Why I’m Taking 5 Years to Backpack the Colorado Trail

For years, I’ve wanted to hike the Colorado Trail. I’ve studied the trail, researched gear, mapped out sections, and spent countless hours planning trips. To say it is on my “bucket list” would be an understatement.

But like many people, I haven’t actually made it to the trail yet. Not because I don’t want to, but because life gets busy. Work, family, schedules, and everyday life have a way of pushing big adventures further down the calendar. Every year I’d tell myself, “Maybe this is the year,” but competing priorities have a way of turning “this year” into “maybe next year.”

If you’re not familiar with it, the Colorado Trail stretches nearly 500 miles from Denver to Durango, crossing some of the most beautiful mountains in the United States along the way. In fact it is often described as “the most beautiful trail in America“. When most people think about hiking it, they picture a month-long adventure stretching across Colorado. And if you do any amount of research on the Internet you’ll find that most of the CT videos and articles out there follow the same formula:

You either take a semester off from college, are a professional backpacker, or usher in retirement by packing everything you need and spending four to six weeks walking across Colorado.

That’s the classic way to do it, and it sounds incredible. It also sounds completely unrealistic for most people, including me. For many of us between the ages of 25 and 59^_1/2, we just don’t have the luxury of doing a month long thru-hike.

The Reality Is: Most People Can’t Disappear for a Month

The Colorado Trail is roughly 486 miles long. For thru-hikers, completing it means setting aside a month or more. But most people don’t have four or five weeks of vacation they can dedicate to a single trip. And even if they do, there are usually a dozen other things competing for that time and money.

At some point, I realized I was looking at the trail the wrong way. You don’t have to hike all 486 miles at once. The Colorado Trail doesn’t care whether you finish it in one month or five years, and the mountains aren’t keeping score. The CT is divided into 28 sections, so what if I simply tackled a few sections each year? Instead of needing a month, I could do this over a few carefully planned vacations. I could become a Colorado Trail Section Hiker!

That’s when the Colorado Trail went from being a dream to becoming a realistic plan. Once I stopped thinking about the trail as a single 486-mile trip and started thinking about it as a series of smaller adventures, the entire goal suddenly became achievable.

My 5-Year Colorado Trail Plan

Once I realized I didn’t have to hike the entire trail in one shot, I started building a plan that fit my life instead of trying to force my life to fit the trail. So I’m intentionally spreading my CT adventure across five years, because that’s what fits my life better. Rather than rushing through the experience, I want to enjoy the journey. Here’s the high-level approach I’m taking. The exact details may change, but the general idea looks something like this:

Year	Focus
1	Easier Front Range sections
2	Build mileage and confidence
3	Collegiate sections
4	Higher alpine terrain
5	San Juans and completion

Could I do it faster? Probably. But that’s not really the point. I’m not racing anyone, and I’d rather enjoy the process and make steady progress than spend years waiting for the perfect opportunity to thru-hike the entire trail “someday”.

Why I’m Sharing This

The more I’ve talked to people about backpacking, the more I’ve realized that I’m not alone in this. A lot of people want to hike trails like the Colorado Trail, they just don’t think they have enough time. But long-distance trails don’t have to be an all-or-nothing commitment. You don’t need a month. You don’t need to quit your job. You don’t need to wait until retirement. You can start with just one section.

For years, I thought hiking the Colorado Trail was something I’d do “someday”. Now I have a plan. Maybe it takes me five years, or maybe life throws me a curveball and it takes longer. Either way, I’m finally moving forward with Colorado Trail section hiking instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity to do it all at once.

And if you’ve been putting off your own Colorado Trail dream, maybe it’s time to start planning yours too.

Want to Build Your Own Colorado Trail Plan?

As I’ve been planning my own journey, I’ve taken the notes, research, and planning I’ve accumulated and put them together into a free guide to help other section hikers do the same.

If you’ve ever looked at the Colorado Trail and thought, “I’d love to do that someday,” this guide is for you. It walks through the planning process, breaks the trail into manageable sections, and helps you build a realistic multi-year plan that fits your schedule, budget, and available vacation time.

My Colorado Trail Section Hiker Planning Guide covers section planning, trip organization, scheduling considerations, and the lessons I’ve learned while building my own multi-year plan.

Because the best time to start may not be “someday”, it might be this year.

Download your free copy and start turning “someday” into a real trail plan.