Colorado Trail Recap Pt. 2
On Sunday, July 23rd at 1:56am, Tara Dower and I began a team self-supported Fastest Known Time attempt on the Colorado Trail from Waterton Canyon near Denver. On Monday, July 31st at 11:55pm, Tara completed the trail in Durango in a women’s supported FKT while her ragtag crew, including me, cheered her in. As you can imagine, a whole lot happened between the start and finish of what ended up being an epic and unexpected story. This is part two of my Colorado Trail recap. You can find part one here.
Tara and I woke up to our alarms at 1:15am at our campsite. We slept at about 11,800ft, 11 miles south of US-50. It was super chilly, so I packed up as much as I could and I waited in my tent until I heard Tara unzip her tent and step out. The nice thing about working together was that Tara could head out and start her day as soon as she was ready, leaving her tent and sleeping gear behind. As soon as she left, I quickly packed up all our gear, stuffed it in my Nashville Pack, and hiked the 11 miles back to the highway where we’d hiked from the night before, and where my rental car was waiting.
It was a dark, lonely hike back to the car. Tara was out there alone in the dark too, and had many miles to go for the day. I arrived at the trailhead around 5:30am. I would meet Tara next at Highway 140, where she’d cached our next resupply the week before we began. I had about 7-8 hours before I’d need to be there, so I figured I’d drive into Gunnison, get some breakfast, and see if I could find a way to shower and do my laundry. On the way to Gunnison, a wave of sleepiness hit me and I knew it wasn’t safe to continue driving. I found a wide pull-off area, made sure my car doors were locked, put my driver’s seat back, and fell asleep instantly.
Earlier Tara had messaged me requesting a new pair of shoes, as her toes were hitting the front of her current shoes. Thankfully, a mutual friend had connected me with Christine from Denver, who had sent a text offering to help us out. I messaged Christine and asked if there was any way she could pick up some shoes for Tara and drive them out to us. She was all over it, locating an REI that had the shoes Tara needed, with opening hours that would allow for her to do part of her drive earlier and pick up the shoes on the way.
I woke up maybe 90 minutes later and continued on my way. I found a place to eat a hot breakfast and have some coffee, and got to work writing an update and cry for help on social media. It dawned on me that a runner Lindsey that had messaged me on Instagram, who’d offered to pace Tara, lived right there in Gunnison. I texted her and shamelessly asked if I could come over and take a shower, to which she graciously said yes! From there, Lindsey and I were able to coordinate where and when she would be able to join Tara. Then on my way back to town, I received a call from a hiker named Michael who was interested in hiking a large chunk of the trail with Tara if we could figure out the logistics. And then in the meantime, I was also playing phone tag with Tara’s friend Reese, who was doing everything she could on her end to plot ways to help Tara and help me research road crossings, plus I was exchanging texts with a hiker Melinda and her husband who were interested in joining Tara and helping out that evening.
Coordinating with Christine, Lindsey, Michael, Reese, and Melinda should not have felt like rocket science, but in my fatigued and sleep-deprived state my head was spinning trying to keep everything straight and stay accountable to everyone. I was freshly showered though still wearing my stinky hiker clothes of five days, but laundry would just have to wait. I had a cache to dig up!
I hightailed down highway 140 to where the road and Colorado Trail intersected. Tara had hidden two bear canisters full of our supplies by some bushes under a pile of rocks near the trailhead. She sent me a video and a voice memos with instructions on how to find it. It was like going on a treasure hunt.
I pulled out our supplies, organizing Tara’s in some open boxes stored in the trunk so she could easily see what the offerings were. There was still a bit of time before she’d arrive, so I zipped back into town to fill up on gas, then zipped right back to the trailhead to wait.
This was where it all finally started to come together. It turned out Christine had already arrived at the trailhead, and had hiked in a few miles to meet Tara. Tara had been hiking all day alone to that point, so how wonderful for her to finally have company. Lindsey arrived at the trailhead the same time as me, so we were there to greet Tara together. Christine had brought a chair, something I’d lacked, and Tara was able to plop down while getting treated to chocolate ice cream (also brought by Christine), and then Lindsey got right to work cleaning up and mending Tara’s blistered feet. It was such a relief to have more hands on deck and smiles all around, most importantly Tara’s!
Lindsey joined Tara for the next section, which thankfully was mostly on chill, non-technical dirt/gravel roads. Christine and I drove ahead to where we’d see them next and camp out for the evening. I was feeling seriously fatigued and sleep-deprived still, so I took the opportunity to nap again in the front seat of the rental car. As I was sleeping, Melinda and her husband Doug arrived after driving several hours from Grand Junction. So within the span of one day we had gone from a one-person support crew to four! Amazing!
It would have been perfectly fine for Tara to stop at that point–that’s what we had planned for. It was brought up that there was another forest road crossing just a few trail miles down from where we were, if Tara wanted to add on a few more miles. Tara asked what I thought. Knowing she had a big day tomorrow, considering we still had some daylight left, and she was feeling good still, I told her I thought it was a good idea if she was up for it. So on she went!
Melinda took over pacing duties for the remaining miles, and I drove Lindsey, who had joined Tara for the last section, back to her car at highway 50. Since there was no cell phone service, Doug told me where to meet him so that I could follow him in his truck to the next meeting point.
Doug met me where we’d planned with Christine following in her vehicle. They rolled up very fast though, then sped off very quickly as soon as I joined the caravan. We flew down the dirt road, one car after the other, though I had to slow down quite a bit as dirt was billowing everywhere from the two cars in front of me. I wondered why we were driving so fast. We rolled up to a closed gate, which was where I finally learned that the point where we were trying to reach Tara was gated. This was the second of two access roads that they had tried to get through. The only way remaining to reach Tara and Melinda was the original point where we’d last seen them. My heart dropped, because Tara was only hiking a few miles and enough time had gone by that she was probably almost finished. And we weren’t there to meet her. And we’d have to hike in the same distance to get to her, which meant she might be waiting for a very long time, at least an hour.
Doug had an idea though. His 4runner was all-wheel drive, and the trail in that section was technically comprised of rugged farm roads. We could literally follow them down the trail. We all caravanned back to our original camp spot. Christine stayed there to sleep, I left my car there, and hopped in the passenger seat of the 4runner with Doug driving.
We literally drove down the trail (technically old farm road), at night, searching for Tara and Melinda. All I could think about was that it was getting cold out, that they might get too cold if they stopped moving, and they didn’t have a shelter or sleeping gear. It was an extremely bumpy ride complete with a couple small stream crossings, sharp turns, and steep ups and downs. Thankfully Doug was experienced with driving on that type of terrain and navigated the trail like a champ. Unfortunately, Tara and Melinda were nowhere to be seen. They had their GPS trackers on them, but we didn’t have cell service and the ability to pull up the map to show where they were. We drove past the point we had planned to meet them and kept going until the trail was impassable by vehicle. Our only choice was to turn around. I stayed calm on the outside, but was losing my shit on the inside worrying about Tara and Melinda. Had they continued hiking past the meeting point? Would they be okay doing the next 12.6 mile section on no sleep and few supplies, if that’s what they had decided to do? Would we find them?
Then a mile or two from the point we’d turned around, we saw the light of two headlamps in the distance. I could have cried. We found them. They would be safe.
It turned out that they had actually taken a wrong turn and gotten off trail. So as Doug and I had been driving in, we missed them because they weren’t actually on the Colorado Trail. Thankfully, they found their own way back, and thankfully Doug and I were still out there to intercept them. Tara and Melinda seemed to be in good spirits when we found them. I think I was more stressed out than anyone else. What a huge relief.
Doug and Melinda set up a large tent that we could all share. I had quickly packed Tara’s things to throw in Doug’s car, so everything was kind of a jumble. This aspect seemed to be the most stressful for Tara, as the things she needed were not in their place. We did our best to get some calories in her, plan when to set the alarm, and get to sleep.
Just a couple hours later Tara and Melinda were on their way for the next section. Doug and I would meet them at Eddiesville Trailhead 12.6 miles away. It was a long drive to get there on dirt forest roads at night. Tara and Melinda made good time, even with Tara taking five or so necessary dirt naps along the way. It was light out by the time they arrived. Doug made a hot breakfast for both of them and off they went for the next 27.3 mile section to Spring Creek Trailhead.
It was a long long drive, at least a couple hours I think, on mostly dirt roads back toward civilization. Once I finally made it out to a paved highway, I got extremely sleepy like the day before and pulled over to take a quick nap as soon as I found a wide enough shoulder to do so.
I drove on to Lake City in a daze, finding a place to eat a hot breakfast and sending out another social media update. I hoped to find a laundromat, but would have to go yet another day in my stinky hiker clothes. This had started as a self-supported hike, and I only had with me what I chose to carry from the beginning, which wasn’t much!
Later at the Spring Creek Trailhead, I reconvened with Christine, and we had some incoming fresh blood: Tara’s good friend Reese, and Michael the hiker who I’d spoken on the phone with! Michael would join Tara on the next 50+ mile section up and over the highest point of the Colorado Trail. This was a godsend as there was no way for me to access Tara in this next section, given the remote nature of the trail and the limitations of my rental car. Reese was equally a godsend as she provided a huge moral boost for Tara and would be there to help with literally everything all the way through to the end of the hike.
And Spring Creek Trailhead is where we’re going to stick the bookmark! Two days remain in this epic journey and this letter is long enough for now!
💫
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