Well after several weeks of planning and getting ready. I ended up only getting 30 Miles of my 70 Mile hike in. I had checked the weather and new that it could rain, but took the chance as this was really the last weekend in the year to get this done before it is to cold.
I was dropped off at Highway 50 and Phantom Canyon Drive. Started out at about 8am and was able to make 20 miles for the day and actually made really good time. I was at my first camp spot by 4:30pm.
Most of the day was overcast so it wasn’t terribly hot. For the 20 Miles hiked I drank a litter of water and ate a handful of beef jerky. Once I got to the camp spot I had scoped out and setup camp, collected fire wood, built a fire and had Red Beans and Rice for dinner.
Got into the tent around 6:30pm and tried to get to sleep. I was pretty tired but still wound up and always worried about some critters coming to visit me. Woke up around 9pm and then threw a little more wood on the fire.
I didn’t really sleep very well as being by yourself you are always on guard. At about 4am it started to rain and rained pretty hard for about an hour and half. It was cold and I didn’t have great coverage for myself. I crawled out of the tent about 6am and started to sort things out and break down camp.
Unfortunately my pack, tent, sleeping bag had gotten pretty wet. I started cramming my stuff back into their bags. It was tough as my hands were cold and even when the tent, sleeping bag, air mattress are dry they are hard to get packed away.
It took me about two hours to get everything put away and get the pack re-loaded to head out.
I was back on the trail by 8am and had 10 miles to get in to reach Victor, Co which was my halfway point for the day. I noticed very quickly that the wet gear really added to the weight of the pack. It was windy, cold and cloudy but I kept pushing through.
At about 5 miles I started to think about the night and how I was going to deal with a wet tent and sleeping bag. Also the wet weight started to wear on me as well. I stopped at about 5.5 Miles and took my cell phone out of the plastic bag and checked to see if I had any signal.
No signal so I left the phone in my pocket and kept checking about every quarter mile. Once I got signal I called home and talked with the wife. She said that I should come home and get everything dried out and that she would meet me in Victor. It took me an hour and 20 minutes to reach Victor from the time we spoke. Both of us reach Victor about the same time.
I did get some great pics and the Aspen trees were in full color with bright yellows, oranges and reds.
http://picasaweb.google.com/drobincorvette/HikeToVictor#
So my next plan is to regroup and then hike from Victor back to Colorado Springs. I need to finish out the remaining 40 miles.
