IO: “Back to School!” (Collegiate Loop, Colorado) (~160 Miles)
Details
For years September meant the end of summer and the start of a new school year. Ah, the new friends, the keg parties, the all-nighters cramming information from unread books for final exams, the backpacking . . . Let’s just do the best part of school—the backpacking!
DC UL is going back to college! We’ll hike the famous Collegiate Loop in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. This loop is the convergence of the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. The peaks along the trail are all named after colleges that would never have admitted me—including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.
Here is the CalTopo loop Karan created when he ran a 7 day version of this: https://caltopo.com/m/0B11M. I downloaded the FarApp map, which seems like the best option for digital maps. We are going to do the whole thing over 10 days. That leaves 2 days before and after for travel days. I may arrive even earlier to get acclimated. However, Logan, who previously hiked this loop, says he on-trail acclimated by doing the lower elevation side first. We’ll do it that way.
We’ll fly to Denver and rent cars to the trailhead. We’ll work out the exact dates and itinerary in the next months, so don’t book your plane tickets just yet. I’m posting this now just so anyone who needs to claim annual leave from work can do so. We will also have a “Plan B” in case of forest fires—we’ll either hike somewhere northwest or southwest of Denver to avoid smoke.
Approx splits will be ~15 miles every day, with average elevation gain of ~4k daily. The highest elevation on the hike will be 12.8k ft!
This trip is an “Invitation Only” trip. However, I’m not sending out invites. This simply means I’ll pull you off the RSVP list if I’ve hiked with you and know that you generally hike at a pace so that everyone typically arrives at camp each day within a couple hours of each other. (Some do that by waking early; others by walking fast). I’m limiting this trip to Veteran Members.
If you are interested, feel free to hop on the waitlist.
---------------THE IMPORTANT WARNINGS-------------------
I’m just a co-participant on this trip, not a guide or an expert. I’ve been hiking with DCUL since 2017 but have no special training, such as organizational, medical, or navigational. You are officially on the trip if you both RSVP on Meetup, we engage by email, text, or the app, and you meet me at the trailhead. Otherwise, you are doing your own trip until you make physical contact with me and I recognize you as a co-participant. I’m open to questions.
By RSVPing to this trip or any other DCUL trip, you agree to these guidelines and to DCUL's waiver liability terms (https://dculbackpacking.com/about/liability-waiver/)
COVID-19 policy: https://dculbackpacking.com/about/covid-19-guidelines/
Dues: Members and above, don't forget to pay your annual dues. You can check if you need to pay dues by seeing if the current year is listed next to your name in your DCUL profile. To pay your dues via PayPal, use this link: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/JenniferAdach/15 ($10 annual dues plus a $5 suggested donation to City Kids Wilderness Project.)