I’ve wanted to go backpacking with my son Ryan for many years but he’s been busy getting to know Colorado with his wife Mattie since they moved out here in 2008. But with Mattie now focused on studying all weekend long since she’s back in school I thought I’d steal him for a 3 day trip in the Rockies. So here we are at Tennessee Pass getting on our hiking boots in the back of our magic minivan that brought us up here.
Loaded up and ready to hike at 9:15 at the Colorado Trail at Tennessee Pass near Leadville and getting ready to head north towards Copper Mountain where Angela will pick us back up in 3 days. We’re at about 10,400’ elev. here which also marks the Continental Divide. Angela hiked the first mile with us then headed back to the comfort of a motel room where she’ll do some road biking and hiking while we trample the Colorado Trail.
About 7 miles into our hike we reach what I believe are ammo bunkers at the old Camp Hale, home of the WWII 10th Mountain Division. This is where the GI’s were trained for mountain and snow survival and warfare. Many of the surviving soldiers returned here after the war and became pioneers in creating the skiing industry.
After lunch at Camp Hale we begin climbing up the valley towards Kokomo Pass.
Kokomo Pass is 12,000’ elevation. We’ll find a place to camp before reaching Kokomo Pass today.
Bob Kitchens and his longtime buddy Tim are from Wichita, KS. Their wives dropped them off at Tennessee Pass about the same time we were there so we’ve been seeing them off and on today. They’ve been hiking the Appalachian Trail and the Rockies together for over 30 years. They will hike one more day then us and meet their wives in Breckenridge. Very nice guys. I hope we see them again.
We had all stopped to rest after a long and steep climb here at Cataract Falls.
We met these two Forest Service workers at the Falls too. They and about 5 volunteers are building a new and higher foot bridge across the creek. The wire mesh will hold rock that will become the supports for a new log bridge. The Colorado Trail Foundation does an excellent job of maintaining and improving the +500 mile long trail that runs from southwest of Denver to Durango, CO.
Lots and lots of beautiful wild flowers today.
The last of the steeper climbs today as Ryan heads through the flowers and into the shade of an Aspen grove.
After about 9 miles and 3,400’ of total ascent Ryan puts on his ‘bug’ clothing as we begin to prepare our dehydrated Chilli Mac dinners at our camp for the night while the bugs prepare to eat us! We had really large amounts of snow last winter and good rains throughout the summer so the bugs are especially bad. Maybe the bugs will be better above treeline tomorrow? It was a very good first day!
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