It’s my birthday today, and strangely, I’m at home in my living room, and not on a trail or out adventuring. For the past three birthdays I’ve had the good fortune of being in the midst of unique life adventures, and this year, we missed the mark by a day. Tomorrow we head out to Colorado to spend a week on the CDT followed by another week touring around the state visiting family and friends, before capping off the trip with my brother Jeff and I running the Run Rabbit Run 100 mile race in Steamboat Springs. So while today I’m sitting at home, I’m merely biding my time for one more day before we get back outdoors where I seem to belong around birthday time.
So as not to spoil the ending of our CDT book A Long Way from Nowhere, I won’t tell the entire story of why we’re doing the hike we’re doing, but suffice to say that we have some unfinished business with the CDT to attend to. We’ll be hiking north from Herman Gulch Trailhead along I-70, covering 170 miles north to Rabbit Ears Pass outside of Steamboat Springs, CO. If all goes according to plan, which it seldom does with us and the CDT, we’ll be on the trail late afternoon tomorrow, hopefully camping under stars, and not rain. This section is awesome. We will cover some big peaks, climbing above 13,000’ at least a couple times. We’ll hike through Rocky Mountain National Park, and we’ll finish in the town of Steamboat Springs, home to our good friend Eric.
Packing for this trip was an immediate transport into a life that I know so well, yet which is easily forgotten amidst the regular life we’ve created around us here in Seattle. With most things we do, lists are involved, planning and brainstorming on our white board takes place, and we spend time together thinking through our next move. However, with hiking, it comes so natural. We were literally packed and ready to go within an hour. We rounded up the few things we needed for the trip, doubled checked everything, and set our packs aside, ready for the journey. Hiking is our warm, safe blanket. It feels so natural, and I’m eager to get out to the mountains again. For us, getting dropped off on the side of the highway in the middle of the mountains feels so natural. I can’t wait to dig my poles into the ground and start climbing.
After the hike, assuming we cover ground in our normal 25 to 30 miles per day average, we plan on visiting some friends down in the San Juans and then in Denver. We love Colorado and we’ve rounded up quite a collection of good people to visit whenever we go there.
Lastly, we’ve got the big race. Run Rabbit Run 100 is the final race of my summer mountain series. Jeff and I are both attempting this one and I feel ready for the challenge. I’ve had a solid season of racing thus far and I have a good training base to work off of. I think the week of hiking prior to the race will cap off my training well. I know there will be some hiking going on during the race and this was an area I struggled in during my 70 miler a couple weeks ago so I feel good about the next couple weeks leading up to the race. Plus, I will have my ace crew chief Julie to keep me put together during this challenging event.
So tomorrow we’re off on our next mini-adventure. Fingers crossed for good weather and fun times. We’ll do our best to update Urbyville with pictures and stories as we go. Follow our Facebook page for more pictures and updates.
For Julie’s gear list check out her recent post on Gossamer Gear’s trail ambassador page.
For her CDT gear review, click HERE.