Amy and I have been so excited with the anticipation of backpacking outside the state of California. We decided to hike a portion of the Colorado Trail this year for something different. It has required much more planning than one of many Sierra hikes. We will be doing a straight through hike this year, point to point, versus a loop which we normally do. Not being able to have a car has us being transported by car, plane, train and a bus. We are actually even getting help from a trail angel (an individual who provides assistance to hikers out of the goodness of their hearts) to get to the trailhead.

The alarm wen off early today 4:30 so we could get a ride to LAX from my mom who was very kind to wake up early and take us. We got to the airport at 5:00 and checked our trash bags containing our backpacks. Not being able to carry on due to camping gear we wanted to avoid losing anything so we put the packs in heavy duty trash bags. If people only knew why we were dragging trash bags through the airport 😂.

We got to Denver along with our backpacks without issue. Now it was time to take a train to downtown Denver. This was quick and easy. Once there we cruised over to REI to get some stove fuel then it was time for lunch. Thank goodness for the free shuttle downtown Denver so we didn’t get too hot and sweaty. We had a great lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery.

Then it was time to head to the Greyhound station. Definitely know why we don’t take the bus very often. Needless to say it is a very interesting group of people who take the bus. We slowly picked up more passengers as we headed out of Denver for Salida.

We arrived in Salida at 5:30 but still had to walk a mile to our hotel. The Palace Hotel is super cute and one of the oldest in town. After checking in we headed next door to the Boat House for dinner. It was great especially since we got a table right by the Arkansas River. We had some good food and were entertainment by rafters and fly fisherman. After dinner it was back to the hotel to crash since we were both tired from the day’s journey.

We are excited to explore the town tomorrow!!