Following my climbing trip at The Red River Gorge in Kentucky, I headed to Western North Carolina once again. It felt funny to have been out for about a month and only made it as far as my second home. I was brought to Western NC to visit the Nantahala Outdoor Center, in order to recertify my Wilderness First Responder. The class was a new hybrid style to be safer because of COVID. This meant half of the class was online. The hands-on practice in these classes is the key part to learning, and there definitely was way less of that unfortunately. But I got the cert and am now employable, although still unemployed. Life goes on.
Following my stop at the NOC, I drove halfway to Colorado and camped for the night in Missouri. The campsite was a no-fee area in the Mark Twain National Forest, and it was definitely a little sketchy. But just a little sketchy, not unsafe sketchy. Not every campground is going to be like the well-to-do ones of Shenandoah. My decision to bail on camping and get a hotel will be based on safety and logistics. I ride the line, questioning "am I truly unsafe staying here" versus "do I just not want to camp tonight". I determined I was safe at this place in Missouri and had no real reason to bail, so I stayed and it was fine.
The next day I drove the rest of the way to Colorado. It was my second time doing the Kansas thing- 520 miles on the same highway locked on cruise control. I had a great day but my campsite finding did not go as well as the previous day. Turns out the campground I had picked out was only accessible by 4-wheelers or lifted trucks. By the time I got there it was dark and starting to rain. Perhaps with some time driving around I could have found a legal spot for the night, but it was already quite late, I didn't want to add more driving to my already 14 hour day. I drove to the next town, Idaho Springs, and got a room, I was very glad I did.
The next day (yesterday) I arrived in Frisco to visit with my friend, Elissa. We met in summer 2018 trip leading for the Appalachian Mountain Club in the White Mountains of NH. Not even an hour after my arrival we were on mountain bikes headed to meet up with one of her friends and go for a ride. We rode around the edge of the Dillon Reservoir, the riding was pretty easy technically, but I was for sure pummeled on a cardio level by the elevation.
Speaking of cardio, I am about to head out on a backpacking trip. I will be endeavoring to hike 71 miles of the Colorado Trail in the next week. I will have Elissa joining me for the first two days, and another friend from AMC Teen Wild, Dru, joining me for the latter 4 days. I am super excited to get into the Colorado backcountry because of the views and the challenge. I am most nervous about the elevation effecting me terribly. I've adjusted my milage to account for how slow I will be- attempting to do 10 miles per day is a drastic decrease from the 15-20 mile days I did on the Long Trail and the Mountains-To-Sea Trail.
That's the update for now! In a week I'll be reporting back about how this backpacking trip goes. Reminder that you can see my road trip progress through Polarsteps. The preview is embedded below, and to go directly to the site click here. Comments are closed.
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