Timing
Colorado had been hyped up and talked about for months. Going south on the CDT means you want to hit Colorado roughly at the beginning of September. That gives you about a month to get through it before the snow season starts in the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado around late September to early October. You really don’t want to be in there when it’s snowing.
Worth mentioning for anyone planning this: northbounders starting in New Mexico in April reach Colorado around mid-May when it’s still full of snow and end up doing a lot of road walking. Don’t go northbound. Go southbound on the CDT. SOBO beats NOBO.
We hit the first town in Colorado, Steamboat Springs, exactly on Labor Day weekend. Local festival, bluegrass music. We had to take part, naturally.
Rocky’s look at the beginning of the month
The beginning
Colorado wasn’t just great music, breweries and trail towns though. On the very first night cowboy camping my quilt froze. Below freezing in September. After that we hiked up to a hut at the top of a pass, got inside, made some coffee and warmed up. Those are the moments you actually remember.
Some random views
What follows are some views from northern Colorado. Not as grandiose as Wyoming but beautiful in its own way. Trail conditions were significantly better and it was the first time I slept in a bathroom at a trailhead.
In the morning a group of Amish people showed up. They were being driven around Rocky Mountain National Park and were genuinely shocked to hear that people choose to hike across the US. I was equally amazed by their lifestyle. Mutual respect all around.
Honestly, slept great, I was dry, it was warm (outside was raining at close to freezing temperature)
The gang
During Colorado we were running a bigger group than usual. People had found their pace and it happened to match others so we dynamically had around 10 people at any given time. Some days someone would be a day ahead or behind but that just meant never ending new experiences.
Three Moons is Japanese, speaks basic English, never argues, always has a smile and smokes Marlboro Red, even if it’s freezing and he is shivering
Ribbit loves reggae, has a collection of vinyls worth north of $100,000
We chose a route that connected four 4,000 meter peaks. Just going up and down on rocks looking for the route as a group. Pretty fun but there was a storm looming the whole time so we had to move fast. Intense experience either way because you’re basically climbing and descending 20% grade the whole time.
Loitering at the Safeway is mandatory in Colorado. They have tables outside so you just spread everything out, repackage your food and hit the deli section. I always go for chicken and a bunch of sides. I’d mention we’re thru hikers and ask if they could add a little extra. Usually worked.
Sleeping behind that Safeway is apparently also pretty popular amongst hikers. Some of the group did it. Not me. At some point the store manager came out to let us know there was a homeless person sleeping back there too and that we shouldn’t bother him because he was a regular. So yeah. We’re on the same level as the local homeless guy. Which is kind of fair honestly.
Grays and Torreys Peaks
We reached the highest point of the entire CDT. Grays and Torreys, both 14,000 feet peaks. There were a lot of day hikers on the way up and we passed pretty much all of them except one trail runner. When we caught up to him at the top he was so impressed by our fitness that he invited us to his home in Durango in southern Colorado. We couldn’t take him up on it because the CDT route diverges from the Colorado Trail but that was a major compliment.
You remember me mentioning that one guy, Three Moons, who smokes everywhere. Here we are at the top of Grays, people literally struggling to catch their breath at 14,000 feet, and he’s just standing there casually having a smoke. Like always. I respect that.
Being up high comes with its own challenges. Weather can change any time and that’s exactly what happened. We had to climb fast and get down even faster because a rain and snow storm was coming in. You do not want to be above tree line at 14,000 feet when there’s lightning around.
Going to Leadville for trail days
We heard there were trail days coming up in Leadville where hikers from nearby towns all converge. We wanted to make it there by actually hiking in rather than hitching. A few more days of 25 miles a day first and then Leadville.
Being in town meant finding the cheapest accommodation possible and squeezing in as many people as we could. Seven people in a four person room, beers, snacks, McDonald’s, whatever fast food was available. Just chill before heading back out.
Trail days in Leadville
Trail days are usually for northbounders but this year they organized one for southbounders too. It happened in Leadville, the highest city in the US at above 10,000 feet. Around 60-70 hikers and others showed up in total. A few talks, some brand sponsorships, people from the CDT organization. All the hikers stayed across two Airbnb houses which was a complete mess. People sleeping on the floor everywhere. That’s how it looked.
Apart from that local beers, dancing and chilling. Pretty nice when majority of the people in the bar are hikers.
Fall in Colorado
Colorado provided great scenery overall. Honestly I felt a little spoiled after Wyoming so it didn’t hit as hard as I expected. The CDT overlaps with the Colorado Trail for a big chunk but we didn’t meet as many new people as maybe I expected. But it was still beautiful, logistics were easy, the fall colors and aspens were amazing and the views were worth it.
The scenery was spectacular but I found it repetitive. Wyoming had these sharp ridges and steep mountains that genuinely shocked me. Nobody hyped Wyoming up so everything felt like a bonus. Colorado is the opposite. Everyone talks about it so much that when you’re getting an 8 out of 10 every day it just becomes the standard and that 8 starts feeling like a 6.
Snow in September
We thought being in Colorado in September meant we were done with snow. Not true. We got snowed on. We stayed low around 9,000 feet so it wasn’t too bad but people 500 feet higher got dumped on. I don’t even want to think about what it was like above 10,000 feet.
Phil and Gabe invited me into their three person tent for the night. Wet, cold and my sleeping pad was too big so we had to really squeeze in. They never invited me to sleep in their tent again. Dinners in the rain yes. Sleeping no. Lesson learned.
Morning mood after knowing half of your stuff is soaked and the forecast says cloudy
Frost City, USA, population – me, not cold but definitely far away from having a warm night of sleep
Bunch of moose aruond
Snow makes for great pictures obviously. Here are two photos. One of me taking a picture of Phil and one of Phil taking a picture of me. I’ll let you decide who needs to work on their photography skills.
San Juan Mountains
We finally reached southern Colorado and the San Juan Mountains. High altitude, dramatic peaks and genuinely amazing hiking.
In that section I ran into some guys I had hiked with on the PCT. Hiked together for a day and just caught up on life.
This was a longer food carry, four and a half to five days, so I ended up carrying over 20,000 calories. We were taking a lot of breaks, using every opportunity to stop and eat. Views were spectacular so we didn’t need much convincing. Still challenging though, as always.
Somebody might be peeing in the background there, who cares though
Me, in that morning dawn, happy
Beautiful morning, great views, feeling good. Got a little cocky. Was spinning my trekking pole in one hand and scrolling through podcasts with the other and then just slipped straight into a rock with my knee. Here’s the knee. You should have seen the rock though. It definitely got the worse end of that.
Back to the nice views to lighten up the mood
Just like that we were reaching New Mexico. Well, reaching the pass before town in New Mexico but still. Mexico was technically just a few miles away after getting back from town. There was trail magic at the pass, a cooler with drinks. A pretty great way to celebrate the last state.
Stats
Colorado Totals: Distance: 706 miles (1,136 km) Time: 33 days Elevation Gain: 139,463 ft (42,520 m)
Colorado Daily Averages: Distance: 21.39 miles (34.42 km) Elevation Gain: 4,226 ft (1,288 m)
Colorado Daily Averages (Active Days Only, 31): Distance: 22.77 miles (36.65 km) Elevation Gain: 4,499 ft (1,371 m)
Some extra info for the curious ones
For those who love extra details, here’s how the knee looked after absolutely destroying that rock.
To make things worse I fell on the exact same knee five or seven days later. Same spot. Still had the band-aid on which helped a little but it was still pretty bad.
The sun hoodie wasn’t holding up that well either. Four plus months of a backpack rubbing on it all day every day. Understandable.