Kenosha Pass to Jefferson Creek Road
Distance: 6 miles
Elevation Gain: ? ft
Just realized, I never came back to add the update. Once again, I was struck by the the Colorado Trail jinx and I'm not much further along the trail than I was before.
This is my 4th attempt at this stretch, but the first time I've actually made it onto the trail. As it's 33 miles, I figure 3 days, so previously, I've taken a Friday off with the intention of knocking it out over a weekend. Each time I did this, a storm would blow in and either during or right before the planned hike. I'm not an experienced enough winter hiker to even want to attempt that (it isn't simple wimpy-ness, it's dangerous) so I've ended up given it a miss.
For the last 2 months though, other than some wet, cold weekends the winter has been glorious and I figured any remaining snow would be above tree line and easily navigable. I didn't want to wait 'too' long or we'd end up with the brain-baking temperatures I experienced last time. So, as I had a whole week off, I figured I could fool Ma Nature into thinking I was at work and she'd send us some decent weather. I decided to make a 4 day trip out of it, with a shorter first day so that I could camp part way up the biggest hill of the hike, rather than attempting to get over it one go. After a picnic lunch at the trail head, away I went.
And you know what? I felt darn good. I haven't done any long hikes since The World's Most Irritating Dog™ hurt her foot and I was a bit worried about my conditioning but no problems at all. Sure, my pack felt heavy but there was none of that screaming agony ohmydoGIcan'ttakeanotherstep pain of 2007 and I was averaging almost 3 miles an hour which will do me fine. Took a break at around 3:30pm and began the climb up Georgia Pass (2,000 feet of altitude gain over 6 miles taking me almost to 12.000 feet above sea level), which I had been dreading but at this point was feeling so good that I was even wondering if I could pass my day's goal of 9 total miles and continue over the top after all. The only thing that was really holding me back was the late start (this was going to be a short day, remember?).
But then I hit the snow. While still in the trees. Completely covering the trail to the point where I couldn't see where it went. I floundered around for about an hour, often sinking up to me crotch (quite an experience in shorts, even on a hot day) before finally conceding defeat and heading back down. There were plenty of awesome places to camp for the night and the next day, I'd be able to hike back to the highway (about 6 miles away by dirt road) and call for a ride home. But then I figured I could make other plans for my week off and it might be easier if I got home sooner rather than later. So, I ended up at home late that night.
Altogether, about 14 miles hiked, although without too much altitude gain and the following morning my shoulders, legs and feet were a little tender. But not bad really. If I were still on the trail, I think I could have hiked a fair bit again. Looks like the winter hikes, and the irregular trips to the gym have done some good after all. I'm confident I can knock off the remainder of this segment in 2 days, especially if say, I do the 3 miles to my planned camp on a Friday evening after work. I just need to find the convenient window of weather and do it then.
It's going to be a piece of cake.
