Day 25. Durango

Mile 460.8 – 483

Our last day felt a bit surreal, but so have all last days. We woke up early but took our time eating breakfast, enjoying the sunrise over the edges of the valley. We downed our last cups of strange watered down coffee, rolled up our mats for the last time. But of course, we still had a full day of hiking. The descent was steep and rocky for several miles. Comments on Farout and the Guidebook marked a specific section of trail as highly slippery and eroded, but honestly it was significantly better maintained than some sections of the trail we had previously encountered.

Our final big climb came in the middle of the day. It was hot, and steep at times, but less strenuous than any one climb from an earlier day. Day hikers streamed passed us up the mountain as we continued down. A handful even congratulated us on our proximity to the finish line. We were in such a hurry to finish that we managed almost 23 miles by early afternoon, arriving at the trailhead in Durango with several hours before our plan. Immediately we received not one, but two offers to drive us into town; the first people even gave us cold sodas. We ended up riding with a local woman, who gave us a quick tour of town and dropped us off right at the hotel, which kindly let us check in a bit early. Our laundry was in the wash within five minutes of our arrival, and we enjoyed long, hot showers. With a full day off in town planned for the next day, we had the afternoon to clean up and relax. We walked about a block and ordered fried chicken from a restaurant in the basement next to a family-owned gravestone-engraving business.

By 8, we were asleep. The next day we got some groceries, enjoyed a large hotel breakfast, and decided to explore town. The visitor center had a completion form we could sign, so we stopped by there first. The woman working there gave us multiple patches, recommended some local restaurants, and introduced us to another thruhiker who had recently completed the trail.
The main attraction of Durango is an authentic narrow-gauge steam engine train that runs from the center of Durango to the nearby town of Silverton. It seemed most of the visiting population got on the train in the morning, leaving the downtown almost completely deserted. We took advantage of this and explored the free museum attached to the train station. They had countless artifacts from the towns mining era, several train cars, old mining equipment, and a Calliope organ. Almost nobody came in to the museum during the two hours we spent there.

For dinner we each ate almost a full pizza, and retired to our hotels early again. It will take some work to get our sleep schedules back on track when we get home!

It still hasn’t set in that we have finished the Colorado Trail. I might as well just be taking an extended zero, because it feels like tomorrow I could jump out of bed and keep hiking. I suppose we will just have to plan another hiking trip as soon as possible.