Looking Around

This is part 2 of my section hike on the Colorado Trail. I did a slack pack on Tuesday, July 21st. I hiked the trail in reverse. I started at Copper Mountain Ski Resort and hiked back to Colorado Highway 9 by crossing the Tenmile Range. Doing it this way enabled me to do to the above treeline segment early in the morning before the usual daily storms. This turned out to be an excellent decision.

I got on the trail at about 6:30 AM. It was a long and steep up to start the day. There were lots of clouds hanging around. Right about treeline, I enter the clouds. It was a misty cold and wet hike for a short while. About a quarter of a mile from the top of the ridge, the clouds broke and I was able to look around at some wonderful views.

Wet Wildflowers

Copper Mountain Ski Resort

View to the south as the clouds break

View of Copper Mountain from the top of the ridge

Breckenridge and the top of a ski lift

Me

Me again

Destination somewhere below

Wildflowers

The Trail

Can you find the pika on the rock?

Pika

Looking back

On the way down, I past multiple hikers doing the entire Colorado Trail. One of the hikers was a 69 year old woman doing the trail by herself. She was quite impressive. Shortly after 11 AM, I noticed a storm brewing on the ridge that I had crossed earlier in the morning. I’m sure a few hikers got caught by it. The storm reached me by noon. Fortunately, I was not in an exposed place. I finished my hike at Gold Hill Trailhead at about 1:15 PM. The hike was about 13 miles.

-MM