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Yep, it’s getting real. In a week I begin my Colorado Trail adventure. I’ve never done anything like this before. Plenty of car camping and bicycle camping, but never for more than a week. As for backpacking, the longest I’ve been out is two nights.

This is something that has been popping in and out of my mind for over twenty years. The seed was firmly planted when my Dad handed me the book, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Never really thought it would happen. Family, work, health, all the stuff that life is made of made me think it would never be possible. Well, here I am with 110% support from family and friends I start this great adventure in a week. Woooohoooo!!!

The Colorado Trail is broken up into 28 segments of various lengths. Segment 1 begins at Waterton Canyon just southwest of Denver and ends in segment 28 by Durango. Somewhere near 500 miles and 6 weeks of hiking. No, I’m not just wandering into the mountains by Denver and popping out in Durango. Every 5 or 6 days I’ll be stopping somewhere to resupply, shower, do laundry, and sleep in a real bed. The first couple weeks I’ll actually be coming back home for resupply, more on that later. After a few resupplies at home I’ll be off and not back for a month. I plan on hitting Twin Lakes, Monarch Mountain Lodge, Creede, and Silverton for resupply and rest days. That is the plan but we all know how plans go….

Other than Trail Mix for a week and maybe my son, Justin for a week, I’ll be alone on this trip. However, I will have two companions for the entire trip. Real quiet types, not much for conversation. Meet Oliver (the frog) and Princess Emily (the owl). They were given to me by my Granddaughters to keep me company on my journey. You’ll be seeing a lot of them in my pictures along the trail.

So, the first few weeks are not straight forward but I’ll explain as best I can. On August 2nd Cherie will drop me off at the beginning of Segment 4 and I’ll hike segments 4, 5, and 6. These segments are where we really start getting into some altitude. Can’t wait! At the end of Segment 6, which is near Breckenridge, Cherie will pick me up for a resupply and rest at home. We will also pick up my hiking partner for the next week. Brother in-law Dennis (a.k.a. Trail Mix). He is flying out from Wisconsin to join me. After a few days of altitude acclimation and brewery hopping we will hike segments 1, 2, and 3. The reason for the flip-flop is altitude, Trail Mix is coming from 750ft where he lives, to my place at 6300ft. Altitude sickness is a concern, segments 1, 2, and 3 are some of the lowest altitude segments on the trail and with the limited time to acclimate we thought it would be the best choice. We’ll still get up to near 9000 feet eventually but slow and steady will be the name of the game. After a week, Cherie will pick us up, we’ll get Trail Mix headed back to Wisconsin, and Cherie will drop me off at the start of segment 7. I will not be back home for a month.

The plan is to update this blog as much as possible, basically when I have a phone signal on the trail and in towns. If you want an email alert when I add anything to the blog just but your email in the box on the right and hit Subscribe. You can also make comments in the comment area on the bottom of each page. One last bit, if you’d like to see where I am, there is a link to my Garmin map, on the right ,under “Follow me here”.

That’s it wish me luck!