Sunday, January 31, 1999
I will be adding the story of our Colorado Trail Adventure to this website. We mainly hiked the trail over three years, 2003-2006. It was  a special accomplishment for Carol and I. I kept a journal of the trip and that is what I will be posting, with some select pictures over the next month or so. Hope you enjoy.
Charlie

THE COLORADO TRAIL
FROM DREAM TO REALITY

The Idea Is Born

Charlie has thought for years that it would be great to hike the Colorado trail. He bought the guidebook in 1994, one of many outdoor books that he has collected. These books help foster ideas of places to explore and the dream of days when he has more time on his hands. Only too rarely have these ideas been put into reality.

We fast forward to the year 1999. It has been an eventful year. Charlie and Carol go on a cruise that he gave her for Christmas. But the cruise was more than a gift; it was a staging ground for a monumental event. On Super Bowl Sunday, aboard the Grandeur of the Seas, Charlie proposed to Carol. Of course, she seized the opportunity to spend her life with this wonderful and good-looking man.

The joy of this moment was short lived, as at the end of February, Carol passed out at home. Over the next few weeks, lower back pain caused her to be hospitalized. In the search for the cause of this pain, a CT Scan finds a tumor in her right kidney. We are told that they have to remove the right kidney. In April, her kidney is removed, a biopsy is done and the tumor is diagnosed as renal cancer. This discovery, although unrelated to the back pain issue, has saved her life. The back pain eventually disappeared; they believe it was some kind of infection in the spine.

How does all this relate to the Colorado Trail? These events have had an effect on Charlie’s way of thinking. A perennial planner for the future, he now sees that life is fragile and the planning needs to be blended with more enjoyment along the way. As Carol recovers, we talk about a wedding date of July 8th, 2000 and also about Charlie’s dream of hiking the Colorado Trail. We decide that as our lives are full with work and three kids, a long distance backpack is not in the immediate future. However, we can hike a segment or two a year. Our first opportunities for some conditioning hikes occur at the end of August and beginning of September. We accomplish these and decide to tackle Segment 1 of the Colorado Trail on September 25, 1999.