July 12 - Travel Day   Miles Today : 0 Total Miles : 0

Oh yes! Today was the big day, the day that I set out for my three week trip on the Colorado Trail. The CT is a 468 mile long trail connection Denver to Durango. While I can’t finish the entire trail in three weeks, I am hoping to knock off about 300 miles starting north of Buena Vista and finishing in Durango.

I flew into Montrosse this morning and was greeted by Colorado Kid, my buddy from the AT, who has graciously offered to shuttle my butt around the state. We made the very scenic drive to Buena Vista in good time. Since I am starting tomorrow, CK has decided to hang out with me in town for the night before dropping me off at the trailhead in the morning.

Now, there isn’t much to this little mountain town – a few motels, a handful of outfitters and rafting guides, and a couple of places to eat. We selected on of the fine motels and were treated by the owner as a gay couple! First, he told us that all that he had available was a room with 2 double beds. Huh? Sure, that’s totally fine. Then, he gave us the room around back, so we could “have our own private entrance”. CK and I are close, but not THAT close, jeesh!

Anyway, the rest of the day we explored the town, ate dinner and then went to the local saloon. This place, The Lariatte, was fantastic. The sign out on the outside reads “Saloon – We Serve and Service Hangovers”! This place had a ton of character, complete with a pool table, foosball, and of course, Golden Tee 2003. We had more than our share of Fat Tire Ale, and CK demonstrated to me just how bad I am at foosball… and GT03 for that matter.

Anyway, its been a great night but we stayed up way too late. The beers were flowing and the place was hopping so we ended up out at a bar a bit longer than we had expected. 6:30 is going to come awfully early in the morning.

-Chomp

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