Colorado Trail day 3 - 15.4 miles We woke up this morning to a pink glow coming through the trees as

Colorado Trail day 3 - 15.4 miles We woke up this morning to a pink glow coming through the trees as the sun came up. We hiked a relatively flat day, with a steep climb at the end. Towards the middle of the day I started feeling sort of sick. I’m not sure if it’s from the heat or from my body getting used to the preservative-filled, carb-loaded sustenance that is backpacking food. It’s hard to say. A few hours into the afternoon it cooled off with some clouds and light rain and I felt a lot better. After 13ish miles, we made it to the trailhead to hitchhike into Bailey where we’d get our first resupply. We were a little nervous about the hitch because it’s 8 miles down a dirt road and we weren’t sure how often people drive it. Within 10 minutes a few cars rode by, and a couple with their dog pulled over to give us a ride. Us and a friend we made earlier in the day stacked our packs in the back and crawled into the back seat. The whole way to Bailey the couple’s dog kept climbing over the seat and licking our faces uncontrollably. He basically laid across all of our laps and kept switching from licking one persons face to the next. Eventually I had to hold onto his collar to keep him still. I guess we aren’t too smelly for the dog not to lick us. We made it to Bailey and picked up our resupply at the outfitter, then walked to a place called Cutthroat Cafe for some food. I never drink soda, but for some reason while backpacking, Dr Pepper always sounds so good. I ordered soda and it tasted incredible. We charged our devices while we ate and updated family about our whereabouts. Afterwards, we walked back to the patio by the outfitter and organized our food, which we realized we sent WAYYYYY too much of. We walked back to the road that goes back to the trailhead and stuck our thumbs out for several cars that passed by, but no luck. By this point it was almost 5 and I was worried it might be too late to catch anyone going up to the trailhead. We waited 20 minutes until finally an older woman who lived down the road picked us up and took us to the trailhead. We walked an agonizingly steep 2 miles with our heavy packs full of the week’s food before finally finding a campsite beneath pine trees. We set up camp, ate dinner, and crawled into our tent just before it started raining. I’m sitting here writing and it’s thundering and lightning and raining pretty heavy. I kind of hate camping in weather like this because I cant sleep at all. I’m constantly worried about lightning or falling trees or our tent losing its water repellency. Hopefully it lets up soon. -- source link

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