Buena Vista to Salida: Civilization and Solitude

Heading Back Out

We woke up after our zero day at 5:20 a.m. to get back on the trail. We ate cereal for breakfast and then Ron drove us to the Collegiate East trailhead. Our first 10 miles passed in a breeze, and we only saw one pair of hikers: two women from Montana who were “loosely” doing the Colorado Trail, while also paragliding when they could.

Our plan was to hike into Princeton Hot Springs, soak for a few hours, and then continue hiking. The last 2-3 miles of the 10 miles into Princeton were all on the road, which was grueling and tough on the body and mind. It was so tempting to stick out a thumb and try to get a ride, but we decided against it, perhaps because we were still fresh from town.

We arrived at the hot springs and went straight into the warm water to soak our legs. We started at the “upper pools” which had a water slide and lots of kids. We soaked, and then Mary and I went to the concession stand where she ordered a Margarita and I ordered a hot dog and ice cream cone.

After our food, we walked down to the power pools which had a slower and older vibe, and we alternated between those hot pools and the cold-flowing river.

Around 1 p.m. we packed and started walking. We road walked for another 3ish miles until we reached the trail again. As we started making our way up the first climb, we ran into the two red-headed sisters we hadn’t seen since Day 3 on the trail! We caught up , walked up a few big hills together, but eventually parted ways.

The trail was amazingly flat, and we could make a pretty good pace. Up above us we could see thunderstorms raging in the Collegiate range, but we were pretty well protected and it didn’t rain on us. The terrain was perfect for putting miles under our belt, and we ended up walking until about 6:40, where we found a spot to camp right by a nice steam. That made it 22.8 miles of walking for the day, and 3 hours of soaking in the hot springs mid-way through that: not bad!

It started to rain as soon as camp was set up, so we snuggled into our tent, journaled a bit, and fell asleep.

Salida

We’d only packed enough food for two days out on the trail because our plan was to stop in Salida for a quick resupply. We woke up on July 14th with 10 miles into Salida and hopes to get around 20 done for the day.

For some reason, the 10 miles into Salida felt absolutely brutal. It was raining nearly the whole time, and there was almost no views. I was not feeling the walking.

As we descended to the trailhead that marked our access point to Salida, we looked over the mountains and I saw big, lush mountains covered in a mystic looking fog. My heart expanded at the view and it’s beauty.

Mary and I got to the trailhead and stuck out our thumbs to get picked up alongside two other hikers. Pretty immediately a van pulls over and it turns out to be a trail angel named Debbie who was shuttling hikers up and down from the trail.

Debbie picked all of us up and dropped us off in town at Moonlight Pizza. I had managed to get some spotty service and found out that Zen and Goldfish were in town. We met them at Moonlight and had a nice reunion, so happy to see our friends! They were just finishing up their food, and they had an extra meatball sub they gave to us.

We all were leaving the restaurant when suddenly Tetris showed up and we all decided to turn around, sit down and order drinks at the same exact restaurant. We sat and told stories: Tetris told us about hiding under a bridge from the bad storms, Goldfish told us about the Marmots that ate his pack, and Zen was – as usual – very confused about when he had passed Mary and I (this seemed to be a trend on the trail: Mary and I would get ahead of Zen and then he would somehow catch-up and pass without either of us knowing).

As we were all sitting in the warmth of town, eating pizza and drinking soda and beer, I started to feel like I really didn’t want to go back out there to the trail. The idea of staying started to get lodged in my head, and as I looked out over the mountains covered in storm clouds, I began to hatch an argument to convince Mary to stay in town too.

Goldfish had a few extra bunks in his room at the hostel if we were willing to pay the price of listening to him snore all night, so when Mary left to go to the bathroom, I told everyone I was going to try and convince her to stay. We all brainstormed arguments for me to get her to stay and hang out, and when she came back the first thing I said to her was,

“Mary- what are you going to remember more: the extra 10 miles we walked today, or a wonderful day in town with your friends?”

Mary wasn’t completely convinced because she had wanted to get some more miles down, but after we went and got milkshakes at an old diner and stopped by the hostel, she was hooked, and we decided too stay in Salida for the night.

Hostel Times

In the Hostel around 3 pm we were all waiting to be checked in. A whole bunch of hikers were hanging out in the main area, chatting. There was a blonde woman, 5 foot tall and very tiny, who we started talking to. Tetris and I were having a conversation and we asked her what her trail name was. She said, “Sailor.”

Suddenly I see Tetris light up and she goes, “Sailor?! From the AT last year?? We always heard about you but never met up! Our friend was trying to catch you!”

Sailor confirmed that she was in fact Sailor from the AT, and as we talked another guy from across the room goes, “Sailor? From the AT last year?? We had ice cream at Harpers Ferry!”

As everyone started making connections, I was standing, jaw wide open, unbelieving how small the thru-hiking world was. I was in awe that all these people found each other after hiking the AT at the same time last year, and I loved the sense of community that was building.

After checking in, we all went to Safeway and resupplied, then headed back to the Simple Hostel. It was so cozy as it rained outside the whole day, and we all took showers and hung out in Goldfish’s room, cracking jokes and enjoying each other’s company. After a bit, everyone went downstairs with their food bags in tow and watched the Twilight zone and drank wine. After lots of TV we went out into the main area of the hostel where everyone was cooking and eating and we got to know some other hikers, told some ghost stories, and went to bed.