
Rachel Solorio
I'm a Minnesota native currently living in Denver. I've been gradually leveling up my hiking game from short day hikes to backcountry overnighters. I began section hiking the Colorado Trail in 2020 and hope to complete it over a few years. In 2021, I hiked the Tahoe Rim Trail. I love figuring out how to balance my full-time work life with a lot of hiking, camping, and backpacking.
Posts
Colorado Trail Segment 7: The Black Diamond
Segment 7 of the Colorado Trail links Breckenridge to Copper Mountain - a twenty minute drive along the highway, but a six hour trek that gains more than 3,600 feet (and loses most of that too). With about three and a half miles above treeline, I treated this hike as I would any Colorado 14er - start early and get back below treeline by noon.
Colorado Trail Segment 10 and Mount Massive: The Clouds
In May, I’d completed Segments 1-5 of the Colorado Trail, but in June, I didn’t hike a single mile. In July, I was back! And this time, I added a
Colorado Trail Segments 4-5: The Bail
I capped off three straight weekends of CT section hiking with something of a grand finale: two sections of trail, more than 30 miles, over four days. At least, that was the plan. Things did not go according to plan.
Colorado Trail Segment 3: The Bikers
You’ve heard it before: after hiking the previous segment the previous weekend, I was geared up for the next! For the third weekend in a row, I continued my path down the Colorado Trail segments towards Durango. Despite the hikes being separated by work weeks, hiking the segments consecutively increased my enjoyment and feelings of accomplishment.
Colorado Trail Segment 2: The Burn Scar
After backpacking Segment 1 the previous weekend, I was hooked on hiking another segment as soon as possible. Given my job and life situation, I didn’t (and still don’t) really have the energy slash willing hiking partner slash time to fill up 100% of every weekend with overnight backpacking sections in between working full-time weeks. Thus: the underappreciated day hike.
Colorado Trail: Segment 1
Take yourself back to early May, mid-quarantine, and there I was. Responsibly day-hiking when possible, bonding with my cat every day while remote working, and geeking out on gear lists for a very theoretical, eventual possibility of a Colorado Trail hike...
Dreams vs. Reality for a Colorado Trail Thru-Hike
I had a very loose idea of how I wanted my Colorado Trail hike to go and then (dun dun dunnn) the pandemic hit. Luckily, I've been able to hike a few sections, but I'm still trying to figure out what the rest of this trail will look like.