Our 6:00 wake up call came early to Caden and I as both of us had trouble getting to sleep. But we knew that an early start meant cooler temps for hiking, that the mosquitoes were sleeping in and, if we finished our hike today, there was a big juicy burger to be had!! When I got out of the tent Joe pointed to our food bag. It had moved about 3 or 4 feet with some drag marks leading back to where we had put it the night before. Clearly some creature had tried to make off with it. I can imagine the thing working so hard to nick it then finally giving up saying, “you’ve got to be kidding, what kind of idiots carry THAT much weight in food through the woods.” That would be us!
Anyway, we got up and around in record time this morning. I think we are just starting to find a rhythym. Everyone stashed a few starbursts in their pockets and we were on the trail a little after 7:30. We were pretty sure we’d make it the 6.5 miles to the car and the end of section 10 today. Read more
Colorado
The Colorado Trail: Day 3
Joe woke us up at 6:00 so we could get a head start on hiking while the temperatures were cooler and, as it turned out, the mosquitoes were still asleep. The stove was definitely acting up and just barely got our water warm enough to have some luke warm coffee and cocoa. We stuck with cold poptarts instead of trying to eat luke warm oatmeal. We packed up and said goodbye to Bear Lake as we began a long steady ascent through forest and around a couple of ponds.
Read more
The Colorado Trail: Day 2
We slept in a bit this morning in an effort to try to catch up on sleep after our early morning yesterday. While we ate our breakfast and swatted mosquitoes both boys said they laid awake last night thinking of good people for Infinite Questions. My old self hardly even remember laying down I fell asleep so quick!
We broke camp and were on our way by 8:42 up a long and gradual incline. Camp 2 was only about 4 miles out and so I had marked another camp spot a couple miles further in case we wanted a longer day today. We discussed it and felt that a longer day today would be very doable and would turn our planned 9 mile day tomorrow into a more reasonable 7 miler. The final decision could be made when we arrived at Porcupine Lakes where camp 2 was but until then we played Infinite Questions using some of the boys’ doozies they thought up the night before. Read more
The Colorado Trail: Day 1
“Papa….Papa!”
I awoke to Caden’s voice right over my head. It was 4:05am….even the roosters were still asleep. “My stomach is killing me!” he said. Every once in awhile Caden gets a really bad stomachache. Steph and I both got up to try to help him out but not sure our efforts would be fruitful or not. Regardless, he made it clear he still wanted to go backpacking as he figured it’d go away after several hours like it usually does. I woke Dacen up at 4:30 and then Joe showed up right on schedule at 4:45. We loaded backpacks in the car, said goodbye to Steph and we were off. Caden’s stomach issues subsided soon after we left and before long both boys had fallen asleep in the back of the car for the 2.5 hour drive.
As we rolled through Leadville Joe asked if I knew how to get to the Mt Massive trailhead. “Ummmm….no…I’ve been there before but it was long ago”. This began a pattern of me showing poor navigation skills. We pulled into a convenience store to unload our bladders and get directions from the clerk and we were back on our way. Read more
The Colorado Trail: Planning
I’m an armchair thru hiker. I’ve read dozens of books and blogs, trolled countless forums and watched umpteen documentaries and YouTube videos about people who thru hike the AT, PCT, CDT, CT, JMT and the PNT. You may recall last year we got to take a small walk on the AT where we met several thru hikers and this only further piqued my interest in thru hiking. If you don’t already know, thru hiking is defined as hiking a long-distance trail end-to-end within one hiking season according to Wikipedia. And all those acronyms above are some of the major long-distance trails in the US, namely the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, Colorado Trail, John Muir Trail and the Pacific Northwest Trail respectively. I am in awe of the folks who take on these epic adventures on foot completely self supported. And while I think there is a tiny spec of a chance that I could physically take on one of these trails myself, I just can’t imagine being away from Steph for that long…so I remain an arm chair thru hiker. But then one day last fall my brother calls me with a proposal! Read more
The home stretch
We got up and around early again and were on the road at 8:38am for our last leg of this adventure. If all went well we would be home about 3:00. We took a fuel and restroom break in Rawlins then stopped for lunch at the Colorado border.
Read more
Caden Spielberg
Like Papa said in this post, I was really into doing timelapse videos this trip. I compiled a few of them into a montage video for your viewing pleasure.
Family of fotographers
Caden got a video camera for Christmas a few years back, Dacen got an action cam for this last Christmas, Steph has her Nexus 5X which takes amazing pictures, I just bought us a new mirrorless camera and so Brielle took over the old point-and-shoot. Armed with 5 cameras we headed off on the hunt for the best photo, the best attempt at capturing a moment in time. Our destination, Colorado National Monument, was about 1 mile from the campground. We paid for an annual National Parks pass and headed up the road. Just as you enter the beautiful Fruita canyon is a pullout for viewing Balanced Rock. We also notice some big horn sheep, so before the truck has even come to a complete stop the doors swing open and the mighty hunters jump from the vehicle with cameras aimed and the snapping of shutters commences! I think we spent close to an hour at this one point and took a crazy number of pictures.
Read more
Ava and the Beast ride again
Thursday morning after a walk around Golden Ponds with my brother, the dog and I took the Beast up to get Ava. As we rounded the last corner the Beast bucked just a little bit as though he couldn’t wait to hook up with Ava again. Sheba was in heaven running around with the farm dogs and the cat while I hitched up for the short ride to Longmont to get Ava packed up for our little spring break trip to the western slope of CO and the Moab area. It has been dry as a bone and in the 70s most of March and the ONE day we’re going to be driving with a 38ft, 14,000 pound trailer over the Continental Divide the forecast calls for snow. Well, Friday morning came with pretty clear skies in Longmont and the forecast was clear all day. We pulled out about 9:00 and had smooth sailing the whole way. There was fresh snow in the mountains but I-70 was dry until right before Eisenhower tunnel where the roads were wet until Silverthorne…then again they were a little wet on Vail pass. Nothing slick, nothing scary. It really looked quite pretty with the fresh snow and the blue skies. It was a good drive and it felt good to be on the road again with the family…including our new addition, Sheba, our trusty pup. I’m not really sure what Sheba thought of the ride…she was very restless the whole way….just couldn’t seem to settle in and get comfortable. She is usually pretty chill in the car but I think the chucking from the trailer just made it a bit rougher than she likes. But she did fine as I think she was just happy to get to come along with us.
Read more
Long ago in a galaxy far far away…
When I was a youngster and the original Star Wars movie came out someone convinced me that there were words to the Star Wars theme song…
Star Wars nothing but Star Wars nothing but Star Wars dun dun dun duuhhhhhh
Well, this New Years season feels a bit like it has been nothing but Star Wars for our family! The boys got a card game for Christmas, Star Realms, which feels a lot like they modeled it after the space battles of Star Wars. The kids also helped pay for an XBox One and they bought themselves Star Wars: Battlefront to entertain themselves with. Then, the boys and I went to see the newly released Star Wars movie Rogue One…perhaps this is becoming a tradition! I’m reading the Phantom Menace to brush up on my Episode 1 knowledge. And yesterday, to wrap up 2016 we all went to the Denver Art Museum to see a special exhibit they have about the costumes of Star Wars.
Read more