Colorado Trail, Segment 5, Day 4

Day 4--June 24, 2013

We ate breakfast burritos and had a beautiful hike downhill. 

We encountered our only snow as we tried to cross this stream.  We checked out many options but determined the best option was simply to walk across the snow.  It felt stable and did not crunch.  There was snow upstream and downstream.

Along the way we met three boys and their teacher from DC Oaks--an alternative school in Castle Rock (Woody, Cash, and Quentin).  All were in good spirits and happy to be out hiking.  About an hour and a half later, we met three girls, their teacher, and her daughter, also from DC Oaks.  They were not having as good a time as the boys.  There were lots of complaints and some whining.  They had camped the previous evening at Kenosha and hiked on Sunday to Rock Creek Trailhead.  They camped there last night and were now hiking to Long Gulch Trailhead.  They would be shuttled back to Rock Creek to camp tonight.  Then tomorrow they would start again at Long Gulch and hike to the Lost Creek Campground which we saw at Brookside McCurdy.  These were the only people we saw this day on the trail--probably because it was Monday.

We were having a great day with great weather and a beautiful hike! 

The trail approaching Rock Creek

Views at the beginning of Segment 5

We got cell service at the Rock Creek Trailhead.  We checked in.  I texted Rob about changing our plans and going past Kenosha Pass to Jefferson Lake.  I also texted Kathryn about our progress.



We saw this rock on top of another rock with tape underneath.

Along the trail we found a note taped to a rock with a rock on top.  The note was written in Chinese.  Sarah told me what she knew about this situation from Facebook.  Apparently two Chinese girls were hiking and got separated.  We got a picture of the note and the rocks.  We also started taking pictures of the wild flowers we saw.

Here is the note written under the rock.  Notice the message written in Chinese.

A trail marker after we crossed Rock Creek

Our goal was to camp at Johnson Gulch at mile 8.4 so we could make the climb into Kenosha Pass fresh in the morning.  This is the last water spot until Kenosha.  As we approached we saw a tent on the top of the hill and could see someone inside. 

Our campsite on night #4.  Beyond the trees in the background was Will's tent before he moved on one mile further.

We set up our tent in the lower meadow to give him space.  We didn't have a lot of privacy, but it was adequate.  We washed my hair, and we washed our socks.  We wrote in our journals. 

Sarah hanging out at our campsite late afternoon.

Looking at our campsite from on the hill near Will's campsite.

This was Sarah's favorite campsite of our trip.

A view of the fire from Will's campsite.  We had camped the night before where this fire was burning now.

On one of Sarah's trips to get water, the man camped at the top of the hill, Will, came down for water as well.  He really came down to tell Sarah that he could see a fire in the distance.  He explained that he planned to pack up his camp and move a mile or more further down the trail to get out of a three mile radius that could be evacuated due to the fire.

We estimated that the fire was about 5 miles away. Plus we had Rock Creek, a fairly large water source, beween us and the fire.  We were only .4 miles from the Rock Creek Trailhead if we needed to evacuate.

We had chicken and dumplings for dinner with a different preparation than the other backpacking meals.  Yum!  We washed dishes for the first time.  After dinner we hiked up to Will's campsite to see the fire.  We took pictures of the smoke and discussed our options.  We decided we were pretty safe.



Our campsite looking down from Will's campsite.  Sarah's favorite spot!

We played cards in the tent.  As I went to sleep I wondered if we would be awakened in the middle of the night by a ranger evacuating us.

To the right of the tent you can see the rocks and fire ring where we hung out.  When we arrived we had salami sandwiches and then started cleaning up a bit to feel better.  We had no trees to hang bags so they eventually ended up sitting in a small tree for each bag.