Colorado Trail day 24
July 18, 2026
We woke up a little bit before 6:00 and the cows started talking to each other loudly a little bit after 6:00 so we got up then. It had been a pretty chilly night and we were both a little bit cold even with our puffy jackets on inside the bedding.
We used nearly the last of our water to make some hot drinks, leaving just enough to brush our teeth and have a few gulps to hike towards a new water source. We left camp at 8:00.
After about 3/4 of a mile, we passed a gate and the evidence of cows was reduced afterwards. In another mile or so we found a tiny creek flowing across the trail from the hillside. We went ahead and filtered a couple liters there. Even though it was very silty, we figured the cow patty content was very low.
After that, the going got a bit tougher. The slope increased, which matched the creek – where for the last 12 miles or so it flowed slowly and sinuously, now we often heard it rushing. This part of the canyon exhibited a little bit fresher erosion, with lots of large rocks to step over in the trail.
Towards the head of the valley, the trail crosses the main Cochetopa Creek. We stopped here to filter some water. A cute little bird that might have been a fox sparrow was taking a bath in the creek while we were filtering.
The trail got even steeper at the end of the valley and we climbed up to a saddle. Here we caught up with Greg and Highlighter. Highlighter had just come back down from climbing San Luis Peak, and Greg and we left our packs and headed up to the peak carrying just water and snacks. It’s about a mile and a half of steep climbing, 1500 feet. And it’s all on a big pile of rocks, a pile that gets surprisingly steep at the top.
It took us over an hour and a half to climb up, and we only spent less than 15 minutes at the top (14,022 feet elevation) because rain clouds were threatening. We got some Verizon service at the top.
It only took about 45 minutes to climb back down. We were hungry as it was after 2:00 and we hadn’t had lunch, so we quickly made and ate some tortillas with salami and cheese, then we got off the saddle in case thunderstorms arrived.
The trail descended a ways into a big bowl / valley with some rocky spires around it, then it ascended a bit to go over a saddle to the next valley, a larger one. We descended to a little creek and had started to think about campsites so we filtered enough water to camp. As we worked on the last bottle of water the rain that had passed by before arrived. It rained pretty hard so we found a spot behind some bushes that was somewhat sheltered from the wind and hunkered down.
The rain went on for over half an hour. We ate some snacks and made some jokes. Eventually it lightened up enough that we decided to start hiking again. There was supposed to be a campsite sheltered by bushes about two miles away and it was now almost 5:00.
Working our way up over the next saddle warmed us up. We descended to San Luis Pass and looked for the campsite in vain. The next camping described in Far Out was a bit over two miles further, but up and over another big climb.
We decided to go for it since making that much progress meant we could make it to Lake City for the Sunday dinner after all. Greg had told us that in addition to the daily 12:00 shuttle to Lake City there was an additional 4:00 shuttle on Sundays. There was no way we could make it by noon, but 4:00 was doable.
The climb was the steepest of the day (not counting the side trip to the peak without packs) and the wind started blowing hard from the south where it was raining far down the valley. It was difficult and stressful but we made it over and there was far less wind on the other side.
The descent into the East Mineral Creek valley was steep, but we were glad to get lower quickly. We finally found a really pretty campsite, although it was somewhat surrounded by dead trees. We arrived at 7:00.
We got the tent set up and made a curry dinner from Farm to Summit that really hit the spot. We made cocoa for dessert. As we finished brushing our teeth a moose suddenly showed up and seemed surprised we were there.
12 miles on the trail plus a mile and a half side trip to the top of San Luis Peak, which involved in additional 1500 foot ascent, for a total of 15 miles and over 5000 feet ascent, over 11 hours.