Blog

After a couple zero days for me and some altitude acclamation days for Dennis we hit the trail at 6:45 in the morning.  Thanks again to Cherie and Becky for the ride!

An early start was needed.  We did not really know how fast we were going to go and did not want to be on the Waterton Canyon road in the heat of the day.

Made real good time the first six miles, it’s an almost flat gravel road, then stopped by the dam to rest and fill up water for a long dry stretch.

Hiked another couple miles, mostly up, to Lennys Rest for a well deserved break and lunch.  After that, a mile to camp at Bear Creek.

Camping at Bear creek this time of year is a bit of an issue, it’s dry. We carried 6 liters from the dam and were hoping that would be enough for the evening and all the miles until the next water source in the morning. We were sitting in camp, trying not drink anything when an older mountain biker stopped for a rest and snack. He asked us how we were for water and we told him it was a little tight. He then told us the secret, there is a social trail going north west along Bear Creek to an arm of the Strontia Springs Reservoir. About a 10 minute walk. I booked it down there to grab some water. On the way I noticed some fresh bear scat, oh great! Anyway, was able to get a bunch of water and return to camp. Another crises averted!

Remaining hours of the evening, same ole same ole. Camp setup, dinner. One thing that was different was the temperature. Warm, almost hot, did not expect this, all my clothing is for alpine summer temps. It was going to be a warm night.