Colorado Trail Day 8. Wednesday, August 6, 2025.
We spent the night at a hotel in Frisco. Today’s section goes from the Gold Hill Trailhead, over the ridge at Ten Mile Peak, and down to Copper Mountain. We will be reaching the highest point of our trek so far, at 3,808 meters (12,493 feet) above sea level.

Many hikers take advantage of the free bus that runs every half hour from Frisco to both sides of the mountain, and we’re going to do the same. We’ll be slackpacking, which means we’ll only be hiking with a small daypack.

Breakfast at the hotel was at 7:00 AM, and we were the first ones there. We needed to catch a 7:35 AM bus just outside the hotel. Yesterday, we arranged with the front desk to leave one of our backpacks behind the counter after checking out, so we could pick it up in the afternoon.
We finished breakfast, checked out, dropped off the pack, and made it to the bus heading toward Breckenridge.
There weren’t many passengers on the bus. It made one stop to pick up a passenger, and it was Pinky.

At the Gold Hill Trailhead bus stop, we got off with Pinky. The trail started climbing immediately. Inger went first with no pack, and I followed with a backpack containing only food and necessary clothing for the day. We kept up a good pace on the ascent.
The trail climbed a total of 1,270 meters (4,167 feet) up to the ridge at 3,808 meters (12,493 feet). On the way up, we passed two other hikers. We caught up to the last one, Sneaky, not far from the highest point.
It was fun to be able to hike uphill at a relatively fast pace without the struggle of a heavy load on our backs, leaving the other hikers behind.

Just before the summit, we passed a ptarmigan with one large chick. They weren’t skittish at all, and we walked by them just four meters (about 13 feet) away.

Up on the ridge, the wind was blowing fiercely, and it was sometimes difficult to hike. We found shelter from the wind behind a rise in the terrain, where we sat to eat and enjoy the view. The sky was clear when we started out, but it was now past noon, and the clouds were rolling in, as usual. We were worried about thunderstorms, but luckily we didn’t get any today either.

The first part of the descent on the other side of the ridge was very windy, but once we got below the tree line, it became completely still. The sky was now fully overcast, and as we got down to Copper Mountain, we saw rain showers blowing in. As usual, we only got a few drops on us.

Then we took the bus about 12 km (7.5 miles) back to Frisco, picked up our other backpack from the hotel, and went for dinner. No freeze-dried meals for us tonight!
After some time in Frisco, we took the bus back to Copper Mountain.

Copper Mountain is a golf and ski resort. We reconnected with the trail where it passes the ski area. This is where the World Cup for Super-G and giant slalom for both women and men will be held this year from November 27 to 30. There’s even snow stored in the area for the event.

After hiking 1.5 km (0.9 miles) on the outskirts of the ski area, we planned to set up camp. At the first possible campsite, we ran into Sneaky, who had just set up her tent. The FarOut app showed there was another possible spot just 100 meters (about 328 feet) further on. It turned out to be a great spot, and we set up our tent there. As we were finishing up and washing our feet in a nearby creek, Pinky walked by. He was going to continue on a few hundred meters to camp there.

The clouds that had come in during the afternoon disappeared in the evening, and we were treated to beautiful evening sun. Our spot was truly idyllic.

Today’s hike was 27 km (16.8 miles) with 1,420 meters (4,659 feet) of elevation gain. We’re camping at 3,100 meters (10,171 feet) above sea level.