Beep. Beep. Beep.
Today was a busy day, and the excitement of getting out on trail in two days was enough for me to get out of my sleeping bag extra early in the morning.
Now for those that followed along from the last post, Devan and I arrived at our campsite at the Indian Creek Campground the previous night at 9:00 p.m. after spending approximately 30 hours traveling. Stating that we were both exhausted would have been an understatement. BUT one of us would have to drive from Denver to Durango and back on this new day in order to get the trailer parked for our finish on the trail.
I did not want to drive. Devan did not want to drive. So rock, paper, scissors it was.
Thanks to pure luck… I won! I was thrilled not to be driving for another 12+ hours that day.
That morning, as Devan was driving off, I was convinced that I had won the best side of the deal! Yes, at the end of the day I did not have to be stuck in the truck driving for hours, so it had its perks. But staying in camp with all the horses… something was bound to happen to keep us busy! And it did.
June 29th
The day started off great! All of the horses tied perfectly on the highlines overnight. It was a beautiful cool morning. A nice change from the Texas heat.
Lissa and I were the only ones in camp. Our job was to care for all the horses and start sorting through our gear and food.
Planning and logistics were everything for this trip. We had to plan out our resupplies so 1) we knew where and when we would be able to meet our trail parents throughout the trek and 2) we would have an idea on how much food we needed to carry in between our resupplies. We planned to meet with Tracy after our first three days on trail where we would resupply for the next five days. Our next resupply second resupply would be on Day 8.
All was good…. until it happened. Someone finally noticed that there were horses in the wrong campground.
Let’s just fast forward about three hours when we finally finished moving all seven horses and 30 days of gear and food for five riders…
Thankfully, Annie showed up in the middle of our move and was able to help us pack up!
We tucked in all the horses in their pens, and then drove back toward town to get a cellphone signal and check in on everything and everyone. Phone service was not that reliable for most of the trail.
Tomorrow, the plan was to finish packing with everyone present.
June 30th
We woke up early to an even cooler morning! After feeding the horses, we decided to go into town to eat our last “real breakfast” before our instant oatmeal breakfast-trail diet started. Breakfast was so worth it because the next time we had something other than oatmeal was not until about 20 something days later. Hiker hunger is definitely just as real for us horseback riders! We do burn a ton of calories riding, and trust me, we all got off our horses and hiked a lot each day.
After breakfast, we made our way back to the campground. Devan and Ragan were waiting for us ready to finish up our final preparations. Each and every ounce counts when carrying it on trail, so we each took time to go over all of our individual items and group items and remove any unnecessary items.
To end the day, we decided to head over to the official starting point of the Colorado Trail – the Waterton Canyon Trailhead – to get a group picture before we started in the morning! It was great to be able to get to the official start since we were heading out from the alternate route at Indian Creek Campground. The Indian Creek Trail meets up with the Colorado Trail a few miles in.
The following day we would start making our way to Durango on the Colorado Trail. Five brave riders and six incredible horses.
