Colorado Trail 2017: Segment 8 (July 19-21)

Colorado Trail near Copper Mountain ski resort

Typical wet morning tent

Vibrant day near Searle Pass

T-Rex and Caveman on Searle Pass

White Columbine

Historic concrete bunkers

Coking ovens near Tennessee Pass

Moosie and I reached Copper Mountain by bus in the late afternoon after resupplying in Breckenridge and waiting out a storm and drinking a beer at the brewery in Frisco. We had to skip Segment 7 due to a trail fire closure. We both had hiked the beautiful stretch of trail during our Continental Divide Trail hike in 2013. It was disappointing to have to skip this scenic area, and we later found out that the trail reopened the very next day after being closed for weeks.

Once we reached the trail, Colorado was up to its old tricks. Rain showers persisted. We also had noticed that campsites were tough to come by on the CT, especially early on in the hike. Due to the trails growing popularity, most ideal campsites were taken, often as early as 3:00 in the afternoon.   I  joked that "CT" stood for the "Camp by Three" trail. Moosie and I were both used to hiking late into the day, so we would often find ourselves in a bind once we were ready to camp. Also the increasing death of trees due to various pine beetle outbreaks made many ideal sites uncampable in my opinion. Moosie and I grew increasingly sketched out by the possibility of a dead tree falling on us in the middle of the night, and we usually chose not to take the risk. As a result, the evening of the 19th was a difficult one. We were both tired, wet from rain, and had trouble finding a place to camp. Sun had already set. We had to bushwhack up a steep mountainside where we found a relatively flat area to call it a night.

The next day however was one of the most vivid hiking mornings I've ever experienced. We woke up to a blue bird day and hiked over Searle and Kokomo Pass. We had bright skies, white puffy clouds, snow fields, and some of the most vibrant wildflower displays I had ever seen. During this stretch we also leapfrogged several other CT hikers including T-Rex and Caveman- one of the most colorful couples we met on the trail, Nemo, Twig, and others. By the time Moosie and I reached Kokomo Pass, thunderstorms arrived again, but at least we were descending in elevation and no longer exposed. We were still experimenting with various storm strategies at this point, and decided to set up a tent and eat lunch and wait out the storm. Once the storm passed, we eventually descended further down the trail and passed some historic WWII concrete bunkers used by the 10th Mountain Division. By evening, Moosie and I were in the familiar dilemma of locating a place to camp as the obvious sites were once again already taken. We eventually found a nice spot off trail on a small knob.

The next morning, we were only a few miles away from one of my favorite trail towns-Leadville. By the time we were near Tennessee Pass, the road leading to town, I noticed that the trees were once again beginning to look more healthy, and pine beetle casualties were becoming fewer and fewer. We passed some old historic coking ovens that were most likely used to make fuel from coal for local trains. Moosie and I reached Tennessee Pass in the morning and hitched a ride into Leadville with a fly fisherman named Pete who was scouting out places to fish for the day. Segment 8 was finished and Moosie and I spent the night warm and dry in the Leadville Hostel...