How to plan a thru-hike of the Colorado Trail: logistics, tips, and impressions

so you want to through hike the Colorado Trail first of all great decision second of all let's talk about how to do it in this video I'm going to talk about the logistics of a Colorado Trail through hike when you should do the hike where you start where you end what are the things you need to know in between so let's get into it first and foremost when should you hike the Colorado Trail the best time according to the Colorado Trail Foundation is from July through September and as someone who lives in Colorado I would totally agree with this I know that people from other states maybe states where Winter isn't as harsh or you don't get as much snow you might think that this is a short window and seems kind of silly I mean summer feels like it starts in May in some places right not in the High Country in Colorado we can have snow well first of all we can get snow any month of the year up in the high mountains but snow is way more likely to stick on the ground between October and June and we're way more likely to get snowstorms routine between October and June so when I'm going on my like early season hikes up in the high mountains in Colorado in say June I know that I'm gonna have to deal with usually a lot of snow I'm going to be post holding which means I'm going to be breaking down through the snow I'm going to have to deal with stream crossings that can be pretty intense because of all the melting snow and I just go in knowing that and Avalanche danger is a real thing in Colorado as well when there is a lot of snow on the ground so for that reason and because you are up at high elevation for quite a lot of the Colorado Trail really your best bet is between July and September and the end of September so I would try to be off the trail by the beginning of October I mean like any place the weather can really vary of course the beginning of October could still be super beautiful up in the mountains it could still be clear of snow but you just never know and you should just plan for the snow to come back to the mountains in early October can we get snow in July August and September absolutely absolutely Colorado gets to know any time of the year I've been caught in snowstorms up in the mountains in the month of August twice I think the only month I haven't actually seen snow in Colorado at least like snow falling is July but even like in early July this year I went up to the Aspen Maroon Bells area and I went on a 28 mile backpacking trip with some of my friends amazing backpacking trip by the way it was in the Maroon Bells Wilderness the four past Loop very famous anyway in early July there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground and the stream Crossings were like kind of intense so plan accordingly July through September is the best time alright so where does the Colorado trail start and end if you're going the normal Direction which is Southbound Southbound is how most people do it then you're going to start in Littleton right outside of Denver and you're going to end in Durango so the trailhead that you start at is the Waterton Canyon trailhead if you're coming into Colorado from out of state you're probably flying I assume so you're gonna fly into the Denver Airport the trailhead is about 45 minutes from the Denver Airport by car I would recommend just taking an Uber or a lift from the airport the Colorado Trail Foundation also has a list of shuttle drivers that you can request from them via their website I'll put the link down the show notes for that but honestly it's just so easy these days to grab an Uber or Lyft I would just do that and not worry about setting up a shuttle driver ahead of time you could also take a local bus from the Denver Airport into Littleton and make your trip a little uh shorter so that if you then grabbed an Uber a lift from where your bus stop was it would probably be less expensive I personally live in Boulder so I just took a lift from Boulder and it's a little tiny bit farther than it is from the Denver Airport but not too much rather it's under an hour and my lift cost me 57 dollars I mean we all know Ubers and lifts the cost of them are going up because of gas prices and inflation so who knows by next summer what the cost will be but I thought like 57 dollars for about an hour car ride which I split with my friend Ibex who did the trail with me I mean that's a very reasonable price I didn't have to worry about setting up a shuttle ahead of time I didn't have to worry about getting someone to drive me there I mean like getting a friend or something to drive me there I just ordered my lift and was on my way it was super easy and the Waterton Canyon trailhead is like not like way out in the wilderness it's like not far off of a highway so if you're thinking like I can't take an Uber like Into the Wilderness well you don't need to you don't need to it's a huge Trailhead it's like very well used by hikers and bikers it's it's not too far off the beaten path and it's pretty easy to get there via Uber Lyft if you are planning to leave a car at the trailhead well I wouldn't recommend it because I've had my car die after I've left it for a month just in my apartment like the battery died and also Colorado has a huge problem with car theft and catalytic converter theft so I just I would not recommend leaving your car unattended for a month in Colorado anywhere basically if you're starting in Durango there is also an airport in Durango so you can fly directly into Durango once you fly into Durango it's the same thing you can either set up a shuttle driver in advance to take you to the trailhead or you can just grab an Uber a lift or a taxi from the airport it's only about a 30 minute drive from the airport to the trailhead where the Colorado Trail starts and then if you start in Denver and you end in Durango you can either rent a car and drive back to Denver and fly out or you can just grab a flight from the Durango airport which is what I did hi it's dark now so I'm inside sorry but I forgot to mention how to actually get to the airport from your trailer that you end at so if you end in Durango you are going to end at a Trailhead that is only 30 minutes from the airport only a few minutes outside of town but I personally did not have cell phone reception there so you could either book a shuttle in advance or or it's a pretty popular Trailhead like I said it's right near town so you could just hitchhike out of there especially if you're not on a tight time constraint and you have to make it back to the airport immediately it would be fairly easy to hitchhike from that Trailhead into Durango and then in Durango you'll obviously have cell phone reception there are Ubers there are taxis they're anything you could want you can get in Durango if you end at Watershed Canyon outside of Denver you probably will have cell phone reception because I had cell phone service there and so you could again just order order an Uber or a Lyft or a taxi or you could try to hitchhike from there although it's more likely from that Trailhead people will be going to different places they could be going to Golden or Denver or Boulder or other surrounding areas so I think your best bet probably would be to get an Uber or a Lyft or a shuttle if you end at Waterton Canyon and since I've brought up cell phone reception if you're wondering if you're gonna have cell phone reception on the Colorado Trail I have Verizon and I did not that often have cell phone service so I was using my inreach mini when I really needed to text with people and if you are unfamiliar with Indian Ridge chimney it's a GPS like a satellite communication device so you can use it to figure out where you are you can use it to text people I'll put some more information on that down in the show notes but my friend Ibex had a t and she actually had pretty decent cell phone reception like she had it most days I was really jealous of her because we were trying to play Wordle and most days I could not play but she could I'm not sure about any other cell phone carriers so most people do the trial from Denver to Durango going Southbound because if you do it that way it gives you more time to get used to the elevation so Waterton Canyon is only at like 5 000 something feet of elevation or like above sea level and you gradually over the course of like almost 100 miles climb up to the high mountains if you start the other direction if you start in Durango then you you only start at like 6 000 something feet so that's very comparable but you get up to the high mountains much quicker so you're getting within a couple days from Durango getting up over 12 000 feet so if you're not from Colorado you're not used to the elevation you don't live in a high elevation place it's going to be better for you to start in Denver and last year just a rock star dealing with elevation and in which case more power to you to start in Durango no permits are required to hike the Colorado Trail you can just jump on the Colorado Trail wherever you like start hiking so how long does it does it take to hike the Colorado Trail okay so the CT is 486 miles long if you're taking the traditional Collegiate use route add on about six miles if you're taking the Collegiate West Route instead of the Collegiate East but so about 486 miles and according to the Colorado shawl Foundation it typically takes people between four and six weeks to complete the trail and you might think that sounds very fast and I thought so as well I did it in one month that is just the time that I had off work I was filling this base I had to get it done within a month and I was honestly nervous about finishing the trail in that amount of time like I hike in backpack all the time but like I'm not someone who likes to pull like 25 30 mile days on the regular anything like that so I was kind of nervous about getting the trail done in that set amount of time but it is a really well maintained Trail the grade is very reasonable I found it to be so much easier than the Appalachian Trail it's actually like it's it's a multi-use trail so it can be used by bikers and horses and you know livestock and all that so the grading is pretty gentle and I read from the Colorado Trail Foundation from that the people who actually built the Colorado Trail as a long hike they like connected some sections and had to build new parts of the drill in other sections so they actually very purposefully wanted to make this a reasonable Trail to hike they wanted all types of people to be able to enjoy it so they wanted to make it fairly easy and that's really reflected in the trail like I like I said I was nervous about making those sorts of miles I had to average 16 miles a day without even considering taking any zero days and it was extremely doable the mileage was extremely doable and most people are doing the trial in the middle of summer too so the days are long so you know you get tired you take a long break and then you get back out there if you are starting from Waterton Canyon outside of Denver something you need to know is that you cannot sleep in the canyon and it is very very hot in the canyon in the middle of the day in the summer because Colorado down in the lower elevations in the middle of summer is quite hot it's regularly over 90 degrees and Waterton Canyon is really exposed basically once you're at Waterton Canyon you're walking through the canyon on a dirt road for 6.7 miles I should also mention dogs are not allowed in Waterton Canyon so you're walking through for 6.7 miles and you are not allowed to Camp within those 6.7 miles so because of the Heat in Waterton Canyon in the middle of the day I would recommend you start early in the morning or in the later afternoon or evening I start at 5 30 p.m on a cloudy day it was still pretty hot to be honest like it could have been cooler so you have to hike at least 6.7 miles probably a little further I think we hiked seven miles our first evening to actually get onto the Colorado Trail where this you know single track Colorado Trail starts and then you're allowed to Camp so just be aware of that in your planning if you start at like 7 P.M you're probably going to end up having to hike in the dark to get to a place where you can set up camp something else to note is I mean the so the Colorado Trail is broken up into segments and I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to what these segments are the segments are like 16 miles long or something like that but I did take note that the first few segments are generally really exposed and quite hot because again there's still lower elevation and some of that time you're walking through Waterton Canyon some of that time you're walking through burned area some of that time you're just not in the shade of trees and it's it's more of a scrubby deserty area you are going through some trees but you are in areas that are pretty exposed as well so I would just recommend I mean this is good advice I think for the entire Colorado Trail but especially for these sections just make sure you have like pretty good sun protection you probably want to have a hat definitely bring sunscreen especially because higher at higher elevations you are more easily sunburned and nobody wants skin damage you might want to consider a sun umbrella if you are more sensitive to the sun my friend Ibex brought us an umbrella and honestly I was kind of jealous of it anyway so make sure you bring your sun protection during your almost 500 mile hike you're obviously going to need to stop at different places to resupply so I did a combination of just resupplying at grocery stores in trail towns and actually sending myself some resupply boxes ahead of time so let me first tell you about the towns that I stopped in so I did some research ahead of time I knew I only had a month I knew I could only stop in a certain number of towns because you have to generally hitchhike into towns so I decided that I was going to stop in Breckenridge Leadville Twin Lakes Salida Lake City and Silverton I didn't spend the night in all of those towns just a few of them by the way I'll put some resources down in the show notes about the trail towns that you can stop at along the way to help you inform your decision if you want to plan in advance Which towns you're going to stop in these resources could help you out and I also want to note that I so as I mentioned I had to average about 60 miles a day and I didn't want to carry a ton of food if I didn't have to so I was trying to keep my food carries down under a week so I think that the longest food carry I had was six and a half days and I think I had two six and a half day food carries one of those being right when I started out in Waterton Canyon because from Waterton Canyon to the jump off for Breckenridge or Frisco depending on which town you want to go to either great options it's a hundred and three point seven miles so had 103 miles of food it was very heavy at the beginning but it honestly it wasn't that bad my trick is I just try to eat my heaviest Foods first and then my other long food carry was between Salida and Lake City I sent myself resupply boxes to three different towns so that was to Twin Lakes which was a great decision I was happy with that to Lake City that was a poor decision I did not need to do that it was totally unnecessary and to Silverton which was a good decision just based on the fact that we didn't have a lot of time in Silverton we didn't have a full day there so it was nice not to have to go grocery shopping while we were there in Twin Lakes there is a general store the owner is awesome the General Store is great it's just like a tiny little kind of like Camp store basically so they do cater to Backpackers they have backpacking meals they have snacks they have things that you're going to want to pack out things that you need but it is really small so the options are limited and I'm a vegetarian and I can be a little picky so it was just a nice decision they let you actually send things to the General Store if you're through hiking and you can just pick it up there they don't charge you or anything like that they're they really cater to hikers there I got some really good advice there too like it's just a really nice stop and then there are a couple of little like food truck type things in Twin Lakes as well that you can stop at and get a meal there is one in there if you want to spend the night but Twin Lakes is like tiny tiny tiny but the trial is only like a mile from the village of Twin Lakes and that's where you go through like right before you get into the Collegiates and the Collegiates are pretty intense so basically you want to have some nice food and you want to have enough food like as you're going into the Collegiates so it's just nice to be able to send yourself a box of like everything that you love right before you go into the Collegiates which in my opinion are the most difficult part of the Colorado Trail I sent myself a box to the post office in Lake City and uh I got I got advice to send myself a resupply box there from my friend Pica who hiked in 2019 but apparently a lot of things have changed in terms of the hiking community in Lake City since 2019 there is a church there that really has tried to bring hikers into the community of Lake City and I think they've done a really phenomenal job at it they have a shuttle running from the trailhead closest to Lake City every single day at noon in the summer that will bring hikers down into Lake City they have a hiker Center at this church where they have things like an espresso machine a Coffee and Tea Bar a charging station free internet an art station just amazing amazing amazing helpful things for hikers and they really encourage you to come into the hiker Center and hang out there and they're just so friendly and nice and then the church also hosts these community-led hiker dinners on Sunday nights in the summer where these community members will just come together and Hike or hike and cook all of this food for the hikers coming through and they clap for you as you come in [Applause] and they let you go to the front of the buffet line and it's just the coolest thing and you get to meet all of these wonderful people that live in Lake City and the community just really welcomes you there and apparently also since 2019 the general store in Lake City came under new ownership and now they also cater much more to hikers like there are Backpacker meals in the general store and I found things to be very reasonably priced and there is a phenomenal Bakery in Lake City as well that I personally packed out like two days worth of food from I have a huge Sweet Tooth but they also have Savory things like pizza and like sausage rolls and like you know feta and spinach rolls and different things like that in addition to all the sweet treats that looks so good I'll look so good so I ended up coming out of Lake City first of all with way too much food and second of all I mailed myself back like half the stuff before I even left Lake City so it was just completely unnecessary and coming from Denver Lake City is you're getting toward the end of the trail I want to say Lake Cities at Mile like 357 or something you have like 130 miles left to go and you get your hiker legs by then you're doing bigger miles so you're probably going faster than you anticipate you're going to be going so I just don't recommend attending a food drop there and then in Silverton I stayed at the Avon which is a Historic Hotel and hostel love the Avon by the way my friend Seth is the part owner I've been there a couple of times now it's just really welcoming and really caters to hikers it's awesome definitely stay there if you go to Silverton but at the Avon they also accept packages for hikers so it's just super easy I was staying there anyway so I just sent myself a package and then I was only in Silverton for like half a day and then the night and then went back to the trail the next morning so it was just really nice I didn't even go in the Silverton grocery store so I'm not even sure how the options are there but just given my time constraint there it was just amazing not to actually have to grocery shop so awesome decision if I were to do it again I would still sell myself a box to Twin Lakes and one to Silverton but definitely not went to Lake City in terms of the trail towns that I stopped in I honestly really really liked every single Trail town that I stopped in Lake City was definitely my favorite just because the community was amazing they just they it was obvious that they wanted the hikers there and actually my friends and I got a hitch out of Lake City and we were talking to the guy who picked us up which it took us literally like one minute to Hitch out of Lake City it was crazy because I can or hitching into Lake City was our toughest because it's kind of the most remote Trailhead that we stopped at to get to town um and a lot of the people driving by were going the opposite direction but anyway getting from Lake City back to the trailhead was super super easy and quick and the guy who picked us up asked us like why did you choose to go to Lake City instead of creed and I said because of the reputation of Lake City it seems like hikers who come to Lake City love Lake City and he's like oh that's great that's exactly what we want so anyway Lake City's just awesome it's super cute there's a river running through it it's super super walkable there are several different places you can get accommodations there's an amazing Bakery there's an amazing breakfast place called The Hangout in Euphoria which I highly recommend there's a laundromat there's the hiker Center that the church has like it's just an amazing town to stop in it's super cute it's like way out in the middle of the mountains so that was my number one favorite and my second favorite was Salida so honorable mention to Salida salida's also just like an incredibly cute town I could see myself living there at some point it's also pretty walkable but it it's much bigger than Lake City there is a hostel there I didn't stay at hostels just because I was hiking with my friends Ibex and Dory and when you have three people it ends up being about the same price to stay at a hotel at a hotel you get your own bathroom it it just makes more sense when you have that many people but if you are a solo hiker often it makes sense to stay at a hostel so just note there is a hostel in Salida there's also a hostel in Lake City though we did not stay there Salida is known for its water sports there's a river running through Salida as well we were really hoping to rent some tubes and go out on the river while we're there but the weather wasn't Cooperative so we didn't end up doing that but we did play mini golf and there is also in Salida there is a an indoor uh like heated pools like heated indoor pools that you could go to which we thought about going to but our hotel at hot tub students like we need to but that seems like it would be a great place to stretch out your muscles especially if your hotel is gonna have a hot tub and there's also this amazing breakfast place I believe it's called The Pancake patio or something along those lines which when I'm hiking I want pancakes all the time and so my number one goal going into Salida wasn't on a hot tub and I want pancakes and I got both of those things the pancakes were amazing my only complaint about Salida was I didn't think their resupply options were great they were okay but the Outdoor Store their back Backpacker meals are very very limited they didn't have a lot of options they didn't have the brands that I really like for example Backpackers pantry is my favorite sorry I'm being distracted by um there's a woodpecker on the bird feeder so I'm being really distracted by that so I apologize but anyway slide has everything you want the community there is also people were so friendly they'd stop and ask us if we were hiking and we also had a really easy hitch getting into Salida first car that drove by picked us up so just Good Vibes but as I mentioned I loved all of the towns most of the towns you do have to hitchhike to get into with the exception of Breckenridge and or Frisco because you actually hike right past there's a bus stop at Mile 103.7 and on one side of the street there is a bus stop and the bus goes to Breckenridge and on the other side of the street it goes to Frisco and those buses are free and I will note too that like if you haven't hitchhiked before I know that can be really daunting but I find that people in Colorado are super super nice and kind obviously there are always exceptions to that and you should keep your wits about you and trust your intuition and all that when you are hitchhiking but I found the hitchhiking to be really easy most of the time and I I think the reason for that is that so many coloradans are so outdoorsy and like pretty intense like they do intense stuff so often they've thru hiked or done long running races or long biking races things like that so they've been in your shoes before and also they're just happy people because they get to live in beautiful Colorado so please don't be too intimidated by the hitchhiking as I said be safe I always keep my pepper spray in my pocket as I'm hitching just to be on the safe side and my phone and my wallet I'll put in my pocket as well but most of the time it's really not an issue also to know about Breckenridge and Frisco if you are into slack packing and not opposed to that which means hiking without most of your heavy gear you can actually grab a bus up to Copper Mountain you actually go right through Copper Mountain on the trail you can take a bus up to Copper Mountain leave all your stuff in your hotel and Hike back from copper to the jump off for Breckenridge or Frisco so that's like 15 something miles that you can hike without your gear and it's a pretty tough 15-something mile so I would highly recommend it something else to note is that when you go through the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness you have two route options you can go the classic Colorado Trail route the Collegiate East or you could take the Continental Divide route which is the Collegiate West I've now done both I did the Collegiate East last summer just as like a week-long hike and I did the Collegiate list while I was through hiking the Colorado Trail the Collegiate East is easier it's lower elevation it's more forested and you go past Princeton Hot Springs which is a really nice resort that has heated pools and things like from natural Hot Springs so Princeton Hot Springs is great it's this route is a little bit shorter it's about six miles shorter I believe and it's it's really nice the Collegiate East is really nice I really enjoyed it but it's not super dramatic if you want the drama the Epic views the higher elevation the more iffy weather then go the route of the Collegiate West just know that in the Collegiate West a lot of the time you're up above 12 000 feet so that means you're dealing with potentially thunderstorms being above Tree Line a lot of the time being exposed to the Sun a lot of the time but it's the Collegiate West is incredibly beautiful it was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trail we had some crap weather in there we were hiking during a pretty rainy year unfortunately so we dealt with a lot of rain so a couple times in the Collegiate West we actually like hunker down because it seemed like there was a storm coming in we hunkered down for a couple hours we let the storm pass then we continued on our way especially because a lot of the times you have to go over a fountain passes which are above tree line and it's dangerous to be above Tree Line during a thunderstorm and as I mentioned the Collegiate West is a little bit longer you have to tack on an extra about six miles and we did not get uh we went through the Collegiate West pretty much the whole thing with the exception of just the last few miles without resupplying so we ha our bags were pretty heavy for the first couple of days in the Collegiate West and I think that you if you don't want to carry such a heavy bag it would it's easier to get a resupply halfway through in the Collegiate East like especially if you go and stay at Princeton Hot Springs you could have a box sent there and you you know it's like halfway through and something else to think about is if you're planning to hike the Continental Divide Trail in the future you'll be going through the Collegiate West so maybe you want to do the Collegiate East while you're on the Colorado Charleston you might have the opportunity to do the West in the future a lot of people also instead of hiking the Colorado Trail they will just hike the Collegiate Loop so that's the East and West together as a route that's like 160 miles or something like that 170 miles so while you're in the Collegiates you'll probably see more people hiking the trail than you've been used to just because a lot of people are in there just to do the Collegiate Loop as far as navigation while you're on the trail I saw people with different Colorado Trail books Etc but I would really recommend the far out app used to be known as gut hook they make these interactive maps that you can use while on Long trials to see where the water sources are where you can camp where you can jump off to go to towns people can leave comments and be like oh there's just a trickle of this water source or this one's dried up or this is a great place to Camp things like that so it's really nice and it shows you exactly where on the trail you are so you know how many miles you've done that day you know how far you still need to go it's just really handy and it has advice for when you go to town like where you could stay I just find it's well first of all it's lighter weight than bringing a book obviously and I just think it's just a really really nice option to know exactly where you are on the trail instead of having to guess based on some features that a book points out so I would highly recommend the far out app for navigation something to note is that there are actually not official campsites on the Colorado Trail so on a lot of the other far out Maps you'll actually see like a little tent icon it'll show you where these official campsites are like on the Appalachian Trail you'll see where different shelters are but those things don't exist on the Colorado Trail but there are there is plenty of camping and you you can just pretty much camp anywhere but there are plenty of campsites so if you know you're seeing on the far out app like the next water source people are saying that there's great camping you maybe don't want to go quite that far they're often there often is like other places that you can camp before that feature it's just that since there are no official campsites then the app can't list all of them if that makes sense also like check out this Sunset we're getting behind me speaking of weather when you are packing your things for the Colorado Trail you should pack for basically all kinds of weather bring layers you could end up in snow when I was on the Collegiate East in August of 2021 we got some snow it got real cold sometimes I would recommend a sleeping bag rated down to 20 degrees um definitely at least a three season tent and also be prepared for some days that might be close to 100 degrees when you're at the lower elevations so that would be close to Denver close to Durango those are both lower elevation there are definitely more deserty they're more exposed so just be prepared for basically anything bring rain gear some people think we don't get rain in Colorado I promise you that we do especially during the summer months we get monsoons coming in from the Pacific Ocean which brings a lot of moisture into the mountains and we can get heavy heavy rains so I actually had a lot of days of rain while I was on the Colorado Trail luckily it wasn't rain that was like all day that stuck around but generally it would get rain for a few hours so I would definitely recommend bringing rain gear and just be prepared for rain but also be prepared for a lot of sun and be prepared for high altitude sun which is stronger and can burn you as I mentioned and definitely bring a puffy like a puffy jacket an insulating jacket because it can be pretty cold at camp at night time as far as water sources on the Colorado Trail there tend to be a lot of them there are a couple of places you have to do longer water carries but nothing too crazy I think the longest we ever had to carry was maybe somewhere in the line of like 15 miles definitely plan on filtering your water I will note that the section of trowel between Salida and Creed has a lot of livestock a lot of cows hanging around the water sources um pooping in the water sources peeing in the water sources laying in the water sources all the water sources like so much of that area is just like cow Central and then later in the trail down in the San Juan there are also flocks of she sheep that roam around the trail so for that reason I would recommend if you have a sensitive stomach if you're prone to stomach ailments like I am I filter my water generally for the entire Trail but I also brought some water treatment uh tablets for the section of Trail where there was livestock because I just figured like there's cow poop in all this water and and the flow is not great for the water like that was also a section where water was a little more scarce so just to be on the safe side I filtered and treated my water in that section and I would recommend that to you if you have a sensitive stomach I have heard from like Colorado child Facebook group that it's very common for people to end up with stomach ailments in in the section where there is a lot of livestock so you don't want to be one of those people bring a little extra treatments for your water I'll also note that we do tend to have a quite a bit of wildlife in Colorado and we definitely have Bears you are not required to bring a bear canister on the CT but there are some areas where I saw on the far out app that people were commenting that bears like came straight into their campsite or even walked into their tent there were a couple of signs early on in the trail near Denver about how there were some bad Bears hanging around so just just note that people have had their bear bags stolen like if you're a person who just has a bear bag you hang it up in a tree and just hope that a bear doesn't get it I'm not I'm not saying don't do that but I will say that bears have gotten those bags here and also that some of the sections you walk through the trees are dead and the reason for that is that we have a pine beetle in Colorado that has killed a lot of our pine trees it's super sad you walk through almost entire forests that are the trees are just all dead it's it's devastating honestly but in those areas especially you're not gonna find a lot of places that you can hang your bag and we just generally like most of our trees are Pines so we don't have a ton of branches on our trees like it's very hard to hang a bear bag here a lot of the time so I personally use an ursac and I'll put a link to this down in the show notes which is like a bear proof uh just food bag and then I use I don't know if it's op Sac or op sack how you're supposed to say it but it stands for odor proof stack it's like a giant Ziploc bag that's made to go inside of the ursac so the bear doesn't actually smell your food anyway you can just tie the ursac to a tree you don't have to hang it and it's allegedly it's bear proof I have heard of them failing before but I've never personally had any issues and it's more protection than just like a classic you know thin food bag that you hang way up at a tree so if you don't want to carry a bear can which I hate beer cans they're too heavy they're too bulky I honestly hate them I see the need for them in some areas but if I don't have to carry one I'm not going to so instead my kind of happy medium is an ursac and I would recommend to you that you maybe bring an air sac to because you only have to like tie it to a tree you don't have to hang it and it just makes things a lot easier and you know that's my advice take it or leave it okay so those are the logistics of planning a Colorado child through hike I hope I didn't forget anything important if I did if you have any questions please feel free to let me know down either in the comments or feel free to reach out to me directly um and I'll I'll try to address any questions that you might have but honestly it's a pretty easy Trail you know what it's a pretty easy Trail to get to it's a pretty easy trial to get home from it's a pretty easy Trail to like figure out the logistics of along the way especially the far out app but yeah overall it's just a really easy trial to hike logistically and it's an incredibly incredibly beautiful trial I love Colorado so much I'm so grateful I got to experience more of it by hiking the CT and I hope that if you hike the CT you love it as much as I do and and just the state of Colorado Colorado is just the greatest but yeah if I forgot to talk about any of the logistics you still have questions just let me know and I would be happy to answer those questions thank you for being here don't forget to subscribe to my channel for more hiking backpacking and outdoor content and please like this video it helps me reach more people and yeah thanks for being here I'll talk to you later

Channel: Audrey Adventures

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Keywords: How to hike the Colorado Trail, how to plan a thru hike of the Colorado Trail, how to thru hike the Colorado Trail, how to plan to thru hike, thru hiking the Colorado Trail, logistics of a Colorado Trail thru hike, Colorado Trail, Collegiate East, Collegiate West, advice for hiking the Colorado Trail, best hikes in Colorado, backpacking the Colorado Trail, FarOut, Colorado Trail Foundation, The Trek, audipayne, Dixie, homemade wanderlust, trekking, thru hiking, hiking, backpacking

Id: qBlEoGmRCxY

Length: 40min 15sec (2415 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 24 2022