Indian Creek Trailhead to South Platte River Trailhead
This post is part of a series featuring Jana’s journal entries from her Colorado Trail thru-hike
Day 1 ~ The excitement of starting our Colorado Trail thru-hike kept all three of us up most of the night! Heidi, my main hiking partner, and I met a year earlier at a family wedding, and we decided to do this venture together. Kae, another friend, decided to join us as well. We couldn’t believe all our work was coming to fruition!
We got on the trail by about 6:30am at Indian Creek. Heidi took her dog, Art, so we couldn’t start at Waterton Canyon (Waterton Canyon is the official start of the Colorado Trail, but does not allow dogs). It was a gorgeous morning, and we met the main trail about 4 miles in. It got hot as we made our way through the day. We camped at the end of Segment 1 where we found multiple families cooking out and playing in the river. A couple of the families shared some tidbits of their cookouts, and we were so thankful!
We set up camp after the crowds started thinning out. We made dinner. I had a meal that I had dehydrated, pot roast with mashed potatoes. It was great – maybe because I was so hungry!! Art had something stuck in his paw and we were really worried it might be over for him. Heidi, his owner, did doggie foot care, and he was all good the next morning.
We made it to bed around 9pm after a gorgeous sunset and I slept like a rock!