Leg 1: Indian Creek to Little Scraggy

Stats:
Distance: 1 leg, 2 segments, 3 days, 28.3 miles
Best food: rhubarb crumble, tuna with curry
Wildlife sightings: grouse, deer, cicadas

Day 0:

On Tuesday we drove to Castle Rock and availed ourselves of a hotel for the pool (twice!) and continental breakfast. We downloaded music and audio books and maps for this section. And made sure we knew how to get to the trailhead to drop off the car for Bill’s dad and friend. And we tried to wrap our heads around the fact that this is really happening!

Day 1:

We met Scotty and Delores in the parking lot of the Indian Creek trailhead. And we started walking. We have begun!

After a hot mile, we took off our shoes for our first cool stream crossing. And 4 miles after that, we hit the official Colorado Trail (no dogs allowed on the first “real” part of the trail). We already met a few thru-hiker guys at our lunch stop while Pie laid in the stream to cool off.

We saw lots of caterpillars and cicadas, and camped nearly at the high point of the section. There were some amazing rocks for scampering and an awesome view of what was yet to come.

Day 2:

We got a good cool start heading for the South Platte River and a nice long break on the shore. A lovely lady out for a day hike generously gave us 2 water bottles half filled with ice! Ahhh! That sure hit the spot as our lunch break hit 90 degrees.

As we were filling and filtering as much water as we could carry (thankfully including our 2 new bottles), we hatched a plan for how to tackle the next 10 dry hot climbing miles.

We made some plans and some contingency plans. And miraculously the sky filled with clouds! Quick, on with our packs!

We climbed out of the valley, up up up up, through blue bells and Indian paint brush and golden banners and fire penstemons. Our intended camp was 4.3 miles into a (several years’ old) burn zone, and when the sun peeked back out — yikes! We were sure baked and tired (and thirsty) by the time we reached the promised spot.

Except there was no site! Only slopes of pine trees and blue bells, which are beautiful but not what we wanted at the moment. I scouted about a half mile further and found the closest flattest spot I could. It was pretty close, but not very flat. (And I forgot to take a picture of it, despite resolving to document every camp site. Oops.)

We slept, closer and closer to the foot of the tent, with dreams of water.

Day 3:

We scooted ourselves to the top of our tent early and got going as soon as we could. We knew we would drink less water if we hiked in the cooler morning. (And just as we passed the spot where I stopped scouting the night before, there was a perfect spot! Too funny!)

Up and down and around big granite globs, the trail took us through more of the burn zone. We were hiking at a good pace, so we didn’t even have to send Bill ahead for water.

When we spied the distant fire station with its water spigot and shady eaves, we could hardly wait for those last 2 miles!

But we made it! And after relaxing in the shade and drinking a full 2.5 liters of water, we were ready to finish the last mile and a half.

Scotty and Delores were waiting at the campground for us, with showers and ginger ale and gin and tonics, and hammocks. It felt like a 5-star resort!

We were prepared for the beginning of this journey to be the toughest, both physically and emotionally, as we get in our groove. And we were sure tired at the end of each and every day. But we are officially thru hikers, and really getting better at it every day!