OK, so finally getting back to the trip report…
The plan for the weekend was to hike both sections 2 and 3 of the Colorado Trail, a bit of scouting for my CTR attempt this summer. It didn't quite work out that way, but it still was a great weekend and trip.
As opposed to thru-hiking both sections, our plan was to shuttle each section. Day 1 we would hike Section 2, then setup our shuttle again for Section 3 on Day 2. That's how it went, the first day…
We setup a car at the beginning of Section 2 (we would be hiking this section backwards), at the trail head along the Platte River (north of Deckers). We then drove around to the end of the section to begin our hike. Given how little snow we've been having along the Front Range, and how little snow I experienced up above Hoosier Pass, at nearly 12,000 feet, the weekend prior, we figured snow wasn't going to be much of a concern. As such we didn't bother with snowshoes, but simply strapped our YakTrax to our hiking boots and set off. This would prove to be a mistake.
Now, there wasn't snow for the entire trail; there were certainly plenty of sections of easy, dry hiking. That said, there was a LOT more snow than we thought there would be, and we did end up post-holing through miles and miles of the white stuff. It wore our calves out pretty good by the end. Also, not far into this hike is when I found out that my hiking boots that I had just bought this last year most definitely were NOT waterproof as claimed. My feet got soaked very early on, and I probably hiked about 75% of the hike (which was 11.8 miles total) with wet feet. Boy, was I happy to get those puppies off when we got back to the car.
Aside from the extra snow/work we encountered, though, the hike itself was awesome. We couldn't have asked for a better day weather-wise (I was almost too warm in just my t-shirt and fleece top), and we didn't encounter another soul out there. As you can see from the picture above, much of the hike was through the Hayman burn area. Despite the acres and acres of land barren of live trees, though, it was still amazingly beautiful, and it allowed us to see for miles. And when we did get into forested areas, it made it that much sweeter. Even though we were out there on the trail for like 5 hours, the time almost seemed to fly by, as we were just enjoying ourselves so much.
After we reached the end, and I promptly ditched my wet socks and boots*, we drove my car back to where we started to fetch Mark's car. We decided to go ahead and drive to the end of Section 3, camp there, and would then drive back to the beginning in the morning to start our hike.
It was well after dark when we reached the parking area at the end of Section 3, and the weather was starting to turn a bit, too. The temperature was dropping fast, and the wind was picking up. Luckily, our plan was to sleep in Mark's Suburban (those giant things come in handy sometimes), so we didn't have to worry about setting up a tent or listening to the wind whip at a tent all night. As we retired for the evening later on, it had begun to snow. We weren't sure what awaited us in the morning…
In the morning we awoke to fresh snow cover on the ground, cold, whipping winds, and gray skies that didn't promise much better. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse as we sat there eating breakfast. Also, based on all the snow we had to drive through on the forest service roads the night prior, we figured we'd be hiking through a lot more snow than we did the previous day. That was fine for me, as I could just strap on my snowshoes, but Mark hadn't even brought his along, and he really wasn't looking forward to another 12 miles of post-holing. As such, we decided to just call it, that we'd come back for Section 3 some other weekend.
As we drove our respective vehicles back up out of the valley, though, I noticed that as I looked away from the road on to the hillsides, there wasn't really much snow at all. In fact, whenever we passed a trail crossing and I looked at the trail itself, it seemed pretty well packed down. I think because of all the campsites in this area (we passed several roadside campsites as drove down the previous night, with a handful of them even being used – the Buffalo Creek area is popular even in Winter), the trails get used enough that snow gets packed down pretty good. Also, as we climbed higher out of the valley, the clouds broke and it was sunny again!
We stopped in at the trail head area at the other end of the trail, as I had to use the facilities anyway, and we discussed the situation. At this point it was sunny, had warmed up, and the wind was virtually gone. Now we felt like wusses. It would take too much time to re-establish our shuttles for the full hike, though, as did want to be back to our families at a decent time that afternoon. We decided to just do an out-and-back hike on the trail for a ways. We didn't go far, only about 1.5 miles in. Whereas snow wasn't a problem because it was packed down, the problem we did have was ice. This was a problem because I couldn't wear my YakTrax on this day. Because my regular hiking boots got soaked the day before, and were still wet that morning, I had to wear my heavier-duty snow boots, and my YakTrax won't fit around those (I've since bought a larger YakTrax equivalent for these boots). I figured what the hell, and we'd just go anyway, but as the ice got worse, so did my slippage. Also, Mark's legs were still a bit sore from the previous day's effort, so we decided to just call it short. We still got about 3 miles of a nice morning hike along the Colorado Trail that day, though, so can hardly complain. We're planning to go back some other Saturday and just hike that section as a day trip.
So we had one day of a solid, long hike with an effort we could be proud of, followed by a day where we were kind of girly men. Oh well, so it goes. It was great weekend in the Colorado outdoors, nevertheless, so no complaints at all. And since we were getting out a bit early on Sunday, that gave us time to stop in for a tasty breakfast burrito (albeit for lunch) at the Hungry Bear in Woodland Park. Mmmm…. :)
You can see more pictures from my trip in my Picasa album, linked below. I didn't take a lot of outstanding pictures, but there were a few good ones, and it gives you a feel for the landscape were hiking through.
* Regarding the wet boots… As these things were supposed to be waterproof and never have been, I brought them back to REI. Being that it had been like 8 months since I bought them and had hiked extensively in them, I wasn't necessarily expecting much. However, they actually let me exchange them for a brand-new pair! I got a different brand/model this time, so hopefully these work out better. Anyway, you gotta love that customer service. Way to go, REI!
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 10:43PM 
