Colorado Trail: Waterton to Gold Hill - 1993 Trip Report

Section 1 to 6

By Lee Hendrick

During a misspent youth in California, I had been infected with the bug of long distance backpacking. Last year I convinced my wife, Marcia, and myself that in our middle age (mid 50s) we still possessed enough energy and enthusiasm to tackle the Colorado Trail, piecemeal, in one week chunks, as other schedules allowed.

We made our first trek in early June of '93. Our goal was to see how far we could go in a week starting in Waterton Canyon near Denver. Our son dropped us off at the trailhead on a Sunday morning after a flurry of last minute packing. Marcia was still not thoroughly convinced of the sanity of this undertaking as she had never been out for more than an overnight pack trip before. I had done enough of a sales job on her to at least attempt the trip and had gotten her a new sleeping bag so that she didn't think that she would freeze at night.

The first section of trail consists of a dirt/asphalt road used by Denver Water Board personnel to service the myriad water projects on the South Platte River in the canyon. The grade is very gentle and is used by many people for easy hikes, mountain biking, running and fishing. Having used it ourselves for these pursuits many times I had sort of dreaded carrying a heavy pack for six miles through such familiar terrain. Soon after starting, however, I began to get a new perspective of this area. What seemed 'old hat' to me would be quite thrilling to many people not accustomed to the Rocky Mountain area. Here, along the South Platte River pouring from the Front Range to the plains, carrying the life blood of Denver, one might at anytime encounter the resident herd of Big Horn Sheep, deer or water birds.

Backpacking gives one a different pace and in less than an hour I was seeing familiar ground in a new light. Even though there were many people around on this Sunday morning I was soon lost in my own thoughts and filing my impressions for later recovery.

After cruising along for about four miles we stopped by the river to make some adjustments on Marcia's pack. Having very little backpacking experience, it would take a while to get her pack fitted properly. Since we were carrying eight days of supplies and we had not gone totally to dehydrated food, my pack was in the high fifties and hers was in the low forties. The final food portions had weighed out at about 1.5 pounds per day per person. We had allowed ourselves the luxury of cheese and crackers, tortillas and granola bars every day along with the usual fare of dehydrated dinners, instant oatmeal, dried soups and trail mix. We were also carrying a three man sized dome tent and self inflatable mattresses to provide a reasonable level of night time comfort. When you're in your fifties you don't need to take shortcuts on comfort.

We soon reached the end of the gentle grade along the river and ascended a steep pitch of road to the beginning of the single track portion of the CT.

This is a nice climb with well engineered switchbacks through a shaded forest. The biggest problem in this area on a weekend is sharing the trail with mountain cyclists. The cyclists were very courteous and inquisitive as to our intentions. At the top of the first ridge (7.5 miles into the canyon), a popular turn-around point for the less adventurous cyclists, we chatted with a number of them about our plans while we took a needed breather. At this point we had passed two backpackers completing a weekend trip of 25 miles.

The remainder of the trail is single track with the exception of a few miles of 19th century logging road going up the Kenosha Divide and a few miles of well traveled dirt road near Breckenridge where the CT is still being constructed. The route follows the South Platte River, past two forks, gains a ridge, goes into the Buffalo Creek drainage, crosses the Kenosha divide into Lost Creek, Rock Creek, over Kenosha Pass, through the north edge of South Park, over Georgia Pass and then down the Swan River. The scenery was incredible and much of the trip was covered in virtual solitude.

We had no difficulty finding excellent campsites. In the aspen high above the South Platte, on beds of needles in Ponderosa forests near Lost Creek, in a meadow near Rock Creek, a Forest Service picnic ground in South Park and a little pine grove near the Swan River. Several campsites, however, were without water. Backpacking on the CT in many places is a problem in water management. This is particularly true on this portion of the trail. Camping only where there's water forces your trip into short days and uncomfortably long days. You can carry extra water, or you can cook your principal meal when water is available. Eating when water was available seemed to work out the best. We also found it wise to take a long lunch break and cook something substantial like Chinese noodles. This made the afternoon much easier and prevented fatigue and dehydration.

The weather was mostly cooperative with one night of rain followed by another night of rain, sleet and snow with a day of rain in between. It was a minor inconvenience, with a beautiful morning with fresh snow on the mountains. The temperature dropped below freezing several nights.

The biggest challenge on our trip was the crossing of Georgia Pass. We were hiking early in the season after a heavy snow pack. We got a good start on the morning that was beautiful and clear again. Our packs had become noticeably lighter. We had used seven days of food and our bodies had also adjusted to carrying the weight. We climbed through the forest on a good trail and gained about 800 feet of elevation before stopping for a last view back to Kenosha Pass. In less than a day it looked so distant. We soon reached the 11000 foot level and began to encounter patches of snow on the trail. Before long we were making significant route adjustments to avoid snow piles on the trail that were two to three feet deep. As we neared timberline it was not possible to avoid all the snow and I began to wish that I had brought my gaiters along. They don't weigh very much and don't take up much space.

Above timberline there were large patches of snow. Some of the snow was crusty enough to walk on which made for good hiking. We watched a coyote above us traversing across the snow patches. I've never seen a coyote at this elevation and in these snow conditions. In between, there were areas of open ground, but these were very wet and in some places quite muddy. We had lost the exact trail, but we were heading for a sign post and some marker posts near the ridge by the pass. In the process of crossing a snow patch I broke through the surface and stepped into a flowing stream of ice water. My boot was full of water but there was not much to be done about it at that point except to slosh onward.

We finally crossed the ridge near Georgia Pass and headed slightly down and to the north along the CT. The trail began to traverse along a forested hillside at this point and before long we lost the trail completely in a series of head high snowdrifts. We decided that it was going to be impossible to follow the trail through this area. There was too much snow and we needed to lose elevation as quickly as possible. We opted for an older version of the CT that dropped rapidly northward from Georgia Pass along a jeep trail into the drainage of the South Fork Swan River. We made the route adjustment that required some strenuous postholing through significant snow drifts to reach the more open going of the old jeep track.

It still had drifts on it until we got below 10000 feet. There was much more snow on the north side of the pass than there was on the south side. We found a small grassy patch along the trail and took a much needed break.

Our feet were cold and wet so we took off our boots and socks and lay them in the sun to dry a little. We flopped in the sun on our mattresses. I pulled out the stove and before long we had a cup of hot soup which helped Marcia's attitude a lot. We put on dry socks, put the boots back on and headed down the track.

Since it was a weekend day and we were near Breckenridge we began to encounter a lot of casual hikers and cyclists. Most were inquisitive and wanted to know where we came from. When we said "Denver", they usually responded with, "did you walk?", answered with "yes", followed by "WOW". Some wanted to know more details.

We were tired and started looking for a place to camp. It's not all that easy in this area as a stretch of this road goes through private property and is marked with "No Trespassing" signs on both sides of the road. Soon after crossing to the east side of the river and rejoining the CT where it comes down the road from the Middle Fork Swan River, there is an area of forest land with a nice grove of pine trees along a side stream. We got sufficiently far from the road so as not to be bothered by the traffic and it was a fine campsite. We fell to sleep easily this night because we were very tired from the day's exertion.

A brisk hike covered the six miles to the main highway in a hurry as we passed through the ever expanding resort area of Breckenridge. We had an excellent view of the next section of the CT as it climbs and crosses over the Ten Mile Range. There was still a lot of snow on this section and some very ominous looking cornices above the trail. It seemed unlikely that this section of trail would be passable until at least the middle of July.

We found a telephone near the highway and called our son in Denver for a pickup at the Goldhill Trailhead. We hiked on to the trailhead and passed the time eating the rest of the cheese and crackers and trail mix, playing backgammon and just relaxing in the sun.

Ninety miles on the Colorado Trail. It's not a great achievement, but very satisfying nonetheless. Now for the other 380 miles!

PS: Due to the unfortunate Buffalo Creek Fire (June 1996) the section of the Colorado Trail from South Platte to Highway 126 (Section 2) is closed and will probably never reopen at its previous location.

This article was submitted by the author.

Other Information

• Located in Arapahoe National Forest and Pike National Forest
• Guide Books
  • The Colorado Trail (official guide book), Randy Jacobs
• What to Bring on a Hike
• Safety And Survival
• There's Weather Out There
• Learning Safety Through the Experience of Others