Colorado Trail day 15
July 09, 2026
It was a stormy night! We were just starting to fall asleep around 10:00 when some strong winds began. There were a lot of gusts and we started wondering just how securely our tent stakes were planted. Then it started raining. It rained off and on for about an hour along with the strong winds. Finally it either stopped storming or we fell asleep.
When I woke up in the morning, a bit before 6:00, I found my face and the top half of my sleeping bag were covered with dirt that had blown in under the vestibule. My pack had blocked the lower half of my sleeping bag so it was not as dirty. Unfortunately, even with the wind, the laundry I had done yesterday morning still had not dried while hanging inside the top of our tent.
Julie had gotten up earlier to use the porta-potty at the Pass and captured this.
We were going to get up, but then it started raining again. We waited for about 15 minutes and it stopped. We got up and wiped off the outside of the tent and tried to get going. We were midway packing up and it started sprinkling again – very frustrating!
We made some hot drinks and a couple we had met while we were reverse slack packing from Copper Mountain back to Frisco, “B Team” and “Snail Trail”, came over and talked to us. They had set their tent up at the little saddle above Cottonwood Pass because they had arrived late last night. Unfortunately when the strong winds came up their tent ended up being damaged and they had to take it down and hike down and set up near our tent. I guess their night was worse than ours!
Luckily the rain shower did not last long and we packed the tent up only somewhat damp, but filled with dust. We got on trail around 7:45.
The first thing the trail does is switch back 450 feet up to the top of a ridge above the pass. There are some amazing 360° views from there.
We would continue going down into large valleys, sort of skirting around the valley sides, then climbing back up again to a saddle.
We knew it would be a tough day for us so we tried to take snack and rest breaks regularly. Most of the trail was decent to walk on but each valley had a couple long sections of scree where the trail is just a jumble of rocks with a sort of flattish path. Julie tripped on something in one of these rocky sections and fell. Fortunately it was just painful with a few abrasions, bruises, and a scratch on her glasses - it could have been much worse.
Although it was tough hiking the views were “top of the world.” Every saddle and ridge revealed new mountains and new perspectives on distant mountain ranges.
At one point we could see distant mountains to the east and west, probably fifty to sixty miles in each direction. It’s mind blowing to think how many mountains there are in this area.
We stopped at a brushy little creek to filter water and eat lunch, then on to the next saddle. Finally we reached the ridge above the road to Tincup Pass. The trail switchbacks down to the bottom of the valley and we faced some strong winds until we descended below tree line, then we found a campsite near the North Fork of Chalk Creek.
We made an “add boiling water” dinner, had some hot cocoa, filtered more water, then went to bed.
16 miles with about 3500 feet ascent and 4500 descent over 11 hours.