Distance? - The Colorado Trail

imported
#1

I was curious to what is the average miles/days hiked from on mail drop to the next? What should I plan for my drops?

shamrock

#2

About 5 days on average. The only place you need a mail drop is Twin Lakes and they don’t have stove fuel there either so keep that in mind though I seem to remember that they sold HEET (if you carry an alcohol stove) but don’t hold me to that. I bought stuff in Breckenridge and had it sent to Twin Lakes but screwed up thinking they would have stove fuel there and they didn’t. So make sure you pick up some extra stove fuel in Leadville.

All other town stops had good resupply. And I never had any trouble with hitches, longest one was 15 mins leaving Salida. Most were instantaneous to 5 mins or so. You might also consider some kind of arrangement at Lujan Pass with Apple, otherwise you could be carrying 6-9 days of food out of Salida. I lucked out and got a ride to Gunnison from Lujan Pass even though I didn’t really need it - awesome town with good eats.

Lake City is much easier to get to than Creede, but Creede is the better town for resupply. I recommend Creede even though it is somewhat difficult to get to, but if you want a quick town stop for some refreshments or what-not Lake City is an easy hitch they just don’t have a grocery store.

Overall resupply was pretty easy, there’s just that one long section coming out of Salida and having some kind of plan for Twin Lakes(it’s a ghost town pretty much).

Brian

#3

The re-supply interval is really up to you. There are several towns to which you can send a mail-drop, but you’d need to hitch back and forth from the trail to pick up your parcel.

That being said, I personally try to balance off the hassle-factor of resupplying versus the extra weight of carrying more food. I chose to carry 7 days of food from Denver to Breck (~105 miles) so that I would not have to fool around trying to get a hitch into Bailey and have to time my arrival to Bailey to coincide with the post office’s hours. The first few days of a 7-day haul really suck as you start out carrying 15 or 18 pounds of food, but at least you start to eat down the weight pretty quickly.

While I was in Breck, I sent a mail-drop to Twin because it’s pretty much right on the trail. The post office is co-located with the gas station and convenience store, so hours of operation are actually pretty good. Since I slacked the Copper-Breck section using the free bus that runs between the two ski towns, I only had a 4-day haul from Copper to Twin, which was a really comfortable pack weight!

I carried five days of food from Twin to Salida, so that wasn’t too bad. The stretch between Twin and Salida has some of the longest climbs of the entire trail, so I wouldn’t have wanted to carry any more weight.

From Salida, I carried about 3.5 days of food to Lujan pass, where Apple was kind enough to shuttle me to Gunnison.

I bought 7 days of food in Gunnison, and when Apple dropped me off back at Lujan, I hauled through to Silverton. Again, carrying the 7 days of food kind of sucked…particularly because I was also carrying extra water for the first 20ish mile dry stretch after Lujan (so 15 or 18 lbs of food, plus about 8 lbs of water!).

After Silverton, I only had a 5 day haul to finish the trail, so that wasn’t too bad (10 or 11 pounds of food).

Overall, I was happy about the balance that I achieved between the hassle of hitching into towns and hitting the post office, vs the unpleasantness of carrying the extra weight on a couple of occasions. Depending on your tolerance for hassle vs. weight, you might stretch out your re-supply intervals to 8 or 9 days…or maybe you’d rather add a mail-drop or two and shorten the interval to 3 or 4 days. Different strokes for different folks…

Loup

#4

I spoke to the store several times last spring. The store does carry a few fuel canisters but not many, and they are often sold out when hikers arrive. You might try calling them to see if you can purchase what you need in advance and have it waiting for you.

They also told me that the cafe and motel next door was sold, and the new owners had closed the cafe and are converting the whole thing to condos. The store was putting in a microwave and frozen burritos as there is now no place in town to eat.

Like an earlier poster said - a ghost town.

I read somewhere that the Twin Lakes store was up for sale last year so it would be wise to check and see if the store and/or PO will be open for this summer. I don’t know if the PO is on the USPS closure list or not, and any new owner could refuse the PO contract.

wandering bob

#5

Here are the resupply points and hiking times for my last thru hike. This is without mailing anything ahead and where you can buy fuel.

Frisco/Breck (105 miles from Denver - 6 days) Gas yes
Twin Lakes (73 miles 5 days) Gas Maybe
Salida from Hwy 50 (75.4 Miles 5 days) Gas yes
Saguache from Lujan Pass (49.9 Miles 3 days) Gas no. Gunnison would be more enjoyable but Saguache has a good grocery store.
Creede (55 Miles - 3 days) Gas yes
Silverton from Molas Pass (53.3 Miles 3 days) Gas yes
Durango (73.9 Miles 4 days)

I have always found water in Los Creek at Mile 9 of Seg 18 - this breaks up the dry segment that Loup mentioned.

One time I hitched into Jefferson from Kenosha Pass and ate at the BBQ place there. There is a store there with a few things. It’s a easy hitch. Doing this makes the first supply point 32 miles shorter. You can just get enough food in Jefferson to go on the two days to Frisco.

There are good restaurants at Copper Mountain but they are expensive.

There is a fine rec center (showers) in Breckenridge and the free bus will pick you up right by the trailhead and get you close.

Only time I have gone to Leadville was when I bicycled the trail but lots of hikers go down and stay in the hostel to get cleaned up. You can get gas there.

bearcreek

#6

I resupplied at Breckenridge (free bus ride), Buena Vista (great trail angel there that gave me a ride from the trailhead), Lake City (great new hostel there–pretty cheap), Silverton (the hostel owner gives rides to and from the trailhead). There were brewpubs at all the towns except for Lake City.

I prefer to stay on the trail rather than have the hassle of going into town more often, so I carried more days of food at a time.

Fireweed