June 26, 2026

At around 5:00 the birds were determined to wake everyone up. The tent was dry inside and out, so it must not have rained for long last night. I woke up and saw more lightning flashes around 1:30 - a somewhat stormy night.

The morning view from our tent was pretty with gentle morning light on the cliffs across the river.

Morning view from our tent day 2
Morning view from our tent day 2 - Colorado Trail, end of segment 1

We made hot drinks and ate a couple Protein Pucks. We packed up and headed down to the river before 7:00. Once there, we had a lot of water to filter and we also both wanted to use the vault toilet. We finally started making progress on the trail at 7:45. It was a pretty early start for us but I think we were the last through-hikers to get on the trail. We saw a few leaving as we finished filtering water, and one of them stopped to introduce herself and chat. Many of the hikers seem really friendly.

The trail climbs and switch-backs up and out of the South Platte River Valley. After about a mile, it enters a rolling, treeless area. This is the burned area that many sources warned us to try to cross as early in the morning as possible due to the lack of shade and considering that the next reliable water source is in ten miles.

Raleigh Peak from the east
Raleigh Peak from the east - Colorado Trail segment 2

As predicted it felt hot in this area. It was in the 80s after about 10 AM, but a number of thunder clouds rolled through and we got sprinkled on a few times, and at other times had clouds with a good breeze, so it didn’t feel too bad most of the time. This part of the trail seems like it meanders around kind of aimlessly, although it does eventually make its way around this really big rock outcropping called Raleigh Peak. I lost the nifty clip that holds my umbrella onto my pack strap somewhere in here. We used our umbrellas initially for shade and a few times for rain showers. We started trying to take a photo of every different type of wildflower that we saw along this stretch.

Colorado Trail segment 2
Colorado Trail segment 2
Raleigh Peak from the east
Raleigh Peak from the east - Colorado Trail segment 2
Image from Flickr

To help get through this section we were listening to music and audiobooks. I ended up finishing one, The Death of Sleep, that I had been working on for the past couple weeks. It was an interesting story but not amazing. We stopped for water at the North Fork Volunteer Fire Station where we saw three other hikers and a bike packer all using the water spigot. Then we went just under a mile further and found a nice level campsite (with cell service!) a bit west of Deckers Road around 4:00.

Colorado Trail sign with flowers
Colorado Trail sign with flowers
North Fork Volunteer Fire Station
North Fork Volunteer Fire Station - Only water source on Colorado Trail segment 2

We ate one of the curry meals that Julie had prepared for dinner and then had some Twinkies with dehydrated fruit for dessert. The dessert was based on a backpacking recipe for strawberry shortcake by Chef Corso.

Twinkie trifle with dehydrated fruit
Twinkie trifle with dehydrated fruit - Based on strawberry shortcake recipe by Chef Corso

We took a short stroll after dinner to a little hill with a panoramic view of the area and the distant mountains to the west.

Sunset at our second campsite
Sunset at our second campsite - Colorado Trail segment 2

With the long evening and cell service I played a couple phone games and then got some photos and a journal entry for day one of the hike uploaded.

Almost eleven miles in a bit under eight hours with 2,400 feet elevation gain.