Headed out west!

Hi all,

For the last few weeks, I've been preparing for a thru-hike of the 485-mile Colorado Trail. I'll be hiking with my good buddy Squirrel (you can follow her blog at squirrelhikes.wordpress.com) for the entire hike and my other good buddy Guthook for the first week from Waterton Canyon to Breckenridge, a distance of about 104 miles. We better come ready to hike as we've got to average about 16.5 miles each day to make it in the 5.5 days we have allotted, go team! Guthook is trail famous, as he is the mastermind behind Guthook's Guides, which provides hiking map apps for smartphones. Check him out at guthookhikes.com. 

Before arriving in Colorado, we all had a pretty massive road trip across the states. Guthook and Cough Drop (our official trail angel who came along for awesome support and chauffeuring services) drove all the way from Maine to my folks place in Union, KY, where they picked Squirrel and I. Then we drove to Columbia, MO the first night where we celebrated Cough Drop's birthday in style by going to a local brewery and watching the movie Spy with Melissa McCarthy. It was hysterical and I highly recommend it.

 The next day we drove all the way to Denver (about 12 hours) and are camping out at 9,000 feet to help us acclimate.  Below is the amazing sunset we were treated to:

Today, we decided to spend part of our day visiting Rocky Mountain National Park and went on a short 5-miler to Cub Lake to stretch our legs out after all the driving and to further acclimate. 

If you're curious about the Colorado Trail, check out the below map! We're about to finish packing and head to be Lowdown Brewery for our last dinner before hiking tomorrow. Oh man, can't wait! Stay tuned.