The Colorado Trail: 86 Miles from Buena Vista to Saguache

Days 17 – 20 – 0 Miles

Yep, you read that right. 4 Zero Days. I wrote my last blog, Copper Mountain to Buena Vista, at the Buena Vista library with all intentions of heading back to the trail before noon that day. But sometimes Sean and I have a way of putting things off. Since it was the weekend of  my 28th birthday, we decided on a whim to try to hitchhike from Buena Vista to Denver to catch String Cheese Incident play at Red Rocks. Through a series of three hitches, we made it just as the band started their opening song🎶 🧀💃😁

The rest of the weekend was filled with food, comfy couches, cartoons, and even a surprise vegan cake from my friends, David and Katie! Our awesome friends drove us back to Buena Vista where we decided to go white water rafting down the Arkansas River. Overall, pretty epic spur of the moment birthday weekend.

Day 21 – 16.1 Miles

It was finally time to get back to hiking after my birthday fun. We crushed 16 miles with an 11 am start. Not bad. Our next stop was in the tiny town of Saguache where a resupply package was waiting for us. We knew we had some work to do to get to the post office before it closed at 11 am on Saturday, 4 days and 86 miles away. We ended our 16 mile day with beautiful views of Chalk Cliffs.

Day 22 – 19.5 Miles

Fairly uneventful day on the trail. We walked plenty of miles to keep us on track to get to the post office on time.

Day 23 – 21.9 Miles

We started our day with a big climb up to a pass where the Collegiate East and West routes come back together coinciding with the Contintenal Divide Trail. After passing literally millions of wildflowers, we finally made it to the top with stunning mountain views in all directions.

Day 24 – 23.9 Miles

We began the day hiking up a mountain and crossing huge cow pastures. We intentionally pushed ourselves hard to make sure we got to the highway in time to hopefully catch a ride to Saguache. The afternoon brought relentless rain which thankfully let up long enough to cook dinner.

Day 25 – 7.4 Miles

We hiked about 5 miles to the highway and arrived at about 9 am. Saguache was nearly a half hour ride from the trail crossing, and we needed to arrive before 11. After nearly an hour of no luck, a young woman pulled over and got us to the post office with about 10 minutes until closing. We were thrilled to pick up our resupply and the wallet I left in David and Katie’ s car.

We wasted the day in town and miraculously got a ride back to the trail before dark. We were all ready for a 110 mile stretch from Saguache to Silverton.