Summer of Colorado, Week #3

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 just powering through for the last ten miles to meet Ginny in Durango. I met some great folks on the trail including trail stewards who maintain and improve sections of the trail. I also received my first 'trail magic' from a 'trail angel' which was a very tasty peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Aside from some overnight trips that I did with Scout, it's my first solo backpacking experience. While I would prefer to have company, it's still so much fun to be out on the trail and I'm able to go my own pace which seems to be about 20+ miles per day. If I'm able to maintain that pace, I'll finish the entire CT (480 miles) in about 24 days which is pretty speedy. I will hit the trail again on Monday and am planning to take eight days to get from Silverton to Monarch Pass. Then Ginny is going to join me and we'll backpack the Collegiate Loop together which is a 160 mile stretch of trail through the beautiful Sawatch Range. See photos below (look closely at bottom photo to see who's lurking in the forest) from last week's hike on the CT and stay tuned for more updates from all of these hiking escapades!   








I've spent the past four days running (well actually, we walked more than we ran) the Hardrock 100 Mile course with my friend Richie. Doing this route self supported separate from the actual race is known as Softrock. We did it the week before the actual race which is going on right now which made it easier to follow the course as it was marked with course markings. We still managed to get lost a few times but never wandered too far off course. It was absolutely stunning scenery and probably one of the hardest things that I've ever done! We climbed more than 33,000 feet of elevation and the event organizers go out of their way to find the roughest route through the mountains to live up to their 'Wild and Tough' motto. For example, instead of taking more established trails up mountain passes, they often route the course up game trails or simply cross country routes to provide a truly rugged mountain experience. A huge thanks to Ginny for providing us with a resupply in Ouray which was sorely needed! I don't have any photos yet but Richie and I will write a full blog post on our Softrock experience later this summer.  

And now for a guest post from Ginny:

I am not much of a blogger but I thought I’d pop on and share a bit about my solo travels when Sam is in the backcountry. Admittedly, I was pretty nervous about it at first. Not the part about being alone, as I have no problem being independent. It was more about driving that big beast of a van down rough, narrow dirt roads and finding non-sketchy places to camp. By the second day, after taking Gemma up a long windy, dirt road (popular with the ATVs) above Purgatory Ski Resort I felt like I got the hang of it. In fact, I took Sam back there for a couple nights.


I’ve fallen in to a pretty basic routine of a long, morning walk, reading and watching downloaded Apple TV shows (running out of good shows!). And sometimes an evening walk. Pretty simple living. Usually I have zero cell service. Shout out to Nancy for recommending “American Dirt.”


Below are some photos from an amazing day hike I did while Sam and Richie were out running the Hardrock 100 course. I was up before 6am so I decided to get going, which I am very thankful for, as after passing two groups in the first 10 minutes, I didn’t see another soul until I got to the lake where a couple were camping. The wildflowers were popping and there was so much variety with the hike. It was by no means an easy stroll as it went from 9850’ to 12257’ (apparently about 2x the height of the Empire State Building) in 3.79 miles. The last bit was a struggle. When I started heading down, the next day hiker was just arriving. From then on, I passed 96 hikers, eight trail runners and six dogs. The take away here: Start early and nap later.


Also, a sweaty, post-hike selfie (to prove I'm still alive) and a photo of a bold deer who hung out at our camp for quite a while. We had a number of stare downs but, for the most part, it seemed pretty comfortable with me. Deer whisperer…


I’ve got many more solo days in the coming weeks. I’ll report back if anything out of the ordinary happens.













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