Every year my friend Ann & I and her dog Mattie hike a segment or two of the Colorado Trail. This year we signed up for a supported hike for the hardest segments of the trail (in the Durango area). The Colorado Trail Foundation offers them and Chris & Jeanne are the brains/leaders. What an awesome find! We hope to do another of their week long supported treks next year.
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| me and Ann getting started |
We began on Segment 21 north of Durango and finished with Segment 24. (There are 28 segments, about 560 miles, starting in Waterton Canyon near Denver and ending in Durango).
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| One of our campsites |
Distances were long, mostly above 12,000 feet, food and support were great. Loved it! The segments were generally very difficult but the views were unbelievable. The last day it rained on us for hours and got scary cold. Another day it rained for a couple hours. It would have been very difficult to do these 4 segments carrying a 20+ pound backpack.
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| a stretch of trail |
Before our organized hike:
Ann and I did Segment 14 earlier in the summer and planned badly. We started out going the wrong direction because of a dumb mistake, and it was crazy hot. Mattie didn't handle the heat well and we didn't either. We had planned to go on past the Chalk Cliffs to do Segment 13, ending near Buena Vista. We bailed out and called Scott who drove a long way to save us. He's awesomesauce! We camped that night, exhausted from distance and heat, and will do 13 another day.
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| Scott brought good food, cold water, and relief from our ill-fated plan. |
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| The dinner tent and cook tent. They made great food and lots of it! |
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| This moss was so beautiful...growing in the snow melt at about 11,000' |
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| The most spectacular view of the entire trail. The picture doesn't do it justice. Amazing with blue skies. |
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| Camping at 12,500'. So cold but beautiful. |
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| Hoo doos on the trail |
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