I’d like to start off by thanking Justin for encouraging and giving me the opportunity to take this trip. Our trip last year from Durango to Moab has changed my life! And another thanks to Justin, Nicole and Mike for allowing Dan and I to use their cabin as our home base. It was the perfect setup and our trip wouldn’t have been the same without it.

-Chet

The Why:

I’ve grown up in Chicago my whole life and played the piano as kid. So how did I end up at the top of the 2nd highest peak in the lower 48 states this past October? I guess it can be explained by these three points:

1. Backpacking has been in the back of my mind since my senior year of high school. I can't pinpoint where that came from, but I used to go to REI and dreamscape of owning a gigantic pack with everything I’d ever need to survive in the wilderness. I imagined myself parking at a trailhead and disappearing for several days into the woods. The plan back then was to gear up and hike the northern woods of Wisconsin after graduation with my friend Andy. I had many dreams and big ideas back then. I ultimately used my graduation money (aka college money) to purchase a Mountain Bike. I remember reasoning with my parents at the time that I’d rather commute to an in-state school and own a sweet mountain bike.
2. In August 2014 Justin and I completed the San Juan Hut System’s (SJHS) Durango to Moab backcountry hut to hut mountain bike adventure. I’m very proud of this accomplishment. For me it was a significant investment of time and money, took months of preparation both physically and technically and it was a trip like nothing I’ve ever done before. The SJHS bike trip however was semi-supported. While there were no human guides, we did benefit from a full stockpile of supplies available at our huts each night. The hut to hut trip was also on a well documented route and SJHS provided detailed maps and route descriptions. After completing this trip I knew I wanted to take the level of adventure, preparation, planning and physicality up a notch.
3. Lets now add in that I was introduced (by Jon "Dole" Dolias) to the concept of the Colorado 14ers sometime in 2014. 14ers are mountain summits that are over 14,000 feet in elevation. There are 67 14ers in the US and 53 of these are in Colorado. I thought it could be cool to start hiking/climbing these with the goal of someday seeing all 67 summits.

Planning:

With all that said, hiking the Colorado Trail (CT)  was not the trip I had originally planned. I had originally booked a trip in August 2015 to Vermont to hike 5 days on the Long Trail (LT) with my friend and former Windy City member Dan Vasbinder. Dan, who grew up on the east coast, is an experienced outdoorsman and had backpacked the LT before. Just a few weeks before my departure to Vermont, my mom was diagnosed with a large pituitary tumor which was affecting her vision and was immediately scheduled to have surgery. I canceled my travel itinerary and decided that I would plan a different trip later in the fall once I knew my mom had recovered (it was non-malignant and she’s back to normal). Thanks to Southwest airlines I could easily cancel my airfare and use the enitre value of my ticket toward a future travel date without any fees or penalty.

The next plan was to hike the King’s Canyon, Sequoia National Forest in California. I found an incredible 42 mile hiking loop (Rae’s Lake Loop) through the high sierras which followed parts of the legendary John Muir and Pacific Crest trails. Even better was for the same price as my single airfare to the east coast I was able to purchase two flights (one for myself and one for Dan) to Los Angeles. Dan was excited to go because he had never hiked higher altitudes or seen the Sierras (I had only seen the Sierras from the highway). Unfortunately, just like Vermont, this trip was not meant to be. About two weeks before our departure I had discovered that there was a gigantic wildfire burning near our trailhead. I kept my eye on the incident report as the fire grew from 59,000 acres (the largest fire burning in California at the time) to over 150,000 acres! While the fire never made it's way to the Rae’s Lake Loop it meant reaching the trailhead was impossible and the air quality was so poor that most of Sequoia national park was closed to the public.

I searched for other hikes in California, but permitting, distance from Los Angeles Airport and the scattered wildfires throughout the state were nearly impossible to navigate. Instead I turned my radar toward Colorado. I started with airfare and found that for the price of one of our tickets to Los Angeles I could re-book both of our new flights to Denver! For trails, I was aware of the CT and Continental Divide Trail (CDT) but didn’t know much about their location. When I discovered the CT/CDT were very close to Justin’s new cabin in Fairplay this trip seemed to make too much sense.

I was going to plan a 5 day/4 night hike along the CT/CDT with the goal of summiting a 14er. When planning any trip like this I start with the key logistical hurdles:

• Time - How long will I need to complete this trip and do I have that time available?
• Budget - Can I afford it?
• Gear - What do I need vs. what I own?
• Transport / Porters - How do I get everywhere and what are my contingencies?
• Permitting - Am I allowed to go where I want to go?

Time: I’m not the type of person who dips his toe in the water. If I’m going to do something, I want the full experience. I wanted this trip to be significant enough in length for two reasons. First I wanted to feel accomplished when I reach the end point. There shouldn’t be any question that what I did was the real deal. Second, I had been told that it takes several days to get comfortable on the trail and become present in nature. I had allotted 7 days to complete this adventure. From the advice I received, 5 days/4 nights would be the perfect length to be on the trail. In addition, I would need at least one full day to acclimate to the altitude. I have had several recent experiences (including a scary point on the first day of the 2014 bike adventure) where altitude sickness became a serious issue due to lack of acclimatizing. I also planned an extra day at the end of the trip as a contingency day if we moved too slow or decided to stay an extra night on the trail.

Budget: One of my goals was to see how inexpensively I could do the trip. I had already been investing in outdoor gear throughout the year, so that was not a factored into the trip budget. When buying gear, my philosophy was after my initial investment (probably close to $1500) I could use this gear for many years to come. The main expenses were lodging, airfare, transportation and food. Justin, Nicole and Mike were awesome to allow us to use their new cabin in Fairplay as a “home base” for the adventure. This saved me quite a bit of money on lodging. The airfare ended up being $260 total for both mine and Dan's ticket! I was able to reserve a cheap car for less than $150. I didn’t take a detailed account of my trail food, but I would estimate I spent less than $100 to fill my bear vault to the top (which ended up being 2x as much food as I ate).

Gear: Like I mentioned before, I had been purchasing gear over the past year. Some of the gear I purchased for the 2014 SJHS trip was also coming with me (knives, outerwear, flashlights etc.). My full packing list can be found HERE.  

Transport: Dan and I flew Southwest airlines to get to Denver. Southwest allowed us to check up to two bags for free, including our backpacks without issue of size/weight. In Denver we rented a compact car to get us from the airport to each of our destinations. 99.9% of our driving was on proper roads, so we didn’t need anything nicer than that. For the hike we were going to park at a campground in Twin Lakes (our finishing point) and arrange transportation to drop us off at the Tennessee Pass trailhead. We used a local comapny called Dee Hive Tours. Dee Hive was also our backup transport which we could call on if we needed to be "rescued" from the trail.

Permitting: None required for the Colorado Trail.

The Trip

Dan and I woke super early (3:48am) to catch our 6am flight to Denver. We chose the earliest flight out of Chicago so that we would have as much time in Denver/Colorado to acclimate to altitude before hitting the trail the next morning. Our plan once we landed in Denver was to get our car and drive directly to Pike’s Peak (our first 14er). Pike’s is one of two 14ers in Colorado that you can drive to the summit (the other is Mt. Evans which I did earlier in the month).

We spent about an hour at the top of Pike’s peak, took pictures and enjoyed hot coco and some donuts at the lodge. Dan was physically fine at this point, but I noticed myself getting flu like symptoms and dizziness. Driving back down from the summit, my symptoms gradually dissipated and I was back to feeling normal by the time we hit the main highway. We drove to Justin's cabin near Fairplay where we would stay for the night.

The cabin was great! According to my GPS it was at an elevation of 9700ft. This was about 1,000ft lower than our average altitude on the trail and a good place to spend time to acclimate. We spent about an hour going over our packing list and prepping our packs/gear. After playing around with the BB gun, eating some dinner and trying to watch a movie we got to bed as early as possible.

Day 1:

We woke just before sunrise and drove to Fairplay (aka. South Park) for our last civilized meal. We ate at the South Park Bowling alley (Justin and I had visited here on our way to Durango the year before). They serve the largest pancake I’ve ever seen! We were scheduled to meet Dee Hive transportation at 9am at the Lakeview Campground. Due to highway closures from dynamite blasting we arrived at Twin Lakes about 3 minutes late and found our transporters impatiently waiting. We quickly loaded our gear into the back of their Subaru and headed north toward Leadville. The scenic route from Twin Lakes to Leadville took about 50 minutes. Our driver and navigator were an awesome mother/son team who had a lot of stories to tell about the area. They were excited for us to be hiking, but said we had missed the peak fall foliage by about 5 days! On the plus side they told us that most of the bears were at lower elevation fattening up on trash can food for the winter, so we probably wouldn't encounter any on the trail.

We were dropped off at Tennessee Pass Trailhead which is about 8 miles north of Leadville, CO. We took advantage of our last semi-civilized restrooms, strapped up our packs and headed off into the woods!

About 30 minutes into the hike I realized pretty quick that I had probably packed too much crap in my bag. Dan knew this already and had warned me. In fact, weeks earlier he said he wouldn’t hike with me if I brought the battery powered LED Christmas lights I purchased to hang in my tent. We made several stops along the way to check out some of the remote 10th Division Huts that are availble to rent year round (these huts may become a future backcountry ski adventure for me).

We intended to hike 12 easy paced miles the first day with the goal to reach the Mt. Massive trailhead by the end of Day 2 (about 25 miles in). The Colorado trail is very well kept and safe to hike. The terrain at the start of our hike was wooded and constantly rolling hills. The autum weather was very comfortable, sunny and we were able to hike in t-shirts for most of the day. A big advantage of the Colorado trail was the easy access to water. We each packed about 4L of water to start and I had brought a LifeStraw water bottle which could be dipped into a stream and filters the water as you drink. I highly recommend this over the iodine tablets.

As the afternoon wore on, we were ascending quite a bit and had reached a mountain pass at 11,600ft elevation. This is where the altitude really started to catch up to me. My legs were cramping really bad and my head was pounding. Typically you would try to descend to lower terrain, but we were not sure how far I could get with the leg cramps. I was also running low on water and wanted to make sure I had enough to make it through the night, so we decided to set up our first camp on the pass. We had proudly hiked 13.5 miles and had a total elevation gain of over 3,500ft for the day. After setting up camp, having some dinner (a disgusting 1,200 calorie burrito called “the Bomb” that we purchased at a gas station) and watching the sun set, we settled into our tents.

I battled the acute altitude sickness through most of the first night. My head was throbbing, I was running low on water and I had to get up 2 times to throw up (which involved hiking 200+ft from camp and digging a cathole). I didn’t really start to get decent sleep until about 2am. Despite the struggle, I found myself to be happy and content. I remember laying in my tent with a big grin on my face thinking to myself you wanted this, let the REAL adventure begin! 

Day 2: 

We woke around 6:30am. The air was much colder than Day 1 (about 25 degrees). I had packed specifically for this weather, so I was always comfortable. My base layer was a patagonia Capilene 2 followed by my Windy City Tri-blend T-shirt, then Columbia anti-insect flannel and North Face Thermoball down jacket. For my lower half I had my Exofficio Boxers, White Sierra convertible pants and REI Hiking socks.

Because Dan and I were both low on water, the plan was to eat a few cliff bars, pack up camp and descend from the pass 2.5 miles to the next water supply and have our real breakfast. My legs and health had recovered a bit and the descent was manageable. Along the trail we got some great views of Mt. Massive and Mt. Elbert (both of which we planned to conquer). It took us about an hour to reach the water supply which was a series of cascading waterfalls created by dammed up logs. After filtering and refilling all of our water containers, we boiled water and made breakfast. Dan had packed oatmeal, ramen noodles and powdered mashed potatoes as his cookable food. I purchased pre-made dehydrated meals for each day (~$6-8/meal). I quickly discovered my love for the Mountain House Biscuits and Gravy. I only packed 3 of these any ended of making this my dinner/reward for the nights to come.

The remaining 10 miles of Day 2 were a series of challenging ascents. It was obvious that Dan was the stronger hiker and would often get pretty far ahead of me. By midday I had found a good pace and started utilizing a mantra to help keep me moving along. This was a trick I developed during the grueling ascents on the mountain bike trip the year before. On that trip, in order to keep a steady pedaling cadence, I would repeat rhythmically in my head the following positive affirmations: “I can go further… My legs are strong… I will be fine”. These affirmations ended up working great for backpacking too!

We reached the Mt. Massive trailhead by about 3pm. There was a really nice, level campsite located adjascent to the trailhead which Dan graciously gave to me. He hiked about 1,000ft further down the trail and set up his camp closer to the stream. We collected wood, built a decent fire and had dinner by Dan’s camp. I spent nearly 30 minutes on my back with my legs up against a tree to stretch my hamstrings. This really helped loosen me up.

I headed back to my tent and tried to settle in for night two. It was much colder that night and we actually got some snowfall. I once again found myself affected by altitude and had to throw up in the middle of the night. Add in the persistent wind (which my brain was interpreting as carnivorous animals just outside my tent) and the fact that I was now 1,000ft from my hiking buddy; I slept worse than the first night. Even in the midst of this physical peril I was still elated to be on the trail and accomplishing my goal!

Day 3:

We woke well before sunrise to get a jump start on climbing Mt. Massive. We had a 3,600+ft ascent and an estimated 5 miles ahead of us to reach the peak. The goal was to be descending from the summit before lunch. The moonlight was bright enough to see our path, so neither of us had to use our headlamps. We packed only the supplies we’d need on the mountain (3L water, snacks and first aid) and headed up to Massive.

There was about ½” of new snow on the ground at this point. Our pace was fairly brisk in order to keep warm. As we reached treeline, the sun was rising over the eastern mountains. We stopped several times for some spectacular photos. As the trail ascended the route became less obvious and much rockier. I mostly followed Dan who set the pace (one that I ultimately couldn’t keep up with). At around 12,000ft the terrain became all rock with no vegetation. Much of it was snowy/icy. I could feel my body starting to yell at me and my head was once again pounding. Every time I’d look up toward the summit, I could not see a path nor did I ever feel I was getting closer. At one point Dan had gotten a few hundred feet ahead of me and I had just slipped on an icy patch. I was starting to worry that my health and focus was going to put me at risk if I went any further. I signaled to Dan to hold up. I had decided that it was going to be safer for me to descend. I had made it to 13,400ft (1,000ft from the summit). Dan would continue solo and ultimately reach the summit about 1hr after I turned back.

Along the way we were both passed by a 60+ year old man who was jogging up the same trail. I thought to myself, well isn't this humbling! We would learn later that day as we hiked toward the Mt. Elbert trailhead and were once again passed by this senior man-goat that he had actually jogged and summited both Mt. Massive and Mt. Elbert (the two highest summits in Colorado) that day (something he regularly does for training).

I descended back to camp and laid down. My body was hating me at this point! The ice and snow had already melted from my tent, but the condensation made things inside the tent a little wet. I tried to take a nap while I waited for Dan, but my head was still throbbing and I threw up again. I have since learned that to properly acclimate to altitude I would need to descend lower at night to allow my body to recover. Our average elevation throughout the hike was 10,500ft and my body never seemed to catch up.

Dan arrived back at camp about 90 minutes after me feeling tired but accomplished! He made it all the way to the top of Mt. Massive with no issue. Apparently the last 200ft included a razor ledge with sheer 1,000ft drops, so my dizziness and headache would have made that really unsafe had I chosen to summit. I joined Dan at his camp for some lunch and a campfire as my body gradually came back to life. Some other hikers who had camped near us stopped by and told us that a full grown bull moose (avg. weight around 1,000lbs) had been drinking from the creek next to Dan's camp earlier that morning. That would have been cool to see!

Though our bodies were trashed from the Mt. Massive excursion we still had about 5 miles remaining that day to put us within range to attempt Mt. Elbert (Colorado’s highest peak and the 2nd highest point in the lower 48 states) the next day. After lunch we packed up camp and set off. The hike from the Massive to Elbert trailhead was epic. The Aspen trees had shed most of their foliage which left the trail covered with an abundance of bright yellow leaves. At one point we hiked along side with a man who was going trout fishing. He was playing hookie from work and said he often makes the hike (about 2-3 miles) to a hidden mountain lake to fish.

We knocked off around 3pm that day, just short of our goal destination. We were still about 1.5 miles from the Mt. Elbert Trailhead. Our camp that night was in a nice clearing alongside a stream. Dan and I were able to set up our tents much closer and share a fire. This was obviously an area that had been camped in before and already had a well established fire pit. We found plenty of firewood around camp and had a significant blaze going for much of the evening. Dinner was my last Biscuits and Gravy pack, but this time I added some of Dan’s buttery powdered mashed potatoes. As gross as this sounds, it was pretty fantastic!

Having slept so poorly the last two nights, Dan suggested I try sleeping with earplugs (he had a spare pair in his pack). The combination of our camp being below 10,000ft, the earplugs and my body no longer fighting me allowed me to get the best sleep I had yet.  

Day 4: The Final Day on the CT

We woke up around 7am and were in no rush to leave camp. Our goal was to reach the Mt. Elbert trailhead by 9am. If all went to plan, we would be at the summit by 12:30pm and back to our car in Twin Lakes (our car) by 3pm.  We made breakfast, filled up on water, packed our backpacks and set out. My legs felt great and I was able to keep up with Dan's rapid pace for the first time.

When we reached the Mt. Elbert trailhead we emptied all of our excess gear (tents, food, clothes, etc.) into a trash bag and stashed it under a log about 300ft off the trail. We wanted to hike as light as possible. I even packed a little less water and snacks in order to give myself a shot at making the Elbert summit. Like Mt. Massive our hike began below treeline, however the trail for Elbert was insanely steep at this point. We would often have to use the roots of the trees like rungs on a ladder to climb up the trail. As we exited the treeline, we got a good view of the summit. Dan kept a much more modest pace and often let me lead in order to dictate when we rested. I was confident and determined to get to the top of Elbert. Like Mt. Massive, the terrain ultimately became entirely rock, but the pitch was not as aggressive and there was no ice. As we ascended, we got amazing views of Twin Lakes and could actually pick out the tiny parking lot 5,000ft below where our car was waiting for us. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon so there were dozens of people on the trail (including several families with young kids). This helped me build confidence that I was going to make it! What is cool about Mt. Elbert is that there are two routes to the summit and it could actually be climbed as a looping trail. This also meant we were meeting people on their way up and down.

The weather was changing rapidly throughout the day and would vary between total cloud cover, bluebird sky and even some light snow. For the sake of pictures, I really hoped to have a clear view when I reached the top. As we got within 1 mile of the summit, the trail wound around the back of the mountain where we couldn’t see before. The terrain got steeper and was mostly switchbacks to the finish. My body was getting tired but I was determined to finish. I began taking longer and more frequent breaks to ensure I didn’t overreach and wouldn’t have to turn around. We had gotten within 100 vertical feet from the top and the headache/throbbing began. The trail was not treacherously steep or sheer, so I decided to suck it up and finish the damn hike! Dan let me walk ahead as we reached the summit of Mt. Elbert. We never found the official survey marker (in fact nobody at the top knew where it was), but there was nowhere higher to go so I’ll count it in my book!

At the top we met a couple who had apparently just finished through hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (a 2,400 mile hike). They had brought a summitt sign to hold up for photos that said Mt. Elbert, 14,439ft, October 4, 2015 and snapped a few shots of us at the top. We probably spent no more than 5 minutes at the top because once again my body was starting to give and was begging to go down. On that day, and for a brief moment, Dan and I were the highest people in the lower 48 states. Mt. Whitney, the official highest point in the lower 48, was actually closed down due to smoke from the forest fire that ended our King's Canyon hike in California.

On our descent (still close to the summit) we passed by a group of 5 mountain bikers who were pushing their bikes up the trail. They were lead by a 5’5” petite female rider. I commented in passing how they were all nuts and that I was also insanely jealous!

We hiked quickly back down to our stashed gear and started re-packing our backpacks. Just as we were about to head out on the trail we heard the yells and cheers of the mountain bike crew blazing down the trail. The first one down was the 5’5” blonde who was seriously impressive! When all 5 riders returned they enjoyed a celebratory shot of whiskey, cracked open some cans of coors light and started talking about the next 14er they were going to ride down. Apparently this is something they do all the time. I talked shop for a bit with them about downhill mountain biking (since I had done it for the first time about a month before and was now a pro). There is no way in hell I would have been able to ride down 80% of that trail, yet all 5 of them didn’t have to dismount or walk their bikes an inch! Add that to my bucket list!

We eventually all split off in different directions and headed out. Dan and I had another 3.5 miles of descending to get to the car. Our bodies were definitely tired but still capable of a lot more. We contemplated setting up one last camp and hiking further, since we had already planned a 4th night on the trail. However, seeing the bikers inspired an idea to finish early and use our extra day in Colorado to rent mountain bikes somewhere near by. We finished hiking to the car by 2:45pm and snapped a few last photos around Twin Lakes before heading to dinner.

In total we hiked 54 miles and accumulated 14,000ft of total ascent in 4 days. I felt that I had done exactly what I trained, prepared and set out to do!

Reflection:

My biggest takeaway from this trip is that when it comes to vacation, I am in it for the memories not the rest and relaxation. I find comfort in uncomfortable situations. I’m going to remember throwing up at the top of the pass in the middle of that first night far more vividly than any comfy bed or spa I’ve been to. In fact, I would chose 10 out of 10 times to sleep on the cold wet ground in the middle of the mountains than at any resort in a comfy bed. These are the memories and stories I love!

As far as my physical performance is concerned, I could have specifically prepared for the hike better in my training. Several months prior to our departure Dan had taken up distance running, so his overall endurance and capacity was much higher than mine. I had done several medium distance runs (5 miles and less) but I was focusing on strength and CrossFit style workouts. The CrossFit training definitely made my legs stronger and my anaerobic conditoining solid. Stepping up and down from rocks with a loaded pack felt easy. It was the longer duration pacing that presented the most opportunity for improvement. This is of course comparing my performance on the trail to a more experienced hiker. Dan had a better sense of his pace and what his body could handle, where as I was experiencing much of that for the first time. Dan also told me I was not even close to being the slowest friend he’s hiked with.

All in all, the moments of struggle are what made this trip exciting, fun and memorable for me. Completing this hike also built my confidence in my physical and mental abilities in that I was able to succeed without a ton specific training or trail experience. This is a testament to my overall fitness level as well as my ability to plan and prepare mentally for unknown tasks and variables. This confidence is going to allow me to pursue my other adventure bucketlist goals such as climbing the Tetons, backcountry skiing and longer more technical hikes.

I hope you enjoyed my story. If you have any questions about this trip, feel free to email me at Cheston@windycitycrossfit.com