We woke up last night to find a baby bear at our site. Oh no! Mamma Bear was killed recently so this little guy is trying to fend for himself. He’s still scared of humans because once I yelled at him, he ran for the woods. Problem was he brought back reinforcements and rummaged again through our site. Silly me packed everything up minus my lunch sack for today. So now the bear is Growling French after eating my Brie Cheese and Summer Sausage. I feel terrible about forgetting my food outside my tent. Such a rookie mistake!

Our hike this morning started out cool and shady. We hooked into the Colorado Trail CT about three miles up canyon from Indian Creek. We added a few extra miles but lost the gravel road walk on the CT which is a fair trade.

We met our first Bikerpacker, Joe. He is going the distance on the trail riding a mountain bike from Waterton to Durango, same as us but in half the time, 15 days. It’s gonna take us 33 days in our perfect world.

We made the climb out of Bear Creek Canyon, appropriately name for the area. Once on the ridge line, we could see the Fourteeners’ in the distance. Colorado has over 40 such peaks! We will be hiking past quite a few and if we have a spare day, we just might bag a peak. No promises!

Our biggest issue today was twofold. Water reports are misleading and once out of the trees and onto the ridge lines, it was mighty hot! I follow Guthook maps which if updated, are quite reliable. It appears that no one has been putting real time reports in for over two weeks. Streams that were flowing or even trickling are non-existent. Well they are there, but only dry rock beds! We managed to scoop some water from standing pools but that ended 6-7 miles prior to our next reliable source. Luckily I filled up at the last water pool and only ran out of water as I approached the S. Platte River. Plenty of water here.

With the lack of water, we stopped briefly for lunch and headed to camp. We found a lovely spot protected by willows and a short jaunt to the river Platte. Tomorrow we plan to get up at 4am, not a typo, and get on the trail by sunrise. No water for 14.5 miles in a burned out section that has total exposure. This should be a treat. But the locals say “it’s beautiful.” I’ll let you know how stunning it is after I’ve marched through it.

Thank you Holy Spirit, for Your power and might on my behalf. Thank you that Your Spirit in me is “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life”

John 4:14