Same Apple, New Trail! The Colorado Trail Download
Hi!! I said I’d be back for another long trail in the future, and now I am delivering. Next up: the Colorado Trail. I am heading off in less than a week, so no time like the present to offer some details.
What is the Colorado Trail?
The CT is a 485-mile hiking and bike-packing trail that runs from Denver to Durango. It is a popular trail to hike in sections, because the Colorado Trail Foundation has distinguished 28 segments, each of which starts and ends at a (relatively) accessible trailhead, but I’ll be hiking straight through! The CT travels through some amazing areas of Colorado that I particularly love, like the Collegiate Peaks area and Summit County, and others that I, even as a native, have yet to experience, like the San Juan range. A significant portion of the trail sits above 10,000 feet with a high point over 13,000 feet, and passes near several 14ers.
Why I’m hiking the CT
I’ll be totally honest—after I finished the AT last July I was ready for a hiking break. The four straight months of hiking, culminating with raw and wounded feet in the 100-mile wilderness in Maine left me feeling pretty okay with the prospect of a full-time job and a slightly more sedentary lifestyle. But the AT was such an incredible experience, I couldn’t reasonably expect my neutrality toward hiking to last long. By the time winter rolled around I was ready to be thruhiking again–I was looking back wistfully at AT pictures, looking for excuses to tell hiking stories, and reading up on other long trails.
At the same time, I was taking steps toward my career development by applying to law school. When I was accepted in December I saw a window: I figured that once I started school my time would be pretty much spoken for for at least the next couple of years, but I would have a bit of flexibility before moving to D.C. to start 1L. I arranged for my last day at work to be in late June so that I could have all of July and, if needed, part of August to be out hiking. That was the perfect length of time for a nearly 500-mile trail such as the CT.
But I chose the CT for more than just convenience: it is going to be the perfect cap to top off my year spent living back in my home state. For all the hiking and backpacking that I have done, honestly not that much has been in Colorado. Sure, I have hiked some 14ers and 13ers, visited the state’s national parks, and pounded the dirt of the trails around Boulder many times, but I’m no Colorado mountain savant. I cherish New Hampshire’s White Mountains so much and feel so at home there. I love having such familiarity with New England’s rugged terrain. However, I do wish that I had more of a connection with the mountains where I grew up, especially given that they are so widely revered. So I hope that hiking the CT will bring me more familiarity and comfort with the mountains of the state that is so connected to my identity.
My Plans
I’ll be setting out from Waterton Canyon outside of Denver on July 6th and heading SOBO* (which feels weird–my NOBO** identity on the AT was strong and I made enough SOBO jokes to make calling myself a SOBO feel a little bit wrong). I’m guessing that the trail will take about 4 weeks, landing me in Durango somewhere around August 4th.
Unlike the AT, I’m not hiking this one alone! I will be hiking the entirety of the trail with Welcome, one of my AT tramily members. Welcome’s fiancee Committee, another tramily member, will be hiking the first 104 miles of the trail with us, and he will be semi-supporting us and hiking sections with us for the remainder of the trail. This is partly to allow us to hike the trail in a COVID-safe manner, as I talk about more below. Blackbeard, too, will be joining us for the first 104 miles, a particularly special treat for me! I am so excited to have almost all of the tramily reunited (we’ll miss you, Brick!) and backpacking together a year after we finished our AT hikes. And more friends will come later–my roommate Erin will be joining Welcome and I for the last approximately 10 days of our hike! She’s already hiked the first half of the CT, so she’ll hop on with us to finish what she has left.
* SOBO = southbound hiker
** NOBO = northbound hiker
Acknowledging COVID-19
There has been some controversy in the thruhiking community about hiking long trails in the midst of the pandemic. When COVID-19 broke out in mid-March, the governing bodies for the three Triple Crown Trails (the ATC, the PCTA, and the CTDC) issued statements dissuading hikers from starting their thruhikes and requesting that hikers who had already started get off trail. The primary concern with thruhiking is the possibility of spreading the virus to small trail towns, which do not have the infrastructure and access to medical equipment like ventilators to support an outbreak. Having hiked last year and benefitted from the generosity of the people living in these small towns, I would never want to endanger them. Therefore, when COVID broke out I decided I would pay attention to all advisories and only hike if it could be done safely.
Luckily, as states have been slowly relaxing and reopening, so have the trails. As of now, the AT will be totally open as of July 1st and the ATC will likely recommend thruhikes can resume soon, and parts of the PCT are open and accepting long distance permits. Most importantly, the Colorado Trail Foundation, the organization in charge of the CT, has published guidance on their blog that supports thru hikes so long as they are done responsibly. It should be acknowledged that COVID has been particularly challenging for the small trail towns that I mentioned above, because while the virus provides a more potent danger, these towns’ economies are often largely supported by hikers. This makes not allowing thruhikes economically detrimental.
Given the reopenings and the favorable guidance, I feel confident about hiking the trail, but I’ll be doing so with some modifications to keep myself and others healthy. First, I will of course be carrying a mask. I’ll hike with a buff around my neck, which I can use as a face covering if I pass other hikers along the trail. I’ll also bring a traditional cloth or N95 mask to wear whenever I am in town. Second, I will be conscious of my campsites, making sure that I provide extra distance between myself and other hikers not in my trail family. Third, having Committee supporting Welcome and I by meeting us at trailheads with food resupplies and driving us into town will allow me to support local economies in a safe way. I’ll still be able to rent motel rooms so that I can shower and take days off, but I would have to hitchhike into town or spend excessive time in public places buying lots of food and charging my devices. I feel so grateful to Committee for volunteering to this grunt work to make this hike possible for Welcome and I.
If you have any questions or concerns about my COVID-modified plans, please send me a message or drop a comment–I definitely want to to do this in the safest way possible!
Look out for more CT content coming your way soon!