The midnight train to Boston cost $11 and I only had $7 in my pocket.
“How much is it?” I asked the conductor who looked like he needed a nap.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said.
And with that, the impossible just became possible.
A last minute decision, a cheap flight, and I arrive in Denver to grab a free train pass that others leave behind on the ticket machines. Riding out to Union Station on someone else’s pass. Then flash that to ride south towards Waterton Canyon.
I rode the D train to the end of the line, drinking a half gallon of milk on the way.
I follow the Mary Carter Greenway into Littleton where I drank another half gallon of milk, this time chocolate, and ate a half rack of ribs that was marked down for clearance, outside, while I charged my phone from a store outlet.
There was rain on the horizon when I walked out of town. Lightning flashes in the distance so far away that no thunder reaches me. I’m full in a way that makes me feel pregnant. But I wonder about the lack of trekking poles. I’d need them to set up the rainfly, but you can’t fly with them and I’m too close to the trailhead by the time I remember.
Less than two miles away from starting the trail and there’s no excitement in me. I lay down in the grass and fall asleep without a care in the world.
#ColoradoTrail #wandering #cowboycamping