Colorado Trail, Segment 5, Day 5

Day 5--June 25, 2013

We slept until 8:00 am--no middle of the night evacuation.  We had grits for breakfast.  Sarah could not believe I had never had grits before.  It was a little windy and hard to take down the tent.  We packed up and headed to the water to fill up before starting our daily trek. 

Johnson Gulch Sign with my poles and pack
This is where we were hanging out when we met Jim and his grandsons.
We filtered water for our climb.  They did too.

As we filtered the water, we met Jim, Carl, Ben and another of Jim's grandsons.  Jim is thru-hiking, and for these segments, he is accompanied by his three grandsons.   He has someone to hike with for the entire CT except the last three segments.

As they used their Steripen to filter their water, we had a great conversation.  We learned a little bit more about the fire.  These four camped beside the fire trucks the previous night.  We learned that Jim was a middle school science teacher.  As we chatted, two bikers came through on their way to Rock Creek.



From Will's Campsite on the way to Kenosha Pass

We got on the trail kind of late, around 11:00 am.  We climbed and soon got cell service and checked in with folks in Denver.  Further on we met a man training for a 95-mile hike in Scotland.  He had some information about the fire and told us about rescuing one of the Chinese girls that got separated from her friend.  He took her to the REI in Lakewood so she could get her pole fixed.  She spent the night at his house, and he returned her to the trail.



After chatting with the guy going to Scotland and checking out the vistas 

As we chatted with this man, the kids from DC Oaks reappeared.  Yesterday their group had been separated by the fire.  The boys made it to the Long Gulch Trailhead where they were shuttled back to the Rock Creek Trailhead, but the girls did not.  The male teacher had to call the principal to explain that the group was not complete.  He hoped that the girls had turned around and hiked back to their camp.  Eventually they were all reunited at Rock Creek.  However now they had to change their plans and were all hiking back to Kenosha Pass and would return to Castle Rock the next day.



Check out the vistas in the background

We continued our climb to some beautiful vistas of the Ten Mile Range (we think!).

From above we saw several Forest Service roads leading into Jefferson.

We saw the bikers again and spoke to the man that was going to Scotland again.  We also got another view of the fire from afar. 


A view of the fire one day later--still smokin'!

We saw two more bikers both coming and going.  Near the summit we called Kathryn after some texts and also called Rob to explain the change in plans for Thursday.  As we were talking to Kathryn three bikers were struggling up the trail.  We have been curious about how bikers handle some of the tough terrain.

  

One of our first views of South Park

Upon our descent we saw some great views of Jefferson and South Park.   

Another early view of South Park

As we approached Kenosha Pass not only could we hear highway 285 but we saw a group of college aged kids near a bench that was dedicated to a 17 year old. 

We saw several of these teepees built with fallen wood on both sides of Kenosha Pass.  This was the first one we saw.  We wondered who built them.  Boy Scouts?

We proceeded to Kenosha  Pass and read signs on the east side of the pass.  We learned that there is a campground on both sides of the pass.  The campground on the east side costs $15 per night, and the one on the west side costs $18 per night. 

We crossed highway 285 and proceeded along the trail after "signing in."  We met a woman coming down a dirt road that crossed the CT.  Her name was Annie, and she invited us into the campground later.  We hiked a few more feet and found a place to camp.  We set up our tent and ate dinner.  Then we took our water bottles into the campground to meet Annie and her friend Elise.  We visited for about 45 minutes or so and learned that they are both teachers.  Annie's husband was the art teacher at Lakewood High School four years ago.  Annie is retired.  Elise teaches English to Mexican students at Longmont High School.  We filled our water bottles and used the bathroom before we returned to our tent.  Annie and Elise walked by our campsite before retiring for the evening.