Leg 2: Little Scraggy to Kenosha Pass

Stats:
Distance: 2 legs, 5 segments, 8 days, 71.7 miles
Best food: meaty mac, strawberry ice cream, fried okra
Wildlife sightings: fox, squirrel (and we possibly heard a moose)

Day 4:

We started back on the Colorado Trail just in time to share it with a mountain biking race, plus every other mountain biker in the Front Range. Seriously, we were stepping off the trail every minute for bikes to pass. It was annoying, but mostly people were polite and cheerful at least. And the support people for the race loaded the girls up with goodies because they were so impressed with them!

Only a couple miles down the trail, we found an exciting sign: “trail magic 40 yards”. Yes, please! Just down the dirt road was a cooler filled with cold sodas from an angel named Caveman. Thank you!

Awhile later, we pulled off for a break at a cool cave. We were sitting on a log having a drink when a fox came walking right at us! He was big and red and beautiful. Once he saw us, he scampered up the rocks and behind the cave. Best wildlife encounter yet!

We had our sights set on a campground, so we loaded up on water and hauled ourselves up 200 ft to sleep among some giant boulders.

Day 5:

We chugged along on our way, stopping to talk with a troop of boy scouts. One of them updated all the signage at Indian Creek, where we started. That was a cool connection!

Halfway through our day, the trail turned into an old abandoned logging road. Pluses: we could walk side by side and converse easier. Minuses: less shade and trucks don’t believe in switchbacks. But we put it in low gear and kept at it.

All the trees in this part of the Lost Creek Wilderness are straight, tall, well-spaced, and the same age. (Reforestation, probably?) It makes for a different feeling walking through. The girls likened it to the forest in the book The Gruffalo.

Just after crossing a beautiful mossy creek, the forest opened up a little and made for a huge campsite, big enough to share with another thru hiker on her way to Durango too.

It rained overnight, making it especially cozy in our tent. And we’re glad to report that all of our equipment stayed dry!

Day 6:

Although the rain stopped in the morning, the clouds were there to stay. We walked through foggy clouds rolling through the pines all morning. It was so thick at times that we couldn’t even spy the moose barking in the trees, but couldn’t stop us playing Yahtzee in the middle of the trail. Our game was interrupted by a thru hiker who’d heard of us! How cool is that?!

At lunch, we emerged into Long Gulch and the sunshine and dried out. Then we began climbing up the gulch. The loooong gulch. 5 miles of gentle climbing made 800 ft of elevation gain feel like easy work, but it was real. By the time we got to the top of that sucker, we were tired!

We found ourselves a flat spot and hastily got the tent up. The girls and I ducked inside and yelled encouragement out to Bill who was braving the mosquitos to make us dinner. We all walked around in circles while gulping down our noodles and spent the rest of the evening playing games in our bug-free shelter.

Day 7:

We got up early, when it was still too cold for the little blood-suckers, and almost got on our way in time. Bill and I sent the girls out on the trail ahead so they could escape the mosquitos. And it was a mile before we caught up with them!

On their hike together, they decided that we should walk all the way to Kenosha Pass that day. It would be a total of 16.5 miles. Not wanted to dampen their enthusiasm, though, we said, ” Totally! Let’s do it!”

When we reached our intended campsite at 2:30, the girls still wanted to push through the last 6 miles. We looked at the map and the elevation profile, and they still wanted to push on.

With 2 miles to go, we took a break for dinner and miraculously had cell coverage for a minute. We texted Bill’s dad, who was close enough to pick us up in an hour. And we did it!! For 4 of us, that’s a record for most number of miles hiked in one day!

Our hotel had our room available a night early, so we showered and set ourselves up in front of junk TV to eat cupcakes and potato chips. Victory!

Day 8-9

We’re charging ourselves up in Fairplay now. We’ve gone swimming, resupplied our food bag, eaten in restaurants, browsed in shops, played in the playground, watched some movies, and taken more showers. Tomorrow we’ll say goodbye and thank you to Scotty and Delores at the Kenosha Pass trailhead, and we’ll catch up with y’all in Breckenridge!