Day 163 (Colorado Trail 1)

Day 163 (Colorado Trail 1): 3 miles

I covered a lot of miles today, just not in the trail. After I finished the PNT, I recovered for a few days with the amazing Grieve family in Seattle before flying out late last night. I arrived in Denver shortly after midnight. I whipped out my sleeping pad and slept at the airport like a champ. All these other fools were just laying around on the ground, but I was prepared.

I’m hiking the Colorado trail northbound (starting in Durango), so logistically it would’ve been much easier to fly right into Durango to start. However, when I was looking for flights, Seattle to Durango was going for $1,300 so I’d rather ride a bus all day and save money, which I did. I got up a little after 5am to get to Union Station and then was on buses all day until after 7pm. For not hiking, it was a pretty tiring day. But in the bright side, I got to steam some college football. I’ve been pretty lucky I’ve caught the first 2 OSU games.

When I arrived in Durango, I grabbed some McDonald’s, failed at obtaining some peanut butter, and got to the trailhead around 8:30 with the help of a wonderful trail angel named Cindy.

Almost every time I’ve started a trail, I’ve gotten to the trailhead at late in the day, but this has to be my latest. I thought about just sleeping in the panting lot. I felt physically tired from uncomfortably riding on buses all day after 4 hours of sleep, but I didn’t feel sleepily tired. I was kinda in that wired mode when you don’t sleep much. So I did a few miles into the trail to tire myself out a little more. I’ve got a strong feeling I’ll be sleeping in tomorrow.

It was a pleasant welcome for the first few miles. The trail was so gentle and well maintained. I remember the shock I had last year stepping on the overlap of the Colorado trail with the CDT and being amazed at the quality. It’s much the same now coming from the PNT to the Colorado trail.

For anyone they cares, I’m hiking the CT Nobo to try to get through the higher mountains first to be through them before heavy snow falls. I hiked Colorado in September last year and felt like the timing couldn’t have better

Let’s ride