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Salida to Leadville: The Hiking Food Tour of Colorado
Hot Spring
We walked into Salida, and were very happy to see the Walmart (the bar is very low). We had decided to go to the Hot Springs Aquatic Centre for swimming, and made a pit stop at Walmart for a bathing suit. For some reason, the small ones were too small, and as the sizes got bigger, the bathing suit circumference just got wider. I’m actually still not sure where people’s boobs go… I ended up buying a pair of swim shorts and wearing my sports bra in the water. The pool was nice, but was more like a public pool than a hot spring. We got some cheap shampoo at Walmart, and it was nice to have both shampoo and conditioner and squeeze as much of it out as I wanted!
Salida Hostel
We decided to book a room at the Salida Hostel for two nights because we were exhausted. We slowly learned that this weekend was a city-wide, yearly festival called “fibark”. I guess people race each other in different floating structures and boats, and everyone can’t get enough of it!
We had some awesome pizza downtown at Moonlight Pizza, and headed up to the hostel to check in. The man at the hostel desk was really friendly, and showed us around. When I saw the kitchen, I knew that I would be making pancakes here and that made me very happy.
New Friends
We were absolutely exhausted and I ended up laying on my bed for most of the rest of the night after 4:00pm. At the hostel another girl checked in who was here to go on day-hikes up the big mountains. She told us about the yoga class that she had taken that day, and we decided to sign up for a class at the same studio. Another CDT thru-hiker that we hadn’t met yet also checked in. He told us that his name was Kodak, and we started talking about our plans moving forward. We were hoping to avoid some more snow, but would be headed back to trail in a couple days. Kodak told us that he was planning on taking the “East Collegiate” Route of the Colorado trail, which parallels the CDT, but with less snow! This sounded great, and I spent the next little bit downloading the Colorado Trail map on my phone and checking out the route.
Yoga Olas
The next morning, we went yoga at this studio, and it was really nice to spend a whole hour stretching. (We definitely don’t do enough of stretching on trail!) The studio was nice, and the instructor was friendly- I would definitely return if I come back to Salida! We spent the rest of our time in Salida relaxing, cleaning and restocking our backpacks, and eating tons of food. It was nice to stay somewhere for 2 nights and have a real full day to relax!
Procrastination
We left town the next afternoon after a ton of procrastination. Our procrastination included: making pancakes at the hostel, going out for burritos and smoothies and going out for coffee. It was very hard to leave… We thankfully had a really nice lady in a jeep give us a ride from Salida To Poncha Springs so that we could continue our continuous footpath from where we left off. This jeep was the opposite of a pavement princess, and it was really funny watching Trouble try to get out because it was so high off the ground! While in the jeep, it started pouring rain. Thankfully, the spot along the trail that we had stopped last time was at a coffee shop, and we got dropped off there and waited for the rain to stop before walking up the highway to the trail.
Glamping
Along our way, we passed the campground which had a general store and we stopped for rootbeers, stickers, and protein cookies. As we were headed out of the campground, some glampors sitting outside of their RV, stopped us to tell us that we were awesome… then called us over to talk! They invited us to sit, but he told them we couldn’t stay for long. We ended up chatting for a bit before making our way to the trailhead.
The Colorado Trail
As soon as we got back on the dirt trail, we had some elevation to climb. We were surrounded by greenery and had great views all the way up. This alternate was already going well!
We ended up setting up after walking just 11.9 miles today. I kept saying about how we need to cook more in this section of trail, but we ended up just eating our protein cookies and bugles for dinner. Once in the tent, I counted our miles, and looked ahead at the next 25 miles of trail to make plans. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that there was a Hot Springs resort about 20 miles away! We read almost all the comments, and made plans to wake up bright and early to go to the hot springs in the afternoon. This place apparently had a store, a restaurant, and a coffee shop. We decided that we would set the alarm to 4:45am, which is funny because I had just finished telling Trouble that 5:00am was too early.
Mt. Princeton Hot Spring
The walk to Mt. Princeton hotsprings was really nice! There was an instant noticeable difference being on the Colorado Trail. It is clear that they spend a lot of time and effort maintaining this trail and building bridges. It was perfect! We ended up racing the clock to get to the Hot Spring before lunch was over at 4:00pm. We wanted to get there for lunch for two reasons:
1. They only had veggie burgers on the menu for lunch and appeared to have no vegan options available at dinner.
2. The website suggested “business casual” for dinner, and required reservations… problem here is that we are shitbags! LOL
The other thing is that we were considering going to the Hot Spring, but didn’t want to pay the ridiculous amount of money to stay there for the night… so we needed a spot to camp.
Then I had an idea, a genius idea! There was a 2.5 mile road walk before the Hot Spring, and a perfect spot right at the trailhead. We would hitchhike to the Hot Spring, get lunch, hang out there, then hitch back in time for bed! This idea worked out perfectly (I might be a genius).
Shine and Solar
Almost as soon as we stepped onto the road, a car driving in the wrong direction stopped and asked us if we needed a ride. It was a local with the trail name “Shine” who picked us up even though she was driving out of her way! She was a previous thru-hiker, so she said she understood.
Thanks to Shine, we made it to the Hot Spring on time for veggie burgers! We were very happy! Once we were finished eating, we went down to check out the hot spring and noticed that it was outside in the blazing sun, and there were a million people there. We opted to not pay the $45 USD each for the soak, but went to ask about showers. The man at the front desk let us take free showers, which was great! (I may have even done a load of laundry when I was in there… you know, shit-bag behaviour). When we were at the hot spring, we met another hiker with the trail name “Solar”, who was off of the PCT this year due to an injury. She offered to drive us back to the trailhead. It was funny how “Shine” drove us to the hotsprings, and “Solar” drove us back to the trail. Overall, a successful visit. We set up the tent for the night when we returned to our camp spot, and made plans to do the roadwalk in the morning, and go back to the resort for breakfast and coffee.
Good Morning!
The next morning would prove to be just as successful as the day before. We got up, walked down the road for breakfast at the hot spring, and left feeling ready for our day. Once we left the hot spring, we had about 7 miles of road walking incline to the next trailhead. Looking at the map, we decided to head into Buena Vista tonight while thinking about all the food they might have to offer!
Trail Magic
The Colorado Trail continued to be beautiful with tons of views and water sources! There would be an occasional mountain-biker passing. We ran into Murphy, and met another hiker named Steel. In the late afternoon/ early evening, we crossed a dirt road where a trail angel named Grace and a couple of other hikers were waiting there for us with Gatorade and snacks. Grace even had camp chairs set up for us to sit… thank you Grace!
A+ Loitering
At this point, we had about seven more miles until town, and I had a little bit of phone service to find out the best place for us to go to eat. We were excited about the comments on the FarOut app. One comment said that there was a park that had power outlets, which they described as “A+ loitering”. It was perfect! On the road walk into Buena Vista, three cars asked us if we wanted a ride into town. Unfortunately, we had to turn them all down!
Buena Vista
When we arrived to Buena Vista, we headed straight to the brewery for veggie burgers! When we got there, Trouble really had to go to the washroom bathroom, and rushed in before we could sit down! We had some awesome veggie burgers and apple cider, and we went for vegan ice cream after!
We ended up setting up in a local park for the night, and heading back downtown for the coffee tour of Buena Vista in the morning. We ended up going to a coffee shop that ended up having my favourite meal so far on the trail: Cool River Cafe had the best vegan breakfast burrito ever. 15/10.
In the morning we got food, and showers and headed out of town! It was nice to have two full hiking outfits now (since I got the swimming shorts from Walmart) because I could wash one and fully let it dry while wearing the other. On our walk today, we passed a rafting store and really wanted to stop for a little side adventure, but decided to continue. I was getting pretty sick of the road walking and was very excited to get to Leadville the next day.
Fire Closure
Another day of highway walking past big mountains would take us into Leadville. We decided to walk this road in order to avoid the fire burning around Twin Lakes, but found out after walking down to Buena Vista that they had just opened up more miles of the trail. We were a little nervous about this fire at first because they were telling hikers to drive around it, and we knew some who did. It was nice to hear that the fire was becoming more contained! We ran into Grace again (The Trail Angel we had met just outside of Buena Vista), and she gave us some Roadside Gatorade. There were quite a few stores that we passed by on the way into Leadville, and we stopped to get drinks at all of them!
Leadville
When we first walked into Leadville, lots of the buildings looked pretty run down. When we got to the downtown area, it was looking a little nicer- but overall, seemed smaller than I thought. We headed into High Mountain Pies for some vegan pizza, and to sit for a while. The pizza people at High Mountain Pies offered that we could set up our tent in their backyard once they closed. This was perfect for us!
We walked over to the hostel to take showers, and returned to the pizza shop later that night. While at the hostel, we ran into Teddy Bear and Osita. We had met them earlier in the trail, and they let us know that they actually hitchhiked to Leadville, and have decided to leave the trail. They are going to be finishing the rest of their American vacation with a train trip before heading back to Germany. We wished them well. Just as we were leaving the hostel, we ran into Kodak! He ended up coming to sit and have a drink with us at High Mountain Pies, and we made plans to catch up in the coffee shop the next morning.
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Comments 11
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