Around the beginning of the pandemic (possibly before), my sister convinced me to take time off the end of June with her and my nephews to do some camping, hiking, and possibly backpacking in the mountains of Colorado. My sister's middle son has expressed an interest in hiking the Colorado Trail maybe after he graduates High School next year, so I worked on a semi-easy route to show him the route and introduce him to a small part of the Colorado Trail.
My plan was to do 10 mile days on the Colorado Trail from Twin Lakes to Monarch Pass/Fooses Creek. I figured it would be low enough to not have a problem with Snow, but still have some decent climbs to give my nephew an idea of what he would be getting in to.
As the time approached, my sister started to bail out due to work, money, and safety concerns. She moved from backpacking to meeting up a little and doing some hiking, maybe camping. The pandemic anxiety that has hit many of us overtook my sister, thus removing her from the equation all together for the week I now had off from work. Well, I was not going to let it go to waste. I was going to test my backpacking gear on a daily basis as my husband supported me each night with campsites and food.
So, we took off from home early Saturday morning to get to Twin Lakes Dam at a decent hour to make the 10 mile hike to Clear Creek reservoir. It was amazing how many people were camped along the edge of Twin Lakes not far from the Colorado/Continental Divide Trail there at the Dam. Social distancing was next to non-existent. For the first mile or so there were people camping, and it worried me that I would have this amount of population along the trail the whole time. Luckily, once the trail moved away from the lakes I saw fewer people.
The hike was pretty uneventful and I was feeling pretty good...no nausea/vomiting, and I was carrying my REI Flash UL 50 pack with my tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and some clothes as well as water. My husband's job was to find us a good shaded spot at Clear Creek Reservoir, where he would set up camp before he went to run. I could then come in to camp and be setup to wait and rest. Luckily, he found an amazing shaded spot despite the overpopulation of the free campground.
The next day, I woke up early and started out on my 18mile hike from Clear Creek reservoir to Silver Creek Trailhead near Buena Vista. In 2017, I started this section of the Colorado Trail and found myself puking up the first climb and bailing at the first valley, where I met a nice couple who drove me to Buena Vista to recover and lick my wounds. This time, I was feeling good despite the long tough climb. I had an apple and was carrying my running vest with everything I would need for the day.
The trail was relatively empty, and I trekked along peacefully. On the second climb of the day, I started to remember how much I did NOT enjoy this section when I did the entire Colorado Trail in 2013. So, why was I out there doing it again? I finally made it to the top of the ridge and loved the views, but at that point it became my job to just get through the hike and meet up with my husband.
Along the route, I enjoyed remembering the fun times of the hike in 2013 and how it was done in a thunderstorm, which had made Liz and I nervous, but we kept going. The views from up high were beautiful, and I kept hoping I would somehow run into my husband. Unfortunately, I did not run into him. Jasper and I made the entire 18miles to the trailhead, and did not see my husband. So, we wandered to the start of the next section of the Colorado Trail, as that was the true trailhead where I agreed to meet my husband. He was not there either, so Jasper and I enjoyed the river and waited for my husband to arrive. A
After waiting for almost an hour, I decided to return to the other trailhead, where I ended up finding the car, but not my husband. I figured he had only made it up the trail a little way, but eventually my phone had enough signal to receive the text message from my husband, who had made it 4 miles up the trail looking for me. I told him to come back as I was at the trailhead. Once we were reunited, we made camp, had hotdogs and macaroni and cheese and headed to bed.
Upon waking the next morning, I decided I was done hiking sections of the Colorado Trail that I did not like when I hiked the whole trail in 2013, and I was going to rest for the day with the plan to start at Monarch Pass the following day and do the Collegiate West side of the loop. So, my husband went for a run while Jasper and I rested, checked out Cottonwood Pass, which I would be crossing in a couple of days, and waited for my husband to finish his run.
Once my husband was done and had met up with us at the Avalanche Trailhead, we headed for Monarch Pass to find camping for the night. We attempted to take the road up to Boss Lake, but made it only a small distance before deciding we did not have the appropriate car for that route. From there, we moved to Old Monarch Pass Road, where we found an amazing campsite overlooking the highway leading up to Monarch Pass. Despite the sound of semi-trucks throughout the evening, we enjoyed the site and felt like we were mooning the traffic as we squatted in the woods.
Upon waking the next morning, I again decided I did not want to backpack and was worried about the amount of snow in the area. So, we headed to Buena Vista for breakfast, WiFi, and to make new plans. While eating breakfast, I mentioned to a friend that we were headed to the Flat Top Mountains, and she suggested the Devil's Causeway. We took her suggestion and headed for the Flat Tops and the Devil's causeway. We found a wonderful pay campsite next to a waterfall that was spring fed, and spent 2 nights. The mosquitoes were awful, but the sound of the water all night was very relaxing. 
When we were headed out of the Flat Tops, my husband decided to run from one side of the flat tops to the other, and I picked him up from there.
My husband had decided that since we were sooo close to Dinosaur National Monument, we might as well go so that I would stop bugging him to go. So, we headed for the Northwest part of the state, where we checked out the Utah side of Dinosaur National Monument and then camped on BLM land near the Colorado side.
The following morning, we packed up camp and headed out to checkout the Colorado side of Dinosaur National Monument. At this point, I was only doing little hikes here and there. With nobody getting in our way at Dinosaur, we made quick time looking at everything we could with the dog before heading to Steamboat Springs area.
In Steamboat area, we found dispersed camping up a pass that is part of the Run Rabbit Run 100 course.
It was a beautiful site, but we woke up the next morning with a desire to move on to something new. So, we packed up and headed towards Grand Lake/Granby area. Along that route, we found a spot for my husband to run and me to hike on the Continental Divide Trail. What an amazing spot! My hike was cut short due to hail and thunder while on a ridge, but my husband was able to complete his entire run.
Upon completing his run and learning that he had seen a Mama Moose and her baby, I was determined to see a moose. So, we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. With the COVID restrictions of needing a reservation time during thedaytime, we were forced to wait out the time limit at Grand Lake, where the dog was allowed to swima little.
In Rocky Mountain, the first thing we encountered was a field of Moose! 
So, I felt fulfilled. We then took trail ridge road over to Estes Park and made our way home. It was nice to revisit my favorite park, but did makefor a long day in the car. We were both happy to be home after that day. Overall, the trip, despite bailing on the Backpacking gear testing was a success. We simply kept moving away from the populated areas to find dispersed camping away from all people. The best spot was the Colorado side of Dinosaur national Monument. I think we may return someday, but will not be able to bring the dog, so it may be a long while.
