Adventure on the Colorado Trail
by Caroline Almy Hamilton
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single
step”, right? Divide that thousand miles in half and you
have the distance of the famous Colorado Trail. It is above ten
thousand feet most of the way and winds through eight major mountain
ranges and seven national forests as well as six wilderness areas. From
Denver to Durango you will witness ecosystem diversity from high alpine
tundra and lush valleys along the river, as well as the plains near
Denver.
Why would anyone decide to walk these four hundred eighty six miles? I
asked a friend of mine why she’s do that. Her simple answer was,
“I had a month off and nothing else to do.” I wasn’t
the only one asking this question. She said many people along the trail
asked her why she was doing this also. They usually said they would
love to hike the whole trail, but just didn’t ever have the time.
However, I heard you will never have time, you have to make time.
Do you begin such a trek by going through a catalogue for the
“proper equipment”? Get a back pack, some hiking boots, a
sleeping bag, tent, and a ton of freeze dried food for starters, none
of the above! You don’t need a lot of stuff. I like to sacrifice
comfort in camp for comfort on my back. My friend wore regular tennis
shoes, took a little toasty fleece blanket, a back pack the size a
kindergarten child would take to school and most importantly a garbage
sack to keep the ground dry under her cold tired body. She rigged her
own camp stove out of two pop cans cut in half and used heet, an
alcohol, as fuel. Her primary source of heat for her petite body was
walking, walking, and walking some more.
Even in the night, if she got cold, she’d just get up and walk.
Did I mention she had the luxury of a wool cap and gloves and a fleece
jacket? (The fleece jacket was her pillow to rest her weary head each
night after hiking twenty t thirty miles a day.) Her first aid kit
consisted of gauze and neosporin. She sewed her tent out of very light
tarp material and used her two walking sticks as tent pegs. The only
cooking utensil she had was a small aluminum pan. Her day began as soon
as the sun came up and ended at dusk. There are some people who will
drop off food at various spots along the Colorado Trail and set up camp
for groups or individuals. One day a lady from REI who was dropping
food off to some people asked her to give a presentation on light
weight hiking. Since she didn’t use anything that REI made or
sold, it was pointless.
Every four to six days she would hitchhike into a town and buy Little
Debbie snacks, chocolate covered coffee beans, nuts, granola, Oreos,
Pop Tarts, etc. Her trick to getting a ride was to wear a fresh flower
in her hat and give the thumb up hitch hike sign. If someone passed her
by, she’d then wave a wiggly thank you gesture, and she said the
next car coming would pick her up. Several “trail angels”
(people who help you along the way) would give her something she
needed. There was one couple who took her to a lovely dinner of fresh
grilled salmon before taking her back to the trail.
What did she eat to fuel this twenty year old walking machine? Are the
Ramen noodles boiled? Or broiled? Maybe barbequed? “No way”
she told me, “they have too much MSG.” Instead, she had the
gourmet delight of Lipton’s Cheesy Broccoli Rice. Simply add
water. Yummie. I wanted to know if she ever day-dreamed about
“good food” in her weak moments? “Oh, yeah, I was
delirious over the thought of the Durango Diner’s two eggs over
easy, hash browns, ham and green chilies. No, make that double on the
chilies”, she said with emphasis, Ice cream was also an imaginary
longing in her thoughts. And what kind, might I ask? “Black
cherry.”
Let’s talk about hygiene, just in case someone might wander about
that aspect. “I braided my hair and wore a baseball cap. I washed
my clothes in a creek and when I got near a town, I’d do my
laundry.” (It occurred to me she could write a book on “how
to wear your underwear in eight different ways” since most people
only know of two; inside out and right side in.”)
This might be a silly question, but did you ever get afraid of man or
beast? The blank stare on her face made me feel like I was the one
paranoid over such ridiculous ideas. The only alarming incident was
when some dirt bikers, who are not allowed on the trail, came around a
hair pin curve and one crashed into her shoulder, knocking her into the
dirt. The second boy almost hit her too, but both kept on going,
laughing all the way. She stumbled into a campground of trail
volunteers and they assisted in helping her get dusted off and taped
up. They used their cell phones to report the boys, hoping someone
would catch them down the trail. Hopefully they caught the two legged
hoodlums. They were more dangerous to her than a bear that had sniffed
her hair through her trusty little tent. I am sure that mice and
chipmunks did war dances around her as she slept; fighting over the
crumbs leftover from her dinner. She even saw a mountain lion staring
at her through the brush, but was not intimidated by it. The
blood-sucking mosquitoes found her a target for their cocktail hors
d’oeuvre covering her with tiny red whelps.
Being a mother, I was most curious to know how her mother must have
felt as her homeless daughter honed in on the mountains. Her reply was,
“I figured there was more dangerous things a twenty year old
could get into if she was here in Durango.” She did call her mom
each week or she would ask someone else to let her know she was
“doing just fine.”
The web site for the Colorado Trail says it is best to travel with
someone else. I would assume that being alone might present some form
of londliness. I asked her how she dealt with this situation. In her
upbeat way she said she entertained herself by making up songs,
thinking about friends, swimming, and fishing. Surprisingly to me, she
said that she enjoyed smelling the fresh air, and drinking water. If
she was above ten thousand feet she didn’t purify the water but
otherwise she’d put two drops of chlorine to a liter of water.
The wild flowers were also a great source of enjoyment. Between
Silverton and Durango there are myriads of Columbines, wild roses, wild
geraniums, hare bells, skunk cabbage and Indian Paintbrushes. The
amazing wonder of wonders is how these flowers grow in the midst of
rocks and boulders and landslides of slate.
What’s her next adventure when “she doesn’t have
anything to do?” She’s planning on canoeing the boundaries
of Minnesota in September and October. Then she is off to her winter
job of being a dog musher near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Colorado
Trail has everything we all long for; unlimited fresh air for our
lungs, beautiful mountains for our eyes to behold, the peace and quiet
for our soul, and the blankets of flowers to praise.
Thanks to my friend for showing us how very simple and healthy and
inexpensive a vacation can be. The only thing missing is the time and
you can make that, can’t you? Some folks say “time is
money.” Don’t believe it. Some experiences are worth more
than all the money in the world.