t camp at trailheads and I am not as trusting as I would be at home.
Hope Pass. Because you hope you’ll make it to the top. One of the steepest and longest climbs on the trail, this is a section of the Colorado Trail I have not done yet. This is the year!
Have a great summer! I’ll be hiking. You can follow me on Instagram.