Hiking the CDT Loop - Colorado Backpacking & Camping Trip

Cannell divided and we're just going to use a portion of the CDT and we've got ourselves a 28 mile loop with safety first though I mean if you have no choice but to be in a storm when you're exposed just pant pure banner embrace the panic it's a natural response [Music] going back there yeah we got some big packs on this one hey everybody syntax 77 here let me tell you what the current situation is we're actually here in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and we're about to do a four-day three-night backpacking loop along the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains sara is prepping up as we speak apparently that's my lovely wife Sarah yeah all right that's Mike aka trail Killa aka trail flip aka that's it damn like for real it's set down shut it down no not really but kind of alright what's important his lovely wife Danielle aka Danielle disco I don't know which we're gonna get right now she looks like Danielle you know done it this guy was a whole nother level we'll get into that I'm sure you're dying to know if you aren't already but we're probably going to do a little hiking too so you might learn a little bit about what it's like to hike in the Rockies along the Continental Divide so we're gonna get packed up right now just these heavy packs on our back hit the trail there you go willing this permit required we got that no fires allowed and we're on our way [Applause] working it just get my heart going fast yeah well we are from sea level and are starting elevation is 9,000 feet 91 we're at 90 100 no so this is not that terrible of an uphill but it feels terrible today is actually our lowest mileage day it's only going to be around 3 ish miles we are getting a late start it's one o'clock but we were out yesterday we flew in the day before that and we did day hike when to knock out a 14 so we went to Gray's peak and there's definitely a lot of people there it's very popular not too far outside of Denver but it kicked our butts okay good job anyway this loop is not gonna have anything quite that high I think our highest points will be twelve and a half thousand feet which is good but we actually started pardon me for being a brat we actually started down at the Green Mountain trailhead we're taking the Green Mountain Trail kind of like a lollipop to connect to the loop and you can call this like a Continental Divide loop trail Continental Divide is a thirty one hundred mile long distance trail kind of like the Appalachian Trail only it goes from Mexico to Canada either north to south or vice versa and we're just going to use a portion of the CDT it forms kind of a horseshoe shape around here then we take one other trail to connect that and we've got ourselves a twenty-eight mile loop or in our case thirty because we're lolli popping out from the ground the Green Mountain trailhead yeah some Meadows right over here very nice but like I said today's gonna be relatively easy not a ton of elevation gain and we'll get rested up at camp because we got to get up when tomorrow because we got 12 miles to do tomorrow and tomorrow is when we actually get our elevation gain and get up on the ridge so we got the most mileage and the most elevation gain so we got to get up early we also want to avoid what is pretty much a daily occurrence storms thunderstorms and they tend to happen and they certainly are now any afternoon pretty much every day we're gonna get thunderstorms at some point so if we want to get off of that Ridge before noon so hence it is called a free shower good points look at this oh good toilet paper right there they really didn't even walk into the woods they walked right in a minute no animal sighting yeah maybe maybe at some point my it's pretty though lotta break it's this one right good water gotta stay hydrated especially if you're at high altitude and not you still like us you're gonna breathe out a lot of moisture and not regain it but you got money son cuz you got fiji water well this has electrolytes and that helps you with the elevation so she's technically even though it's smart water no pun intended she's miss smarter than my choice of bougie water like mine's tap water sorry no this one's we got a fresh one yeah we could pop a little saw pinch of salt in here in your tap water and we're good to go you swelled up a little bit on the fourth time right on it gonna be well below that elevation so you're gonna feel great that's what yesterday was that's what today might be too because it's not like we went up there at these big old packs yesterday so this is uh this is an added challenge even though we're doing less imagine if you could have a drone here yeah no joint on this chap from national park we follow the rules but look at this cool little meadow view speaking arene there's those dark clouds that are kind of foreboding in the distance and really cool just kind of trees and meadows vibe right here so for at 1.8 we only had like a mild again that's music to my ears dude I heard I heard like they called like no no we're dipping down to getting close to the water - I wonder if this is the stream that the campsite so long hi nice it looks flowing and cold yeah I think we might be close alright they told us follow the red markers and that'll lead us to camp most of the little spare trail like this so that you're not camping directly on the trail which is nice pretty good now the one thing we didn't ask I forgot to ask it's kind of important is are these single reserved spots or group spots nobody's here right now single it doesn't look that big oh we got probably put something down there but this is the silver Arrowhead where they tell you you have to be unless there's dead trees in the way you don't want to do that right now that looks safe yeah we're definitely seeing stars today starter ain't our plan we brought as a common area that we're going to put up first in case the rain opens up on us then we'll work on the tent that will also give us somewhere to cook under and do stuff like that it's here we go I feel raindrops oh we got to get this done and see how this goes oh boy that's high is this inside out because I remember always s is inside out beautiful no animals coming around here now got my new sleeping pad I'm testing from Unni gear if I'm pronouncing that right I believe this is well under 50 bucks maybe like 30 bucks it's not super thick but it's about a pound it's only two ounces more than my Z light pad which is 14 ounces and I'm inflating Sarah's is a pound and a half but it's three inches thick with a quilted pattern the big Big Agnes cute cord she's gonna be sleeping in style I'm a little more minimal I could take over for you if you'd like a nice thing about this is as a one-way valve on it so as I'm breathing it won't deflate Sarah doesn't have that much today okay we do have all four of us in this demo three person tent it is a three person which is ridiculous but we're gonna make it work its weight its weight when you split it four ways we've done it many times before oh yeah we've done this is finally done oh there's more tired bear vault and that's just you and me allegedly although we did bring some we did rig some hors d'oeuvre some appetizers for the earth and there's a pico de gallo what are we having tonight for an appetizer because only four o'clock we'll probably do dinner at 6:00 what was that unless you wanted bean dip okay so and you brought in Sarah might have been a little excessive I guess she's training for a marathon back east so in high elevations she actually carry 50 to 60 pounds so if we tear those up and dip them in case out which is cheese dip maybe we can shed some weight from her pack and enjoy a nice name the whole restaurant and we got banana pudding for tomorrow I think yeah Oh Lord we got some good food and what's for dinner we're gonna do okay chili and then an extra calories we got miss bikini that's for the group yeah but if anybody else wants matchdays they can use potatoes all the classic we've seen that before it never gets old and Lok and grape juice non-alcoholic good stuff we got a whole menu years ago I'm telling ya the chairs are about a pound and a half it's the all light mayfly chair but once you're up here it sure feels good so if you're well-rested you can have the energy to carry the extra pound a nap that's my full menu a roof over our heads Sara's making my favorite dish showed a million times you're having the Texas State Fair jelly from package yeah well that's why you love it I've got a big in burrito with fajita chicken so it's like a black bean and chicken burrito and then once again Sara's million pounds of food but leave without them I need them all on the first day like you add pepper packets that you put on there how's the dirt tastes all right are you ready for your chili this is like a Sarah ham yes I almost put the chili directly in the bowl apparently that was a problem why cuz you need mashed potatoes as a base everyone needs your carb-loading for tomorrow's festivities how much Mestre's you want yeah put it all in there save the only thing mr. brill back your friend his socks and his blister on your first bike seriously how's the blister that convinced Mike to buy a pair of white socks that's W righ t double layered so it's like you have a built-in sock layer liner but he already got the blister yesterday on the 14 or hike my apologies Mike is it feeling any better you want to put some it sucks I got a birthday kit right here and there's there's bliss Tobin there's moleskin pre-cut Kurt what do you think it's already popped it's just loose skin and very irritated I would do second skin or blue bin but it's good the burrito not makes blister oh yeah very good I'm gonna continue to do that Mike's gonna fix this foot we're gonna go to beds are gonna be wearing these super early I think the Sun might barely be down we got it obviously get organized and put our stuff away anything yeah we got to do dishes but it's gonna be an early night and we're probably gonna see sunrise on the trail so that'd be interesting but that's tomorrow so forget that night [Music] it has an aftertaste of cheeseburgers it is a cheap I know but it has that a place of cheapskate mm-hmm what else would it have [Applause] [Music] here we are got up at 4:00 and it's planned actually pulled it off broke down can't plus a little common area we'll get some water on the trail 5:30 not too shabby we could see Sun right along the trail hopefully depending on where she's just tired of us that's true a little cold definitely in the 40s this morning at least by the time I checked my watch when we woke up keep on flashlight again until giant orange ball light things up the waterfall coffee-break in honor of the CDT I guess we're gonna do kind of a thru-hikers style today we woke up and just got right on the trail didn't eat or drink anything just got right to it got warmed up yeah about 1.6 miles in came to a great view we'll bust up the coffee and the snacks and there's just something about it psychologically if you're sitting at camp you're sipping your coffee you're like yeah alright we'll break down soon if you just break down and roll find a cool spot hey you get a different view for breakfast and being you feel a little bit more like you're on a break so you're a little more enticed to just eat it enjoy yourself but ultimately just get back on the trail seems to work out for me when I do it that way although I'll be honest I'm pretty lazy I usually don't do this but it is a pretty good method we're about to head up from our coffee break yesterday we parked here Green Mountain came in straight over then came up here around relatively flat minor uphill hit sunset now we're at upper Granite Falls I believe or Granite Falls so we made it from here to here it's like a mile and a half and we're pushing it yeah we did so then we cruise a little bit more and then we really get it in here cuz this gets up to what's that say eleven thousand five hundred so that's like we're at 95 hundred so there's a two thousand foot push in here and we keep cruising we're doing this whole section I'm going around and then it looks like we dumped down shed a bunch of elevation and camp at pine marten and that'll be today hopefully so yeah when it comes to elevation gain it's all happening today and then every day's are going to be very chill lower mileage maybe watch six to eight miles they crammed all the elevation gain into like that section it'll feel good [Applause] well forest fire action very interesting hilarious this is pretty nice when you got this craggy looking guy over here nice little opening after being in the woods for a little bit I must say though I can't ask for a better trail right now than this it's flat it's beautiful anomalous permitted we originally submitted for this campsite because it appeared to be the only one left thankfully after Mike called the Ranger and talked to him they said that wasn't the case and they put together a loop for us and by that I mean they told us what was available and if it would actually work but I did look into getting llamas like like you just said and even if we could have got llama as they said no because you have to have at least eight people had this kind of site but someday we're going to get a llama rental comes with a trailer and everything so cool yeah I'm just walking on my knees slightly different experience but that's right this one's pretty good to palana experience llama stay looks pretty cool nice view from over there Dee pretty looking back we actually like yep from the ridge I guess we get going over here and that's probably wrong the map or it bends around and gets much elevation probably cross yeah nice yeah Mountains don't care you notice how this trail bothers across Bighorn flats and lies exposed above treeline for several miles beyond our precipitous cliffs glaciers steep steep snow shoots weather conditions can rapidly become severe and snow or fog hikers can easily lose the trail not good that's why we're leaving early today with rock Cairns you'll find your way through this area I'm at living now do not attempt this route in bad weather as whiteouts are not unusual even in the summer don't be afraid to turn back when in doubt don't get summit fever wow the new perspective we haven't seen over there yeah yeah we're on the trail let's get a little rock here sure we are officially making our way up that point we've been looking at all day on the map that is and now in real life so we'll see how much more aggressive than this it gets but elevation is 10,500 so I think we do have about a thousand feet to put on at some point to get to this Ridge we'll just see how they give it to it I feel my heart my head again no boy all right take a breather micro breaks are your friend especially when you're Flatlanders like us can almost tell because a recovery takes a little bit longer yeah yeah you know myself puffing more but I'm not like more like a 5 minute or vs jonh that's like a 1 minute I'm good ready yep slow and steady wins the race this one at least sandi have all kind of vibe now we're getting some nice I don't playing kind of subalpine kind of look nice look around here with the trees and everything uh-oh looks like I was soaking it in so much it didn't realize I lost the group way back down in noon I think it's the progress that's for sure obviously getting a bit rocky here as we get higher up up above here not too far ahead should be our last opportunity to get water before completing the rest of the bridge and the rest we rested a bridge there is some elevation gain but a lot milder than what we're doing now so the nice thing is this is actually after a decent amount of that elevation gain so we were afforded the luxury of hiking up without a lot of water weight and then we'll bust out the SteriPEN and get some new batches of fresh water going up here keep us hydrated and fueled for the rest of the ridge all right I'll stop starin uses UV to treat the water just stir it for 90 seconds of course you have to refill our recharge this not the end of the world can't tell on the bright light but yep the green lights blinking one of the detractions of this system that people will point out is hey this the SteriPEN is only like two ounces but you have to carry a Nalgene which is like six and a half ounces and that negates the weight savings of a filter system just take your one and a half liter bottle cut it down put a 1 liter mark because that's the max that it will treat and it weighs I don't know half a quarter ounce something like that and you're good to go 11400 87 we got thousand feet to go it's very gradual though well works I mean it's the pass right so it's gotta be I don't know it could be a gradual passes it really build up that slow and then you just kinda through the past it is new now I heard the beep so that's about when you want to get off the ridge so we're getting through it we're didn't throw it so safety first though I mean tricolor says yes that if you have no choice but to be in a storm when you're exposed mm-hmm you want to sit on your packs I'm making this up so you want to be as high as possible is what you're saying yeah and then just suffocate yourself with your tarp so you don't get wet and hold it down okay pant pure panic it breaks the panic it's a natural response yeah your backpack suffocate yourself at you whatever tart you can get and hold it down and wait it out all right well we'll catch up with you later we'll see if it rains then we might have to give this a go that's your 10% chance of rain long as it stays over there so it's basically all four corners that are coming in on this that's good no it's kind of flat right now but because we're narrowing in on 12,000 feet and we're Flatlanders or East Coasters whatever you want to call it even that is kind of hurting us especially with all the stuff in our packs so we're getting there now we're getting there how long is the outing back to see the glacier while we're eating lunch to save time exactly look at that right over there well it was a patch of snow back there but if we would see some glaciers we'll figure it out so mile and a half to the intersection we'll have some lunch make some decisions sarah has dreams of ramen by the way do you see that rain cloud behind us that's pretty much chasing us at this point but the closest one we've seen so far and it's closing in luckily at this point is actually switched to some downhill although I haven't seen that Junction that we were looking to do lunch at so maybe that's actually after it goes downhill but I don't know how much rhythm no no I want to sit down and eat lunch but I don't want this rain cloud to catch up to us either let's see what happens [Applause] is this the junction that we were talking about potentially lunch again this is the your third inlet trail that must be the spur to flat top I mean there's the Karen's and whatnot and people coming back we can check the map see how long it is unfortunately this is it's not too bad right now but not the best place to cook my know probably use half a bottle of fuel just trying to blow because I didn't bring a windscreen like an idiot so do you have a win three for yours cool I can get mine buying rocks and stuff or you know make a structure but I don't know it's up to you it really looks nice relatively nice and clear over here our trail seems big towards darkness all right that's fine you know ask these people how long it took them and what they saw down on the spirituali flat top decision on if we're gonna start packing somewhere and now okay is it worth I mean like is it worth taking the trip and how far was it because we're headed to camp this way we didn't know if we should okay okay it's like a vertical one yeah that's the one I was talking about so yeah right over you'd see it cool thanks for the Intel especially if I drop this pack I'll be there in two seconds yeah that's true we have the packs off would be a little different are we gonna go eat up there that's a good decision where do we eat we need to eat yeah we do and just energized them but I'm fine I yeah oh yeah all right Mike what is it okay their lifetime well if it's still giving you trouble in like two minutes just take this guy because I said I was covering much anyway I only went went ahead and didn't say anything cuz I figure two stiffs would be faster what did it say to add for every 5000 people this says double it rehydration times doubles every 5000 feet all right set for 5000 work done yeah don't have to cook instead of 15 to 20 30 to 40 minutes imagine if your 15,000 no you would double and then double I have ramen - do you guys want some no I ate all my snack okay pack covers are on preemptively cuz just have a pretty good feeling that the rain is uh gonna be upon us soon we won't be doing this burr trail people we were in into didn't seem super enthused about what they saw and we figured what we're seeing out here is pretty beautiful anyway and from looking at the map it looks like we got five miles instead of four so when you put all that together and shake it up it means just keep moving this it's a little cooler with the wind down here as we drop down a little bit the cool mountain range over there Tim of course that's where it came from look snow accumulation or hail sleep whatever's going on right now I don't know but you can see it's just so bright and nice just seems to be kind of following us a little personal cloud it's no clown I got my full brain gear on and I've just opened this one pass and if not well often I can do about that either well the Sun is back out we're descending and it down into this gorge if you will sometimes like the kind of bowl we were just up there and we're working our way down a little storm snow squall slash rain whatever it was was pretty uh pretty intense for a little bit didn't last super long it dropped down to like 41 degrees I saw it at one point it's 3:24 we should be within three miles of camp which is nice and it should be all downhill from here and there's a water source right by the camp so I'm looking forward to that I don't have a whole lot left pretty much drank myself down to maybe a quarter liter or so and my wife has a little more than that that we can share it's about where we are now but boy what a difference Sun coming out next but wait there's more look at that nice column of rain coming right down our Valley I feel about that Mike REI rain jacket serving UL gore-tex active it's pretty solid let's be brief - yeah I'll put a link in the video description click it to support the channel being a big fan of things I like that makes sense anyway and another time they took you say that that column actually kind of blew out a little bit I mean it's still coming but it's not as intense looking I don't know what's happening but these are the people I choose I actually choose to hike with these people the conversations look Danielle is a good example I like her yeah I got her yeah I like this jacket I got the jacket yeah okay before I know it I'm gonna be drinking wine I love wine non-alcoholic of course in this lovely National Park grape juice is what we mean I'm talking about when I get back Oh back home yeah let's go nowwhere ex-love we're done oh my god that's playing needles that's gonna feel so good on my feet I'm so sick of these rocks we gotta be close oh this feels invisible come here we've got a moose sighting it just bet it down yeah that's cool so cool that looks so good on my wall huge ones just kidding I'm just kidding Sarah did a good job on that she got some pics yeah did she yeah tell me I don't know but she spotted oh yeah job on that because that just completed my I wanted to see a moose thing check that off the list then cool maybe he'll visit us at camp because we are pretty close now what is the name of the camp like for me we are pine marten tonight twin beds Money Train Larry they're looking for pine marten [Applause] ten room for the awhile buy from you I'm like Pocahontas and she look around and I spot animals they did you mean by everything like something on me yeah maybe I would like a safari guide and I'm pretty good I know he's not too concerned with you I'm like you're just the moose and deer whisperer black bear it's Sarah Safari it's opening back up here their final approach to camp is I almost fall over you see a sign yeah straight ahead there's a sign you got mountains that's why let's just lift that switch back switch back okay dude I'll take this okay and the clear sky do you uh you think this is okay we can keep going we're here at pine marten site number two after 14 miles and 3,000 feet of elevation gain and a ton of years it was a great day but we're beat camp is set nice view in the background all of our chairs set up their tent over there we got the camp that when did we get here five ish I think five o'clock or so still got some light it was actually completely clear when we first got here but we do have a little bit of cloud cover coming in but that's okay cuz we got the same tarp setup as last night basically so I'll give you a little tour around I often do ultralight backpacking you know ten pounds or less really kind of counting every gram you would think coming out here and high elevation that I'm not used to that we would stick to the ultralight for some reason we have not let me show you how not to ultralight camp do a bunch of miles at high elevation and you know what we didn't die we were hurtin but we didn't die so of course we got the chairs over there y'all ready so we got a little hammock chair here this guy actually doesn't weigh much but he's got some Whoopie slings on there and that's a tooties hammock chair that I got from Dutch wear gear so if you want to lounge like that instead of in the chairs go for it over here you want to see something not ultralights how about a car camping lantern right there with nice eight double a's inside Sarah loves this thing so this will light up our tarp which is kind of balanced out by the fact that the tarp is super light kuben fiber mics over here chilling in his ninja outfit dialing how you doing buddy that's good it's really it's a good look no everybody's cleaned up at this point what time is it daylight now it's Weinheim wow it's almost 7:00 already so yeah we're gonna have some appetizers soon stairs getting into the bear vault which we'll also use as our serving table and we'll do an appetizer and then dinner we're all very hungry and hoping that it stays clear I'm hoping that these clouds go away at night so we can see some stars the cool thing about today is we have two more days one more night I think I got that right yeah today was the biggest day tomorrow is pretty chill the last day we still want to get up pretty early so we can get back to the car and we might go to Aspen so what that means today is since we're only doing like five six miles we can relax after getting our butts kicked today we're going to chill out tomorrow morning we're not going to get up at 4 a.m. are actually going to maybe stay up a little later tonight and hang around camp tomorrow so it should be fun we'll get some good grub and I mean with a view like that I'm pretty happy that we're gonna be chilling here a little longer than we did it the other campsite this is nice that's dumb yeah well bean dip action mics over there doing one more batch of he committed to doing a SteriPEN batch longest 90 seconds of his life because Sarah opened up the bean dip as soon as he put that in there look at him look at him we won't eat it all I promise it's a long 90 seconds isn't I try one anything Mike it's got some good flavor and veggies and stuff in them I would bring hot sauce next time put it in with it while it rehydrates and some ranch so it's spicier ranch but it has very good flavor yeah good stuff I better get in there myself is there some nice Christmas lights there [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right it's breakfast time you slept in till like 7:30 today what do you got that's your breakfast for today good day sunshine bowl why I like that you're showing it what's in it [Laughter] mango almonds pecans she have hearts coconut and maple msyn syrup that sounds great is there a reason that you're you're holding out in front of your face is the altitude and extreme physical activity potentially affected you I think we all are I'm sure it has to do with the altitude and physical activity some sort of company shopping you still look lovely so yeah we're gonna have our packet gourmet breakfast they actually sent me this to celebrate their 10 year anniversary because they got all new labels their packaging looks super slick you know so I have been holding on to this for like what a month or two now waiting to try it because I said I wanted to do it with my wife in Colorado so we're gonna do that and a cup of coffee Mike and Danielle are over here just doing their warm-up routine in the morning just warming up that's a hand warmer right there are we gonna should we tell them about this she already know okay so Sarah there's a surprise yesterday we were hiking it was right when that storm hit and the snow came down and I put my camera gear away a lot of times but I had out a little bit there was that lake in the distance that was it was in the distance but you couldn't miss it because it was so sparkly yeah and I didn't I didn't film it but we all saw it right it was very beautiful so today since we don't have nearly two miles we just have a handful of miles today we got plenty of time unlike yesterday we're gonna go to that lake it's actually down this trail over there it should just be like a mile-and-a-half there's two of them I don't know which one we are seeing but yeah we're gonna go see them yeah so here's our whole loop again again our start point first night did all this yesterday came down here now we're at pine marten and so yeah we'll leave our stuff here and it just kind of Luck's out that what we did to get two pine marten off of the CDT is already a bit of a ways there we go down this no packs feeling good and there's Lake nakhon II and Lake Nenita now I'm not sure which one we saw from up there but we can figure that out either way they're both on this trail yeah so we'll have a little breakfast and some coffee and we'll get that done also for anybody wondering how on earth we do four people in a three person tent Nimmo 3p look it works it gets the job done it's not like we're hanging out in there it's strictly for sleeping at the very end of the night so normally you would sleep this way it's narrow on this end it's longer on the other end head head toe right we just jammed in the opposite way so you definitely lose some depending on your height or possibly a lot of foot room but it's possible it also seems to be super important how you set it up and that you spread it out as much as possible the tent body that is because the first thing I felt a lot more squished in a second so that's apparently a fact ik but you can see we just got all four sleeping bag and sleeping pad arrangements so I decide in there and then they're made that's breaking it down I guess so we're just breaking this stuff down I don't know we were debating how much to break camp down today before we do our little jaunt on it but probably all of it just so if there is an early bird that shows up here they don't get confused and think somebody stole their spot plus when we get back we'll be able to just roll would be nice to hike without packs for a little bit today then like relaxing coffee time and what do you what are you doing like following the lumber so this is how when you see there's relaxing photos of people at the mountains this is the stress that goes into like just fell on his face because his shoelace got tangled with his other boots this piece right here perfect timing clipped on bono and I felt my face that's good so this is a what nature's really like apparently yeah so what you got this is what you don't think of when you see this big Cheers coffee Cheers not bad Sara packed in a little food and try the good days sunshine in bulk and package woman's Theo do you want in Turks as a combination I have not yet had before it's really good though so this is good we're gonna use this to fuel up and then we'll hit the trail it's breakfast houses and checking the weather report with our little weather radio nothing too out of ordinary basically everyday it says it's going to be a thunderstorm in the afternoon although it's been 10% chance instead of 30 so that's better you satisfied with our bag hiding locations Michael good to streak down this hole from this dead tree and it leads right to it right so we are bagless let's begin our little lake excursion it's about it's actually running on what 11 o'clock I think right now but because our hike later is I believe five ish miles of flat we should be fine with this timeline and still get to camp tonight at least the time we get to experience hiking in this area without a bunch of crap on our backs [Applause] weight pushing down little steeper now [Applause] see some dark clouds over there too but they won't get over here too soon yeah that's just like because all the way down to the moon should just be like another quarter mile according to my GPS and then it'll be lake time no candy stop okay all right here we go I do believe we're about to see our lake can you imagine camping here well if they didn't make it I bet you would be like well that's my point who wouldn't camp here the lake it can't be I don't think yeah to get to this first one yeah we've got two miles and it took us an hour so half an hour more it's the big one I don't know about these clouds though definitely about to get rainbow just a lunch spot or what let's do a little lunch thankfully we thought ahead pulled out of the bear bag which is on the bottom here in what is usually my sleeping bag area that's where my bear canister is but we already have lunch pulled out it's up top of my topic thank you we're gonna rehydrate some chicken salad for Sarah and roast beef for me or vice versa or something like that it's a cold meal and Patrick were many sweets just have a package with me on this trip we had a whole box full and I said let's take it to color so now we have no more left we're about 5 ounces in there and then we'll dump it into the first one is that adjusted for altitude I think the main issue for altitude is how long we let it so this is right by the big pool campsite I think it's going to be our lunch spot potentially where-where-where truck he'll it takes a dip make a Michael never never swim after you eat that's why Mike's doing this first quick exit look old [Applause] alright that's like the dinner bell I think it's lunchtime I'm gonna give you a chicken salad and then we'll have I don't know a mile and a half something like that to go home will be a kit mixing you know we'll be eating dinner is our 4:30 lunch that's right this is a great view here this is obviously a very populated listing place because of all the tracks right here this is very true but are you saying that Sara's wildlife adventure and it's me yesterday well she started today with a deer we still have like two hours of light yeah give her some time that was rude no your safaris awesome she found a moose deer and Danielle found deer yeah I haven't felt anything I suck at this game they're gonna get eaten by bears nothing to do animal bear bait this is gonna be great when we see one run across the field Adam get it on video so cascade falls yeah good news because we're only a half-mile away from camp and it also tells us we should go see it because I can hear it I know I can hear it okay and there's also a hitch rack well yeah because you can have stock or so you can tie llamas up our lamb horse horses and then go look at the Falls probably right that was nice of them looks like we made it we're not completely set up but this may be my last chance to show anything so I'm just going to give you a quick look obviously we have that really nice drop back drop right there there's another camp up there but it's very small because it's kind of pinned in by a restoration area so we came down here we got the tarp up obviously it's actively raining we got the tent right there we've seen that before right same set up there Danny I'll kick that out there rocking it they got sleeping pads in there and everything already and then Mike and I got the tarp over here now we didn't modify a little bit because hey we didn't have as many trees and B we got wind blowing from this direction so it's coming across here and hitting there so we have a porch mode you can see we have that side down Mike has a really cool version of the Cuban hack start that has drawers so he has the door shut on this end and then we have one door open here a little walkway there that door is pitched out to give us more space and then inside you can see we have an a-frame toilet on one side that goes to the ground here and then from over here you can see we actually went fortunate so you can kind of walk straight in there if you had duck your head a little bit and that gives us some more living or lounging space if you will and that's pretty nice we'll get our chairs under there we'll do the normal routine maybe an appetizer maybe some canned grape juice we'll have some dinner we'll call it a night like we mentioned earlier I think we came to a consensus as a group we're going to get up pretty early before the Sun rises that's for sure so hopefully this clears up so we get a nice view at our last campsite because we're gonna be up before the Sun rises the only trail [Applause] Thursday night mostly cloudy with a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon [Applause] North wind's points 10 to 15 miles per hour [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the final morning is upon us didn't quite get as aggressive of an early start as we did that first morning we got up at 5:30 today and we did have breakfast and coffee at camp so it was a little more relaxed but still early on the trail by a dish from looking at the map further inspection it appears we've got more like eight or nine miles today but luckily grade-wise elevation change wise nothing too crazy so we're thinking if we do a mm to even a two mile per hour pace looking at stuff and whatnot that we will probably get there in four and a half hours which means around 12:30 1:00 o'clock we should be back at the vehicle and then we'll be able to call this a successful Continental Divide loop hike but I don't want to get ahead of myself we've still got a lot of hiking in front of us and amazing views and times to be had and that Sun is coming over that rage it's feeling pretty good it was cold this morning low 30s for sure according to my watch when I woke up so it'll be nice to get some sunshine singing pork goop goop it's like a big old cabin of sorts I have a property stay on the trail okay so it's not part of the park we will stay on the trail beautiful scenery on here though some birds are out not too bad of a great that we're walking on right now either careful I can plate about this take it while we can write some low-hanging clouds above us there saris afar feet what's your guess it's Danielle thinks it's a snake do you think we can bring it home for my sister no that's like the like the hip I think that's like the femur or not femur excuse me like the hip bone Danielle's death tour this is a pretty cool kind of switching scenery ever since we got past that cabin almost like kind of uh I don't know like a farm plains kind of vibe we're just walking around on this easy grade these cool fences and some horses in the distance they're pretty neat pretty novel after being in some pretty severe up-and-down rocky trails kind of nice to be on a trail where you can actually walk with all four of you side by side it's nice and flat you definitely get a wide variety of ecosystems and terrains and vibes on this trip for sure [Music] pretty [Applause] instead of cooter on the bottom there yeah North inlet mountain lions frequent this area they are powerful predators they can hurt or kill you if you see a lion stop do not run pick up small children stand tall if attacked fight back if we hike grew I would make him in an area where there's mountain lions I would make him walk between us yeah oh yeah pick him off and run yeah it's not good same for small pets little dogs and stuff so first time we've seen cars in a while breath the parking area here and the trail should pick back up up here and we'll continue along we're not that far from the original Visitor Center where we got our permit but we do have to hike another three and a half four miles beyond that well we'll get there right it's only 9:40 a.m. was kind of rocking it it's a new trail and no thank you six miles yeah to the like the actual car awesome Green Mountain Charlotte all right we can do sex so our 9:00 estimate was good I'm halfway and hope you buy a stream to eat month very nice all right by far this would be I'd say in terms of grade and terrain our easiest set of trails yet that links us to the three mountain trail head which is where our vehicle is our tickets of fleeing royal goodness is what I like to call it I should stick to one meal at a time I'm already fantasizing about cheeseburgers but yeah it is 1111 a little little early but actually for us it works out because we're probably gonna want to grub when we get to Aspen so do a little lunch break by the water here fueled up now got these last ten four months guys coming out or doing it within and then you guys do a great job keeping these trails good yeah really appreciate it laptop oh wow you got a whole [Music] it's awesome who that holiday sir yep yes so dude that's cool it's amazing how much it's nothing huh all right well it's noon so you know what that means just like clockwork the ominous clouds are arriving back you can see that maintenance crew we saw a roll by but the horses actually went ahead and pitched up some tarps looks like they're gonna hole up I don't know if that was their plan for tonight or if they're just waiting out the storm but either way seems like good timing and a good idea for them us we're gonna keep on moving maybe another mile to get to the junction see if we get dumped on or not here big cluster Oh sounds like cars it looks like cars in fact it's a vehicle that is ours the rental 4runner is right there where we left it that is always a good sign so I think that means this is mission complete for Colorado who don't get this pack off in a minute I think it was a great time my lovely wife Sarah Danielle Mike aka trail Killa it's been great I want to thank everybody out there for coming along and joining me on this trip also extra big thanks to all of you out there that support the channel by shopping through my Amazon Lake syntax 77 calm amazon a little piece of your purchase will go towards supporting future trips just like this one it's much appreciated whoo I'm out of breath just from talking so I'm also pretty hungry huh that's true Yeah right over there yeah so you guys are hungry and this is my wife being hunt yeah me too so I think we're gonna yeah it's all of the food I got quite the appetite so I think we're gonna wrap this one up call it a definite success so until next time I'm syntax 77 and right now it's cheeseburger time [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: sintax77

Views: 180,086

Rating: 4.8430524 out of 5

Keywords: sintax, sintax77, hiking, camping, backpacking, Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Forest, colorado backpacking, colorado hiking, RMNP

Id: 58PJ2Kvlroc

Length: 70min 14sec (4214 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 28 2018