Glenn’s opus, an amalgam of the Colorado trail and a knot of lesser trails heading back north which he has deemed “The Great Colorado Loop,” has unofficially begun.
Waterton Canyon, the traditional starting point for the CT, will be closed for most of the rest of the year for some sort of construction, so Glenn wanted to get that segment out of the way while he still had a chance, and I tagged along because I wanted to see if I could hike 16 miles. Turns out I could, quite easily, and I wasn’t even sore the next day. Great success! Not so much for Glenn - he hurt his foot and had to crawl around on kneepads for a few days. (I offered to get him crutches, but he informed me that “the time for crutches has passed.” I guess the time for crawling around like an animal was still nigh.) The importance of having good shoes for hiking has been further ingrained in my brain.
The top is called Lenny’s Rest; it was the Eagle Scout project of an eighteen-year-old who was killed in a mountaineering accident before he got to finish it. The rest of his troop finished the project for him in his name. Quite a nice story.
Also deeply ingrained in my brain is the vast rift between being physically capable of walking sixteen miles and being mentally capable of the same. Before we’d finished the first eight miles, I had finished the candy bar I had brought for myself and the candy bar Glenn had brought for himself, and I was fading fast. Luckily Glenn had some crackers to feed me as I followed him huffily up the last mile. I don’t know if I’m cut out for thru-hiking.
Waterton Canyon, the traditional starting point for the CT, will be closed for most of the rest of the year for some sort of construction, so Glenn wanted to get that segment out of the way while he still had a chance, and I tagged along because I wanted to see if I could hike 16 miles. Turns out I could, quite easily, and I wasn’t even sore the next day. Great success! Not so much for Glenn - he hurt his foot and had to crawl around on kneepads for a few days. (I offered to get him crutches, but he informed me that “the time for crutches has passed.” I guess the time for crawling around like an animal was still nigh.) The importance of having good shoes for hiking has been further ingrained in my brain.
The top is called Lenny’s Rest; it was the Eagle Scout project of an eighteen-year-old who was killed in a mountaineering accident before he got to finish it. The rest of his troop finished the project for him in his name. Quite a nice story.
Also deeply ingrained in my brain is the vast rift between being physically capable of walking sixteen miles and being mentally capable of the same. Before we’d finished the first eight miles, I had finished the candy bar I had brought for myself and the candy bar Glenn had brought for himself, and I was fading fast. Luckily Glenn had some crackers to feed me as I followed him huffily up the last mile. I don’t know if I’m cut out for thru-hiking.
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