Day 4

Monday, July 7

We camped along Tramway creek  last night at 7,700 ft elevation and about 33.4 miles from Denver. 

Cooked a delicious scrambled egg breakfast and filled our water in the stream for the day ahead. 

We've been using a katadyn water filter and it's been working great! The water is soo clear, fresh, and pure! 

The happiest dishwasher in the world.

The trail today was another gorgeous day of awestruck beauty. 

As we were traversing up our hill climb for the day, we intersected with a friendly mountain biker named Nathan. He expressed his awesome Colorado hospitality by inviting us to his nearby cabin for some breakfast. We must've looked hungry. We graciously declined and continued on our way. 

'Biker Nathan' and Zippy 

Several minutes later up the trail, we saw two day hikers trekking up the hill like a steam engine heading straight toward us. We quickly moved out of the way and to our surprise, we met a transformer! Biker Nathan turned into "Hiker Nathan" and brought along his sidekick nephew from California "Alex". And out of their pockets like a magician pulling a bunny out of his hat, they presented 4 clif bars! Those were prized items and so welcomed!! They hiked with us for the next mile or two with great hiker conversations and then we parted ways and continued on! Thank you Nathan and Alex for being trail  angels!! 

Five miles thru a winding trail of forests and streams, we enjoyed our solitude. 

Then, we approached a dirt road in which the trail continued across the road and there under a tree was another fellow  CT hiker. We named him "Road Warrior". He was quite entertaining with his little hiker buddy "Ace". 

We became quick friends as we were both waiting for our prearranged rides. Ours was arranged to take us to the little town of Bailey to retrieve our first resupply box, but our ride never showed up and the thunder storms started coming instead. So, we decided to start hiking in the direction of town..

Two miles later with 8 more to go, a great white angelic truck with a halo on it appeared. Or so it looked that way in our eyes. We were offered to go to the post office!

What a great guy! Thank you for the ride! 

Our box arrived safe and sound. We were so happy!

Now, onto the next task to find a place to stay for the night. Easy right? Haha....no. 

So, we thought the general store might have more information. 

There was definitely a halo on the "Bailey Country Store" as well. In discussing our dilemma of where to stay and what to do, a local, very nice couple offered us a place to stay for the night!!! Of course we said yes! They told us to load up our packs in the car and just a hundred yards away, there was a funky, roadside diner called "Cutthroat Cafe". It was recommended to us by our new biker/hiker friend Nathan. It was perfect and we ordered four homemade cinnamon rolls to go! They were so good! 

Mmmmm...best tasting veggie burger ever!

Day 3

Woke up to the mountain sun beaming five feet from our tent. Does this mean its going to be a hot day? Most definitely. Check out the umbrella. Life saver.

So after six miles of trudging thru the Colorado desert, we made it to a volunteer fire station to rehydrate our shriveled up lizard heads. We must've drank half of a water tanks worth of water! Not really, but it felt like it. 

And then this is what happened. 

Our destination was to hike approximately 12 miles today. Guess what? We hiked another 9 hours today and it was more than 12. It was 14. And why? Because there was NO WATER at the proposed " streams". Thanks sun!  But here are some photos of the day...

Finally, we reached a magical oasis of trickling water. It was a Barbie-sized creek that was about an inch and a half deep. We could barely submerge our pinky toes. But, it was still amazing. 

Even more amazing, a campsite all to ourselves under the tundra of pine trees! We could barely  put our tent up, our bodies were worked. Took a power nap only to be woken up by huge droplets of rain splashing into our tent. Pippy came to the rescue while Zippy barked orders like she was incapable of helping.

Last but not least, our trail buddies sent important messages home on our satellite phone. 

Time for bed at 8,000 ft elevation. Don't attempt jumping jacks up here, just saying. 

Day 2

Bear Creek to "middle of the woods" -12 long, brutal miles later. 

Rise and shine campers! Our warm cocoons were almost like superglue--- quite hard to leave!  We had our breakfast with our trail mates...

From left to right: " Yellow Bird" and "Totoro" (Japanese mystical cat creature)

Despite their differences, they get along quite well. Because caring is sharing. 

They're great company. Quiet, obedient, always happy, make us smile, and don't eat much. Actually they don't eat anything at all. They're not real you know. They're made in China and are stuffed with fake fur. But we love them. 

Alright, let's get serious. I mean we have 489 miles to go. So off we go...

We traversed up and down mountains ALL DAY for 8 miles and 6 hours up to 7500 ft elevation. We thought we were hallucinating when we saw the river. It was marvelous! We arrived at La Platte river at 2:45 in the blistering afternoon heat!!!! At the beginning of the bridge to continue on the CT, Pippy spied a trail angel styrofoam cooler of goodies with a note on top. 

Thank you Tom J! You made our day! And happy birthday to you! 

Then came the glorious river moment. 

All we could say was "ahhhhhhhhh"

And then this is what happened next. 

We are forcing a smile with our bonnets on to protect us from the 98 degree intense 7500 ft elevation sun!!!! Why??? Because we were hiking in a burnt area with no trees!!! Oh yeah, we forgot to mention we had to carry 50 pounds of water to survive for the night since we had camp in the middle of nowhere tonight. But....everything is awesome!!! 

Even when we had to shelter ourselves from the sun with our solar umbrellas. You can't buy this adventure! 

Finally made it to camp and this is our view now. 9 hours later... Yup that's right, 9 hours later. And no blisters! 

Goodnight. 12 miles tomorrow. Peace out 

Day 1

Waterton Canyon to Bear Creek - 8.7 miles today. 7 AM dropped off by "Trail Angel" Mychele and began hiking the CT. The canyon is a long and hot gravel road that we were frequented by whizzing mountain bike riders. Here's some comments that they asked us along the way:

"Are you hiking for the weekend?"

"Nice parasol!" - in response to Zippy's umbrella 

"On your LEFT!!!" - 5 year old biker 

"Drink 24 oz of water each hour at this elevation" - Mr. EMT man 

Finally left civilization and headed into Winnie the pooh's woods. 

And we saw Pooh bear who dyed his hair! Run Pooh run! 

Lush forest was a welcoming sight for the next 3 miles... 

Until we arrived at our first campsite! 

Oh, but let's not get too excited. Perfect view, nice set up, firewood ready to burn, chirping birds, close to the river... How perfect can it get? Not. Holy thundering storms! And then this is what happened...

2 PM . Just sitting 

3 PM . Yup, that's right. One hour later 

4 PM. Still raining. No book. No cards. No chocolate chip cookies. Just rain 

5 PM. S T I L L R A I N I N G... 

And then the dark, bad cloud went away and the birds were singing again! Yay birdies!  But by that time it was time to transform into our cocoons for the night. 

Yay! Colorado Trail! Day 1

Finally here!!!! We are approximately 10 steps closer to Durango. Just 499.98888 miles to go. Will update in 4 days at first resupply! Thank you to Mychele, our Colorado trail foundation hostess for the night at her home and a ride to the trail! Happy 4th of July!