I finally got to go hiking in Colorado. There were a few change of plans and a few interesting turns of events, but all in all it was a blast!
From every trip that we take we should always take an opportunity to learn something. We got a late start and didn't make it to the top of the mountain before we started running out of daylight.
When the group got to the bottom of the mountain another hiker asked about the water sources on the trail and possible camping locations. On the map the trail crossed a stream twice and went near another. The creek that the trail crossed was dry in one spot and a slow trickle in another. The other stream was about 50ft straight down. He was only planning to hike with about 2 liters of water and hadn't been backpacking in 2 years. Now, I had been training for this in Texas heat and the hike up and down that was about 6mi round trip I went through 2 liters of water and was still close to being dehydrated. Luckily I convinced him to base camp that night and go up another trail to the Continental Divide Trail on another route the following day.
Lesson Learned from this? Just because there is water on the map doesn't mean that there is water on the route. When you're backpacking or planning on backpacking always prepare for the worst case scenario of not being able to have an available source of water.
And to my fellow hiker who helped remind me of this fact Thank You and hope your trip was a success!
