Bikepacking The CT: Littleton to Buffaloe Creek

From downtown Denver we rode down 16th street then jumped on the southbound lightrail with our bikes. Our destination for today was to be The Essex House Motel. Once we figured we were in Littleton, a suburb of Denver, we got off the train then realized we were to far south. After following the bike path along the Platte River in a northerly direction for a few miles we located the Motel. It was a bit of a dive but the price was right so this was home base for now. We had pizza and beer, rode to REI for freeze dried meal packets and got soaked in a late afternoon downpour which we had not yet realized was to become a regular thing.

We didn't sleep Friday night so Saturday night we had a good sleep. Sunday morning July 19th we packed up  and navigated the bike paths for about ten miles to the trailhead at the north end of The Colorado Trail near the entrance to Waterton Canyon.  We had made it to the start.

There were lots of walkers, hikers and bikers on the dirt road through Waterton Canyon but the Bighorn Sheep didn't seem to mind. We didn't see any bears but on August 28th, about six weeks after we were there, Waterton Canyon was closed to people for about two months because of foraging bears and too many people going there to get selfies with bears in the background. And they think we're crazy.
Once we got to The Strontia Dam our route became singletrack, climbing for about six miles to a lookout point where we met the dayrider from Denver.

Strontia Dam

This was followed by a wicked switchback descent down to the South Platte river where we filtered some water and met the dayrider from Denver again. He offered us some grapes, which we gladly accepted. Next was a challenging seven switchback climb to start the ascent to Raleigh Peak which was kind of a desolate place with the remains of an old mining operation and then miles of bare hills, the result of a wildfire. Later in the day we caught up to a couple on horseback from Missouri with two pack horses carrying their stuff. We had lunch at a campground at Little Scraggy Trailhead with a through hiker then went as far as mile eight of segment three and camped at Buffaloe Creek. Not bad for our first day on the trail.