Tumbleweed

Greetings from Salida, CO! We seem to keep coming back here as it's one of our favorite spots in Colorado. It's a small mountain town along the Arkansas River with a cute little downtown with lots of great shops and restaurants. There's even municipal hot springs which we took advantage of last time we came through. Plus there's ample boondocking opportunities right outside of town which is a big plus for us! I've now completed 230 miles of the Colorado Trail (CT) from Durango to Monarch Pass. It's taken me 11 days so I'm averaging just over 20 miles per day. For the last few sections, Ginny has supported me at road crossings which have been every fifty miles or so. It's been great to have the support as I don't have to carry as much food and don't have to hitchhike into nearby towns to resupply as other through hikers do. The hiking has been really nice for the most part - lots of high alpine scenery, lush meadows with wildflowers and tons of ri...

Our Colorado adventure has truly begun now! Last week when Ginny and I were driving from Ouray to Silverton in the rain on the Million Dollar Highway , a moose came out of the woods right in front of us on an uphill stretch of the road. It then slipped on the wet road and fell right on its backside! Fortunately we were driving pretty slowly and were able to stop before hitting the moose. The moose shamefully picked himself up off the road and booked it into the woods from which he came. We unfortunately didn't get a photo or video but will have that image of the moose wiping out on the road in our minds forever!   Since my last post, I hiked the first segment of the Colorado Trail (CT) from Silverton to Durango. The scenery was absolutely stunning with all sorts of wildflowers dotting the mountain slopes. It was a 74 mile section and I hiked it in three days. I intended to do it in four days but my last planned campsite was occupied by some other through hikers so I ended up j...

Our second week in Colorado is in the books. It actually feels like we've been here much longer as we've seen so much already. It really is an incredible state and seems to amaze us every day with its beauty, mountain scenery and incredible boondocking opportunities.    We started the week in Colorado Springs (known by the locals as the Springs) with a couple days out of the van at an AirBnB. The Springs is a great little city with incredible views of Pikes Peak from almost anywhere in the city and an extensive trail network that's great for walking, running or biking around town. It also has what has to be the most amazing city park in country (Garden of the Gods) with these unreal red rocks in every shape you can imagine (see photos below). We were mostly there to check on our rental properties and were a little nervous about that considering two of the properties we had never seen in real life. Fortunately, our property visit well exceeded our expectations. All of our ...