The Plan

Planning is always one of my favorite parts of a thru-hike. I cannot wait to start scrutinizing the new maps and selecting which towns to stop in to resupply and zero at. One of the things my PCT hike definitely taught me though was that some of the best parts of the trail are the parts that you cannot plan for. Keeping that in mind it is still important to have a schedule in mind so that I know I can pack enough food and meet up with friends along the way.

The Colorado Trail in generally open for hiking from June to September according to most CT alums. However I have already heard of a number of troubles some of my friend hiking the Continental Divide Trail which overlaps with some of the Colorado Trail and covers many of the same mountain ranges in Colorado. They are encountering with too much of the snow down in the San Juans which is not melting fast enough. I already pushed my start date back a little but am likely to run into quite a bit of snow as it was a good snow year here in Colorado.

In terms of resupplies I was glad to hear that most of the towns off the Colorado Trail have decent grocery stores that I can just resupply on the way. The only place I plan to send a mail drop is Twin Lakes. As for zero days (when you stop to take a day off in town) I only have four zero days planned since I will only be hiking for a month. That will give me a nice break each week and will allow me a much more casual hike. I also have planned to average less than 20 miles a day to give myself more time to explore Colorado along the way and maybe even climb a mountain or two. A lot of this trip is about exploring some of the best trails and mountains in Colorado so that I know where to head back to on future trips. A full list of my tentative itinerary is outlined below. 

Month	Mile	Resupply
July	485.8	Durango
	411.9	Sliverton
	358.6	Lake City
	253.7	Salida
June	177.7	Twin Lakes
	105.1	Breckenridge
	72.2	Fairplay
	0.0	Denver