Last summer I rode the CO Trail from Denver to Durango. One of my favorite sections of the trail was segments 22 & 23 from Spring Creek Pass (near Lake City) to Silverton. I wanted to bikepack this section again. I was able to convince a supportive friend to drop me off in Silverton and I would ride to Salida going the other direction. There would be no resupply points along the way unless I took a 20 mile detour to Lake City which I really didn't want to do. I decided to do this trip the night before and didn't prepare as much as I could have. I left after work on a Thursday and was able to ride to Stony Pass above Silverton and then a few miles on the trail as it got dark. The next morning I woke to cloudless blue bird skies and started out for a long day on the bike. I was above tree line for most of the day and got quite sunburned on my neck and face. I also realized that I had very little food to make it all the way to Salida. Just after dark I set up camp and cooked dinner at Cebolla Creek on the La Garita Wilderness detour and immediately went to bed. I started the next day making my way along the long detour towards Cochetopa Pass. I had only several energy bars and one dinner left for two days of riding, so after looking at the CO trail databook I thought I found a short cut to Cochetopa pass. My plan was to trim a few miles off the trail and reconnect with it at the highway. When the county road led me to the highway I was on the eastern side of the pass far from where I wanted to be. I was quite exhausted, hungry and sunburned. Instead of backtracking to the trail I made a difficult decision to ride to Saguache for the night. I went out to dinner and got a motel room. The next day I road about 45 miles on the highway to Salida. I was a little upset with myself that I got lost and missed Sargents mesa and the long downhill from Marshall pass to Salida but it was still a very nice and challenging 4 day bicycle journey.
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| camp near Stony Pass |
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| the long detour around the La Garita Wilderness |
