I am still recovering from yesterdays half marathon, but I managed to hike about 9 miles from Segment 4/Mile 14.3 to Rock Creek with little difficulty.

Hiked 12.0 miles to Segment 4/Mile 14.5. First 3 miles were a tough climb, but the rest was mostly flat or downhill. I should have stopped at the Lost Park Campground back at Segment 4/Mile 8.9; I heard later that a guy was giving away free Arby’s sandwiches to CT hikers the day after I passed through.

I’ve become a bit frustrated with the Colorado Trail Guide Book and Databook distributed by the Colorado Mountain Club. The data contained therein are often inaccurate, incomplete, and even inconsistent between the two books. I’ve been tracking my mileage on my GPS with fair precision; most of the GPS waypoints match my mileage within a couple hundred feet and centerline track is coarse but generally accurate. Occasionally, a point of interest will be off by about 0.2 miles or so when comparing the data book, the guide book, and my GPS. Essentially, I only trust the information in the books to be accurate within ±0.3 miles, but I trust the waypoints within the map set to be ±200 ft.

Today was a perfect example of how the incomplete data can affect one’s hike. According to the Databook, Segment 4 has a campsite without water at either Mile 14.5 (according to the feature list, and reality) or Mile 14.3 (according to the segment map). The Databook classifies water sources as “reliable”, “seasonal”, or “scarce”, and the nearest source prior to the campsite is listed as a “seasonal” flow at Mile 11.3. The local hikers I’ve met described the current period as the beginning of the summer monsoon season, and it has been raining/hailing daily, so it’s not surprising that even the “scarce” sources are quite reliable. The problem is that at Mile 11.3, I loaded up on water for dinner, breakfast and a portion of tomorrow’s hike, and then I crossed at least 5 viable streams before reaching my campsite, the last being within only 0.5 miles of the campsite. In fact, the Map Book corroborates this and actually shows a stream at Mile 14.0, but this is not captured in either the Guide Book or Databook. This means that I unnecessarily hauled 5+ lbs of water an extra 2.7 miles and 300 ft of elevation gain.

Granted it’s not a life or death scenario, though similar inaccuracies could lead to more serious situations, but it is mainly an annoyance that I can’t have full confidence in the published data. The result is that I am skeptical of any one data source and find myself either checking all three books or planning critical stops based on heuristic risk assessments with contingency plans. I admit that the statement on the back cover of the Databook, “The only guidebook you’ll need to hike the Colorado Trail” is largely true, but it may frustrate the shit out of you if you’re expecting reliable data.

My appetite is noticeably reduced, though I was able to take in a basic dinner of mashed potatoes and bacon.

As I hike, I’ve noticed that my mind wanders to the most random shit in my memory, labeled hereafter as the Random Shit In My Head. Today’s most frequent RSIMH is the Paula Cole song I don’t want to wait. I’m not really a fan, it’s just stuck in my head.

I am surprised that I still have decent cell reception, two bars of Edge network, presumably from the Bailey area just North of me.

Business Idea: Rental Service for SPOT Satellite Messengers. Currently, the SPOT typically costs $150 in hardware and $100+ in annual service fees, which is an initial investment of at least $250. The proposed rental service could rent out units perhaps at $10 per week plus a $10 processing fee, which would lead to the following example rate schedule:
  1 week : $20
  2 weeks: $30
  4 weeks: $50
  8 weeks: $90
  16 weeks: $170

This structure would be more economical for consumers like me, who really only use the service a few times a year for one to three weeks at a time on remote excursions. Customers could also purchase additional insurance apart from the rental fees, including expatriation, search and rescue.

We ran a few errands, checked out Travis’s studio and Pearl Velo, and we almost forgot to stop at REI on the way out town from some critical supplies. I discovered Justin’s Nut Butter as a perfect alternative to energy gels, available in peanut, hazelnut, and almond flavors, each with chocolate and honey varieties. Why eat GU with the texture of horse jizz when you can indulge on high-fat, high-calorie, hazelnut butter. I also lightened my pack a bit further by swapping out a few of one-liter Nalgenes for a four-liter MSR Dromedary bag.

On the way out to the trail, we stopped at Qdoba in the Aspen Park area. Qdoba’s menu is very similar to Chipotle’s, but I was less than impressed with the quality of the ingredients. Specifically, the carnitas was almost soupy and generally subpar compared to Chipotle.

Travis and I finally made it out to Lake Wellington only to find it closed, so we doubled back to the Colorado Trail trailhead and did a quick 3.5 miles out-and-back starting Eastward; we were caught in a brief downpour around 6 PM. We headed back to the car and integrated the new supplies into my pack.

I hiked 1.1 miles Westward to my first campsite. No dinner as it was already dark by the time I got my tent and bag setup; I settled for a pack of Justin’s peanut butter with chocolate.

The plane was scheduled to leave at 3:25 PM but did not take off until 5:30 PM, but I luckily still made my connection in ATL. I was a bit disappointed that Delta doesn’t serve meals on some of the mid-range domestic flights. Their meals were never that good but I’m just annoyed with all the new fees effected by their cost cutting initiatives. Is this Ryan Air? That said the $5 “Mediterranean” meal box isn’t half bad: green olives, bagel chips, asiago cheese spread, glazed cashews, dried cranberries, and swiss chocolate; it’s a much better deal than the $3 can of formed potato flakes known as Pringles.

I surprised Travis and Emily at the airport when I ran into them sooner than expected. Starting sometime during my travels in Europe, I got a reputation for serendipitously finding people and running into them without sufficient information or communication to locate them. This stems mainly from a weekend trip to Venice where I ran into a group of high school friends on vacation as well as a group of friends from UC on a field trip, all with no communication. One friend still suspects I work for the CIA. Admittedly, Venice is basically one big pedestrian area with a few main corridors, so it not that improbable that two people would randomly run into each other. Interesting side note: my roommates at the first hostel at which I stayed were also from UC and completely unaffiliated with the other group from UC.

I passed out at 11:30 PM MDT; the first full night of sleep in over a week.