I chose that title simply because I know how much Chris hates Kerouac.
I finally heard from him this morning as he was preparing to get aboard the Front Range Express from Denver to Colorado Springs. He had some trouble getting the apartment closed out in Denver after his roommate flaked out on helping clean the place, and needed to stay the last night to finish.
Going on about an hours sleep, Chris took the 12:40 FREX from Downtown Denver to Tejon St. in Colorado Springs, I then Google Mapped a route for him to take to get out of the sprawl. There were two ways to go. The western side that would take him adjacent to Ft. Carson ending on US-50 about 20-miles west of Pueblo, or the eastern route thru Fountain, running parallel to I-25 and the train going directly into Pueblo.
Chris elected to take the eastern route in order to avoid the military’s prying eyes, being so close to NORAD. He arrived in Colorado Springs at about 2:30, and was in Fountain, a little hamlet to the south of the city, by 6:15- after which there is nothing but prairie all the way to Pueblo, another 30-40 miles south. At last check, he was in Fountain with a dying cell phone battery, spying out places to bivy-down for the night.
He said that his pack weighed 70# with all the food, and that the weather was cold with snow obviously falling in the mountains off to his west, and over Colorado Springs behind him. The forecast says there was a possibility of an inch of snow AND/OR thunderstorms (!) tonight dropping to the mid 20’s, but with the Alpine bivy, a good sleeping bag, and many clothes, he’ll he snug.
Tomorrow should be about perfect as it will be warmer, and he'll be out in the bush...er...grass all the way to Pueblo.
Travel stories and the occasional rantings of an evolving cynic who's simply in search of a little human authenticity. Tales include hitching across the Rockies with an eventual cop-killer, a weekend with a terminally-ill billionaire, meeting my siblings for the first time, trips to Mexico, and scores of random people from Mass.-Slab City-Chiapas who are often even more interesting...for better or worse!
