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Product Description The Colorado Trail wends its way through the Rocky Mountains of the Centennial State, traversing a landscape as changing and diverse as the swirling afternoon clouds presaging the daily summer thunderstorms. Shades of Gray, Splashes of Color narrates Bill Cooke's 2011 hike of this 486-mile trail, the length of which was a personal high for him in 35 years of backpacking. A common expression among long distance backpackers is "no pain equals no gain." In this book, you'll read of the "pain" manifested in the struggle of acclimating to high elevations, of hiking long and steep ascents, of coping with a wide range of climatic conditions from freezing cold mornings to hot baking afternoons to near daily thunderstorms to long stretches of limited water.