August 18th-21st, 2019 Tennessee Pass, CO

For our second section of the Colorado Trail we planned to jump back on trail at Tennessee Pass(where we got off in 2018), and cover 172 miles to Hwy 114. The three of us flew into Denver where we spent an afternoon sorting gear and going through our final checklist. The next day we meet up with an old friend from the AT and she was kind enough to give us a ride back up to Tennessee Pass.

The three of us were excited to be back at Tennessee Pass. The 10’000′ air felt cool and crisp. After saying our goodbys we shouldered our packs and hit the trail. It felt really good to be back on the Colorado Trail.

With just 9 miles planned for day one, we arrived at our camp early in the afternoon. We started off by enjoying the afternoon sun sitting in the meadow next to our tents. Quickly our plans changed as the mosquitoes honed in on our location. Within a few minutes they got so annoying that we retreated into our tents. From the safety of our tents we lounged away the rest of the afternoon, settling into being back on trail.

We hiked through two amazing wilderness areas, Holy Cross and Mt. Massive.

Day three turned out to be a difficult day for the crew. For a combination of reasons we were feeling sluggish and a bit beat up from the last couple days of hiking. We also struggled to find a decent place to camp, which added to the exhaustion. Having not found our original destination we spent the evening looking for a half decent site, which turned out to be harder than expected. With tired minds and bodies we labored all decisions and the group became impatient with each other. Eventually we found a halfway decent spot and crawled into our tents, all of us ready for tomorrow’s resupply and some of the comforts of town.

On day 4 we descended towards Twin Lakes, and followed a side trail to the LakeView campground. We grabbed a site and set up camp. We’d previously arranged to meet my older brother at the campground. He arrived a few hours later and played trail angel for us. First he drove us down to the Twin Lakes General Store were we’d sent our resupply boxes. After a quick stop at the store to grab our resupply we drove into Leadville for laundry and a big meal. It was exactly the morale boost that we all needed.

Huge thanks to Morgan for driving all the way down from Bolder to be a part of our adventure. Not only did he help with resupply, he provided cold beverages(notice the plastic bag cooler), and he provided some much needed energy to the group. We settled into our tents that night feeling happy and excited for the next stretch of trail. Thanks Morg!