I slept in a bivy tent like this one and it did alright, but I have a few complaints.  I borrowed Jason’s rain fly, so the sudden rain overnight was not an issue, the outside of my bivy and sleeping bag stayed very dry.  The inside did not.  The bivy has a screen mesh over my face so I can breath, but the rest of the tent material does not breath and I was too warm overnight.  My sweat and/or breath left the bottom of my sleeping bag quite wet.  I’ll need to figure out a better option for the Colorado Trail.  I still plan on hiking the big, long, and scary trail, but I can’t seem to nail down a solid start date.

I also learned that the backpack I planned on using for the CT is not quite what I want.  What I noticed is that there are a lot of pockets that I just do not use.  The sizing of the pockets didn’t leave many options and I couldn’t find things too easily without opening almost every pocket.  I know I need to do a field test with a different style of backpack.  Jason is letting me borrow a backpack that has just 2 exterior pockets and one very large interior pocket.  This will reduce my searching, but now I need to think about how things will be separated.  Definitely will need to think more on that one.

The second day of hiking was great despite all the bug bites. Oh, I mentioned the mesh of the bivy… so that mesh sits directly on my face.  Which is the perfect distance for a mosquito to reach through and bite my arms and face as many times as she wants.  Thanks, I now have around a hundred itchy bites all over me… awesome.

After a good, solid, shared breakfast, we hit the trail and got to some amazing sights.

 

We got to the Baptism River where an interesting, single cable, suspension bridge allowed us to cross.  We spent a lot of time checking this place out.  There was even a nice waterfall!