The Colorado Trail - Avalanche Trailhead

The Colorado Trail winds through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Durango and is 485 miles long. It crosses eight mountain ranges, six national forests and countless streams and rivers. I've never met anyone who has hiked the entire route straight through, from one end the other. With my daughter moving back to Colorado, we have opted to start hiking The Colorado Trail segment by segment.
After having a hearty breakfast of whole wheat pancakes, we packed up our backpacks with essentials and headed to the Collegiate Peaks, less than an hour away. We picked Segment 13 of the Colorado Trail because we used to live in this area when we first moved to Colorado and felt we would be most familiar with it. Segment 13 is twenty-two miles long and is in the San Isabel National Forest .

We quickly discovered that this Avalanche Trail stretch of the Colorado Trail was not for the fainthearted or out-of-shape. The climb was so steep that we often found ourselves resting every 50 steps (yep, I counted) or so. The views of Rainbow Lake were spectacular. The temperature was in the upper sixties, perfect hiking weather.

When we hit the limit of what we could endure, we stopped for snacks and , of course, a bit of sock knitting! This is my Classy Tuscan Sock that I have determined to finish before my head hits the pillow tonight.

Shortly after I 'posed' the sock, the ball of yarn slid out of the ziplock back and started rolling down the mountain. Fortunately, it lodged itself beneath a tree and stopped rolling. It could have easily rolled all the way down the mountainside until there was no yarn left in the ball. I sent my brave daughter down to retrieve it, a perilous descent to say the least although it does not appear to be perilous in this shot!

I can tell by the look on Allison's face that she is hoping I don't bring socks along every time we go hiking! It was a pleasant day for my family. I hope you had a pleasant Labor Day as well!