Walking Across Colorado: Preparation Time!
When he was six years old, my oldest son said to me, “Mom, I want to walk across Colorado.”
Talk about music to a backpacking mama’s soul!
I loved this idea, and researched it enough to know that there was no way we could do that at that point in our lives (physically we could have done it, but other factors like earning an income took precedence). The idea stuck, though, and we pondered for a year or two….
We looked at the Colorado Trail, which starts in the Front Range and terminates near Durango. It doesn’t technically go all the way across the state, but it’s a pretty amazing trail just the same, and covers some fantastic landscape.
We decided, though, that we wanted to actually touch the border on two opposite sides of our state, so we decided we would walk the portion of the Continental Divide Trail that goes through Colorado.
The Colorado portion of the CDT is 764 Miles long. The closest access point to the border is 3 miles into Wyoming, so call it 767. When we hiked the first section last summer, my boys were 9 and 7 years old, and a day of hiking for them was 3 – 8 miles. If we did 8 miles a day (which we could not realistically do), we were looking at almost 96 days!! While I would love to take 96 days away from work and my boys would love to extend their summer break, those are responsibilities we can’t walk away from right now, so our goal is to walk a bit of the trail each summer.
Last summer we tackled our first 24 miles.
We started near the Wyoming border because north to south is much easier than south to north (North to south is downhill, right?!!) Just kidding. We started on the northern edge because there are sections of the San Juans in southern Colorado that are somewhat technical, and I would like my boys to be a bit older when we hit that area.
My husband backpacks when he has to, but he doesn’t love it, so he was the natural choice to be our support crew. He agreed to help transport us to and from trailheads, helped me double check our route on multiple maps, and pared down the first aid kit to contain only the backpacking essentials.
Maps and Guidebooks
We used Colorado’s Continental Divide Trail: The Official Guide by Tom Jones as a starting point in our planning. The author has broken the trail into sections, with specific descriptions of each.
We also used maps from Jonathon Ley. He has done a TON of work to create these maps with notes about water sources, alternate routes, etc. Google his website and send him a note, and he’ll send you the downloadable maps for FREE. Incredible.
As always, we relied on our Colorado Gazetteer by Delorme for finding our way on back roads. I copied pages from the gazetteer and the guidebook to carry with me, as well purchasing the Trails Illustrated map for the area.
With two young boys along, the last thing I wanted was to walk any extra steps!
Food
I decided to pre-pack our meals for this longer trip (previous backpacking trips for my boys have been 1-2 nights). In the past I’ve carried a bag of rice, a bag of oats, some soup mix, etc. and then just created dinner each night from what we had. I spent a couple hours in the kitchen assembling meals before we went, though, and it was awesome. I loved it because we could just choose the meal we wanted and grab it each night, and my boys were able to cook almost entirely on their own with the simple instructions.
Here is what we ate:
- Breakfast — Homemade Instant Oatmeal.
We used a recipe from The Yummy Life. The flavors she has are delicious! Our hands down favorite was Cherry Vanilla Almond. We packed them in individual packets as the author suggested. This was great because we each chose one each morning, poured it on our own bowl (we use Nalgene 16 oz. jars because I love having lids), added a scant 2/3 cup of boiling water, covered it for a few minutes, and breakfast was served. In the future, I will make larger batches of the oatmeal so we don’t use so many plastic bags. We can just scoop a set amount into our bowls each morning.
- Snacks
We packed Duke’s Shorty Sausages (we love these!), Clif Bars and other bars, and we each made a custom bag of trail mix. I gave the boys a choice of nuts and dried fruit, then we added some candied coconut almonds and jelly beans. We planned on eating 1/4 – 1/2 cup of trail mix per day.
- Lunch — “Vehicle” + “Rider”
Those terms are a holdover from my Outward Bound days. Trail lunches consist of a “vehicle” like crackers, bagels, or a tortilla, which holds a “rider” like salami, cheese, peanut butter, or the like. We also picked through our trail mix bags at lunch time, and would often add an Emergen-C Electro Mix (we buy this one because it doesn’t have sugar like the others) to our water bottles at that time.
- Dinner
This is where I did the most prep work. We again used recipes from The Yummy Life. We had Creamy Alfredo with Chicken and Pine Nuts, Curry Rice with Chicken and Cashews, Fiesta Rice with Corn and Chicken, Thai Peanut Noodles, and Creamy Potato Chive Soup. The Alfredo was too salty for our liking, but other than that the meals were great as far as backpacking meals go! We had each one 1-2 times. We also packed some extra instant mashed potatoes with hemp seeds in case we needed extra food or wanted to thicken something.
There were many other things I wanted to make for our trip, but in the spirit of keeping things simple, I stopped there. We carried store-bought bars and cocoa mix. On future trips, I’ll make these things if time allows:
Gear
We packed basic backpacking gear. I have definitely formed opinions about favorites over the years!
I carry a huge Gregory pack. It’s what I carried leading Outward Bound expeditions, when going light was not an option. The carrying capacity is honestly too much now, but I haven’t had the heart to replace this trusty friend.
We’ve invested in an Osprey Jib 35 for each of my boys. It’s big enough for them to each carry their own sleep system, warm layers, rain gear, water bottle, trail mix, and bowl. It’s basically a scaled down adult pack, with all the bells and whistles and great fit that Osprey is known for. My 9 year old still has the pack on the smallest setting, so they’ll be able to use these for quite a few more years. We love these packs! They’re functional, durable, and make carrying a load easier.
When they were little, they carried their school backpacks with just a few things in them, and we’ve gradually added more as they’ve grown. My younger son got his “real” pack right before this trip, and it’s the same size as his older brother’s. If I had it to do over, I would get one Osprey Jib 35 and one Osprey Ace 50.
Like most families, we have acquired gear over time. We made just one purchase for this trip: The MSR Quick 2 Pot Set. I wanted a bigger pot so my boys could cook without spilling, and we carried just the 2.5 liter pot, the handle, and the lid. I chose MSR because their gear has never let me down. In this case, I like the set, but honestly wish it was a little more sturdy. A small plastic ring near the lid handle broke off almost immediately. It doesn’t affect the function, but it’s a let down since the item was brand new.
Other things we carried:
MSR Dragonfly Stove and Fuel
Nalgene 16 ounce Jars (one per person)
Spoons
Therm-a-rests
Sleeping Bags
Black Diamond Megamid (See review here)
Komperdell Trekking Poles
The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo (my favorite book to read in the backcountry!)
Petzl Headlamps (If you’re buying new, don’t be tempted by another brand. Petzl is the best, hands down.)
Water Bottles
Camelbak Bladders
Leatherman (each boy has his own)
MSR Water Filter
U-Dig-It
Trails Illustrated Weatherproof Map
Over the years we have pared down our gear, analyzed pros and cons of each, etc. I’m happy with everything listed here, and always looking to improve. If you have thoughts or suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
Thanks so much for reading!
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