7/24/2012 Section 6 Colorado Trail - Hiking in the Rain, I'm Hiking in the Rain

Once again, I headed into the mountains without looking at my Colorado Trail Handbook and trying to find the Colorado Trail with my GPS.  However, the topo map data is from 1984 geological survey so the Colorado Trail was nowhere near where it had been.  Finally about 1pm, I parked my Impreza WRX on the eastern end of Tiger Road, miles after it turned into a dirt road.  I tried to park as close as I could to where the topo map said the Colorado Trail crossed the road.

I finally found two men walking down the road.  They had been fishing and I felt like God was telling me to give them a chance and ask them if they knew where the Colorado Trail was.  Neither did but one of them mentioned that there were people walking on a trail parallel to the road up a hundred feet north.  I cut across the forest and quickly found the trail.  That was great.

I hiked maybe a half mile and the Colorado Trail CROSSED the road the men had been walking on.  I guess they just hadn't seen the signs or hadn't been fishing that far.  Once I got across the road, the CT started gaining elevation.  I ran into two backpackers and asked them how close I was to Georgia Pass.  They said about 4 miles but it was uphill the entire way.  That made sense since I had hiked to Georgia Pass from the Kenosha Pass last month.  So I headed off.  It wasn't too steep because it had lots of switchbacks but I was still huffing and puffing.

As I got close to the pass, there were some storm cloud a few miles away and I had heard thunder earlier in the hike.  I quickly tried to get to the point I had reached in June so I could turn around and get back under the tree line.  I made it fine about 4pm but I started noticing that I wasn't feeling well on the return trip.  My back was sore and my stomach was bothering me.  I noticed a certain dizziness.  I asked the Lord's help and kept pushing through.

It kept threatening to rain for an hour or two but finally started raining enough that my shorts were getting very wet.  I had only brought a rain jacket but no rain pants.  It wasn't very cold so I knew I would be fine.  The ground was slippery so I was glad I was using trekking poles.  They have saved me from a LOT of falls in the past.

About 6:45pm, I got to Tiger Road and decided to take the road back to my car as I didn't want to miss it.  Pretty close to 7pm, I found my car.  I had covered it with a car cover.  A couple people had recommended not taking a 2012 Subaru Impreza WRX into the forest and leaving it unattended so I decided to cover it when I was hiking.  It was wet so I put it in the trunk and dried it out when I got back home.  I think I knocked out another 5 miles of Section 6.  With 12.3 in June and about 5 this weekend, I'm about half way.  The rest will be on very level ground so it should be pretty easy.

Crazy rabbit (and more) on the Colorado Trail (continued)

I scared the rabbit away again.  About 15 minutes later, I'm not kidding, the rabbit jumped onto the corner of the tarp just above my head.  I thought rabbits were these little scared animals who ran from everything.

Finally about 4:30am, since I couldn't sleep, I decided to wake up and eat some breakfast.  I aired out my sleeping bag, brushed my teeth, etc.  Once I packed up everything inside, I got out of my tent a little after 5am.  The sky was just starting to turn blue but it was still pretty dark.  As I was pulling up the tent pegs, I noticed this "large animal" in the meadow about 50 feet away from my tent.  In the twilight, it kind of looked like a cow.  I hadn't seen cow patties on this part of Segment 6 like I had during the first 5 miles but it wasn't completely crazy to see a cow while backpacking.  I packed away my tent, then put on my fanny pack and RikSak.

As I started to exit the meadow, going around the 'cow', I started to realize that this animal was bigger than a cow.  I was thinking, "what is a horse doing here?"  Now that would be unusual!  The weirdest thing, the "large animal" started walking over to me, kind of like a horse might.  But when it got about 15 feet away from me, I noticed that this wasn't a horse, this was a MOOSE!!  In an instant, I remembered that males sometimes charge people.  This one didn't have big antlers, but I didn't have any desire to touch a moose.  I remembered rounding up cattle at my parent's house in Missouri, waving our arms to keep them from coming our way so I started waving my arms with my trekking poles.  It worked and the moose ran back about 35-40 feet.  I quickly moved toward the trail and when I looked back, the moose was still following me.  I swung around and waved my arms.  This time, it stopped and didn't follow after I made it up onto the trail.  I was too startled to take a picture and it probably wouldn't have turned out any way.  I've since looked through pictures of moose and elk to make sure I wasn't mistaken.  It definitely had the weird shaped body of a moose.  Definitely the most exciting backpacking trip I've ever had!

I hiked the remaining 7 to 7 1/2 miles and got to my car by 8:15am.

Segment 6 Colorado Trail - crazy night

Taking a late lunch break at work.  This past Saturday, I started back on the Colorado Trail.  Segment 6 is 32 miles so I thought I'd hike from Kenosha Pass to Georgia Pass, 12.3 miles.  It was a very gradual climb, probably one of my most enjoyable trips.  I love snow-capped mountains.

Approaching Georgia Pass

I hiked 6 miles in 2 hours with ease and was very surprised.  Hiking 7 miles in Bryce Canyon National Park seemed to take forever.  The altitude was a little lower at Bryce.  I still haven't figured out the difference.

View from Georgia Pass

 I got to Georgia Pass at 11,598 feet by 5:30pm so I took a few pictures and headed back.

The rest of Segment 6 but I'll have to do that another weekend.

About 8:30pm, about 5 miles back down the trail, I found a little meadow to set up my tent.  Within a couple minutes of setting up my tent and escaping within from the mosquitos attacking me, a little animal came up to the corner of the tent.  I scared it away.

Another view from Georgia Pass

After I had gotten into my sleeping bag and was trying to fall asleep (doesn't happen on many trips but worth a try), I heard some rustling.  Since my tent is actually a tarp with a bug screen sewn onto the bottom, I could see the silhouette of a rabbit.  It was eating the grass in front of my tent then it came up to the bug screen, was looking at it then started to take a nibble.  I scared it off again.  It came back 2-3 more times, even getting on its hind legs to reach the front beak of the tarp and start to nibble on that.

Oh, I have a meeting.  Then the rest of the story...

Eastern 12.3 miles of Section 6 of the Colorado Trail

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Arches National Park 5/28/12

I had been to Arches two other times in the last few years so I decided to go to some sections that I hadn't gone to before:  the Landscape Arch in the Devil's Garden and the Delicate Arch.  There were a lot of people hiking, especially college-aged people.

The Devil's Garden has a one mile hike to the Landscape Arch through lots of rock fins.  It reminded me of Garden of the Gods.

Landscape Arch

The Landscape Arch is pretty impressive.  I think it is as long as a football field.  They say large pieces have been falling off it and they expect it will completely fall soon.  Double O Arch was another 1.2 miles and it wasn't that impressive, not worth the climb and hike out there.  One arch on top of another one..

Double O Arch

For the Delicate Arch, I was tired after 4.4 miles so I walked a mile or so roundtrip to the closest 'viewpoint' to see the Delicate Arch across a canyon.  I'll have to walk up to it next trip.

Delicate Arch

Zion National Park 5/27/12

After dropping off my bear proof container at Bryce Canyon visitor center (the biggest reason I needed to carry my bigger backpack (actually an GoLite Daypack)), I headed over to Cedar Breaks National Monument and then onto Zion National Park.

Great weather, not too hot, probably in the low 70's

Great White Throne

The main canyon is very beautiful with huge stone walls on both sides going up hundreds and hundreds of feet.

 I love the contrast between the rust colored rock walls and the green trees.

I drove up to Beaver, UT to stay the night in a Motel 6 to get a better night sleep and a shower.

Grand Mesa 5/25 East of Grand Junction, CO

Denver had a lot of traffic so I was getting close to Grand Junction pretty late so I decided to car camp up on the Grand Mesa.  I stopped at Jumbo Campground.  The camp hosts were very friendly and helped me to a nice tent site even though it was already dark.

I woke up about 5:30am the next morning and left about 6:15.  Took a few pictures in the early morning light.

Capitol Reef National Park 5/26

I drove through Capitol Reef National Park last year but it was about 6am, before anything was open.  It was a little more interesting this year.  They have a rustic farm and orchards, with petting zoo for kids.  There were trails away from the main part of the park but it was raining.  My last two backpacking trips had cold, snow and freezing rain so I skipped it.  I need to try them on my next visit.  Backpacker magazine was pretty impressed when a bunch of them went in the winter.