Bikepacking The Colorado Trail: July 18th to August 1st 2015

I  felt like everything I had done up to now was directly or indirectly preparation for this adventure. There was no tour guide, no sag wagon, no emergency contact to come to collect us if things went badly. Our own preparation, skills, and adaptability would see us through; or not.

One of the first things I did after deciding on the CT was go to coloradotrail.org and order The Guide Book, The Data Book and The Trail Map. I read The Guide Book and left it at home. I carried The Trail Map as a backup to my GPS but did not have to reference it. The Data Book was kept easily accessible and was referred to often while out riding. It was very handy for deciding where to find water, where to resupply with food, and where to camp. 


Another great resource that I kept going back to leading up to this  ride was bikepackersmagazine.com . 
As part of our preparation we did a few overnighters to test our equipment and help decide what would be worth carrying for 800 kilometers along the continental divide.  This was good practice with a couple of significant differences between here and there being that bugs were not an issue in Colorado but the altitude was. 

Just getting to Denver with our bikes and then getting home again from Durango was an adventure in itself. We had decided to drive to Toronto in order to get a direct flight to Denver so that we didn't risk losing our bikes enroute. This meant driving out of Ottawa at close to midnite to catch an early morning flight out of TO then assembling our bikes at the Denver RTD bus terminal and riding to south Denver to a motel. No sleep this day.