This is the twentieth entry on this site, which feels like a good moment to stop walking and turn around — not to look back, but to look at the trail ahead. The plan for this season and the next is built from the same idea that named the site: one steady step at a time, on good ground, with the map checked and the gear tested. So here is where I am going, what I am watching, and what I want from you — the reader who has walked this far with me through Rocky Mountain backpacking routes and the quiet hours between them.
The Season Ahead
The coming season is written on the wall calendar above my desk, in Thea's handwriting for the shared trips and in mine for the solo ones. The through-line is the same as every year: routes I know, routes I almost know, and a few I have only seen on paper. The Rocky Mountain backpacking routes on this year's list all share one quality — they are places I want to know well, not places I want to check off.
The Colorado Trail, Piece by Piece
I have been working through the Colorado Trail in sections for three seasons now, and the plan is to finish the last long stretch this fall. It is not a speed project. It is the opposite of one. Section hiking means I can afford to stop, sit with the map, photograph the light, and let the miles arrive on their own schedule. If you are curious about doing the same, the Colorado Trail section hike is the friendliest way into it — you carry less, you return to a car, and you get to know one country deeply instead of ten countries shallowly.
An Indian Peaks Loop I Keep Coming Back To
The other standing plan is a loop in the Indian Peaks Wilderness that has become an annual fixture. Three days, two nights, one pass, a basin full of lakes I never tire of photographing. The Indian Peaks Wilderness loop is the route I bring people on when they ask what the mountains here are really like — it holds everything the Front Range offers in a compact package, and it changes enough from year to year that it never feels repeated. I have written about this loop in one form or another every season, and I suspect I always will.
What I'm Watching in the Gear Closet
The second half of the season is about durability, which is the thing this site cares about more than anything else. I do not review gear I borrowed for a weekend. I use my own gear until it fails or survives, then I write down what happened. The reviews that matter are the ones written after the third season, not the first trip.
Long-Term Notes, Not First Impressions
There are four long-term pieces in the rotation right now, and each will get a full write-up when it crosses the line:
A backpack that has logged over four hundred trail miles and is starting to tell me exactly where its weak points are.
A rain shell with two seasons of mountain weather on it, including one afternoon I would rather not repeat.
A stove that has brewed more than a thousand cups of coffee above treeline without a single breakdown.
A pair of boots on their third resole, which is its own kind of durability report.
These will land in the Kit That Lasts column, and I will tell you both the wins and the failures. The failures are usually the more useful half.
The Coffee Corner
On the coffee side, I am testing a few single-origin beans at altitude to see which ones hold their shape after ten days off the roast. The backpacking coffee setup I wrote about earlier this season is unchanged — I have not found a reason to change it, and I am suspicious of changes that are not caused by a problem. If something in my kit stays the same for three seasons, that is news worth reporting too.
An Invitation
Here is the honest part. This site is written by one person, on a laptop that has seen a lot of trail dust, and it stays alive because readers write back. I want to hear about your Rocky Mountain backpacking routes — the passes that humbled you, the campsites you will never find again, the gear that surprised you by lasting. Send the route reports, the questions, the disagreements. The conversations I have had about the mountains that mattered most all started with someone correcting me.
What you will find here going forward is the same mix as before:
The trail log of a season, in the order it happened.
Kit notes that only appear after years of use.
Head checks about what it takes to walk long days.
The quiet skills that keep you honest in the mountains.
No shortcuts, no trends, no gear I have not tested myself. If I would not carry it, I will not recommend it.
The mountains were here long before this site, and they will be here long after it. My job is only to keep walking them, writing them down, and telling the truth about both. Thank you for walking this far with me. The season ahead is good, and the coffee is on. One steady step.
No comments yet — grab the first one.