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Blog Entry 4 of 4 Home....Where Story Begins

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Colorado trail

Contributed by: SM Merchant   on 4/14/2007

April 11, 2007 Remembering Aesop's Wind and Sun Fable Brad and I selected Segment 2 to be our first day on the Colorado Trail. the twelve miles could be hiked in one day and it was the hottest and driest part of the Colorado Trail. We chose to hike it backwards from all the guidebooks because the elevation gain was less this way.

Brad had run the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim in one day and I was his reluctant to partner as we had had some regrettable experiences previously with fourteeneers . We wanted desperately to succeed. Wednesday, the week of the 9th-13th turned out to be the only good weather day of the week. Blustering winds early in the week and into Wednesday morning with heavy snow warnings and flight cancellations in the later part of the week. The two dogs, Maryanne and Sasha, thoroughly enjoyed the day. I had worried about them both as the twelve mile hike was a long one indeed for these two mature ladies, let's make that three mature ladies!

Sasha had come to us from our son's home due to the increased responsibilities of work, school and child left no time for the attention to the needs of a pet. Coming to us was Sasha's third home, she had been displaced by children once before and now though happy, she did not seem bonded. The day completely changed her outlook and we noticed a difference in her behavior that evening, leaving Maryanne on her bed upstairs to join us downstairs. Sasha is the more observant of the two dogs and realized we had indeed come to the end of the trail by recognizing the surroundings where we had dropped the car off early that morning jumping in the river to celebrate reviving her spirits. Running out and back with Brad had conditioned Maryanne to expect to hear the words, "Okay, now it's time to go back." Maryanne wasn't looking for the end of the trail. The suspension bridge caused Maryanne great anxiety until she safely reached the other side. The dogs added a pleasurable dimension to the day's trek that we wouldn't have had without them.

We stopped for lunch at the lookout and lazed among the large outcropping of rocks admiring grand vistas while we ate egg salad sandwiches made from last week's Easter eggs. My parents were instrumental in the success of the day by following us so we could drop our car and then by taking us to outside the town of Buffalo Creek to the trail head. We traversed the burned out portions of the Pike National Forest at the beginning and the end of the trip. The middle section ran through the only forested area. The fire destroyed 12,000 acres in 1996, however the vistas of the surrounding peaks were beautiful along with the flowering cactus and variety of small blooming wildflowers. It was a great way to start our 468 mile trip.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

SM Merchant

Lakewood , CO

SM Merchant has posted 4 blog entries and 2 comments since joining on 2/24/2006. SM Merchant's average blog rating is 5.
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