Colorado Trail Plans

After an aborted attempt last year generally due to inexperience in thru-hiking, my son and I are going to try the Colorado Trail again. We are planning to do 3 weeks or about 160 miles together. Then I'm going to turn him loose to see how far he gets. For now he is just planning the next 90 miles solo, but if he wants to go the whole distance, he can.

For now our departure date is Jul 14th. Maybe later depending on the snow.

Gershon:

What sections do you plan to do in those 3 weeks? He'll continue on to ?? I'm in D, anyway I can help you, let me know.

I stopped by the CTF offices in Golden yesterday and met the super-nice guy (Bill Manning) that heads up admin there. In talking, I realized how important an updated book and map are, since they are constantly improving the trail. Three weeks! I'm jealous.

Plus there were some great entries on this forum by longtime-forum-contributor Bearpaw, who probably did the entire trail 6 or so years ago. Might be in the archives and definitely worth looking at.

We are planning to go to about Twin Lakes. My son will go on through segment 14 if he wants which about 90 more miles. I'll be surprised if he wants to go on after that. If he does, I can meet him along the way for resupply.

Thanks for the offer of help. We live in Pueblo, so we are doing fine for transportation issues.

Last year we had people planning to meet us for each resupply. We got off schedule right in the beginning because our tent started leaking and we had to go get a new one. That started to make coordination a mess.

This year, I decided to just walk to town for resupply except for the end of segment 9. We are planning to stay in the Leadville Hostel. They have a shuttle and there is phone service about 90 minutes before the end of segment 9. There is also spotty service at the trailhead.

Deciding to walk to town made planning a lot easier. It's usually less than 4 miles if you take the early resupply in Buffalo Creek after about 27 miles. Then everything falls easily into place. Jefferson is about 4 miles. Breckenridge has a free bus at the trailhead. Copper Mountain is a couple miles. Twin Lakes is about 2 miles. After that, I'll be able to meet my son at Buena Vista and Salida.

We have all our gear except for two one man tents. Someone offered to give us a couple really good DIY tents, so we are good there.

Mentally, we are in a much better place this year. We did a lot of backpacking last year, so we know what to expect. We both find living on the trail is easier than living at home.

Best of luck; that's some pretty nice trail, at least the bits that I've seen. Doing it with your son sounds like a great approach.

I think that walking or hitching into town is a good decision too; unless you were lucky enough to have truly dedicated support people, coordination is such a pain. I didn't know there was a shuttle into Leadville; I didn't find that to be too hard to hitchhike to or from (about 9 miles off trail at Tennessee pass). I didn't go off trail to see the Mountain division training area in there; don't know if it's worth doing or not.

Twin lakes: do you plan to walk the road or short-cut there? I got a bit wet doing the shortcut (south of Twin lakes), but it worked out not too bad. On the off chance you don't already know, the cafe is no longer in operation but the little store is now stocking a bit more food to compensate.

Have a great time out there!

Brian,

Thanks for the info. If you stay the night at the Leadville Inn, they provide a free shuttle. It's also a better place for a mail drop (even if you don't stay there) than the post office. You can get a shuttle from the beginning of 9 all the way to Twin Lakes. Take your pick of trailheads. We are planning from the end of segment 9. I think the end of segment 9 will be our only day staying in town.

We will do a mail drop at Twin Lakes. Our food isn't that expensive, so if we lose it, it's no big deal. We will probably spend a day at Twin Lakes. That's where I get off the trail, so it's likely there will be a car there at some point.

I didn't go to see the Mountain Division training area either. But we did get a picture in the bench swing there.