Loveland-based thru-hiker Kevin “Sunshine” Silvernale had just completed his hike of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2016 when he started thinking about developing a backpacking route that wove its way across northern Colorado. He started plotting route points in 2022 after tackling the Colorado Trail. Then last year, he finally decided to walk from Estes Park to Glenwood Springs to put his planned path to the test. The result is the Northern Colorado Trail, a 292-mile route that travels through iconic destinations like Rocky Mountain National Park, the Rawah Wilderness, and the Flattops Wilderness Area.

“Long-distance backpacking has been the last decade of my life,” Silvernale told Backpacker. “Coming off of those trails, it was always on my mind to do something a little closer to home,” While he continued to hop from long trail to long trail, he knew that northern Colorado was ripe for exploration.

Silvernale had heard tales of hikers who’d tackled sections of his proposed route, traveling from Estes Park to Walden, but he wanted to take things a step further and traverse the whole state, which he did in 19 days last fall.

“Since it worked, I was comfortable putting all this info together and sharing it with everyone,” he explained. Last week he launched the Northern Colorado Trail website for other hopeful hikers. The site lists a wide range of resources including GPS files, trail guides, and interactive maps.

At this point about 60% of the trail travels on existing routes, while 40% of it follows both paved and gravel roads – a number that Silvernale hopes to reduce at some point. His vision for the ideal route also cuts through private property in two spots, which he says is his biggest problem right now.

“I just published two of the re-routes around the private sections. I believe the optimal route should go through these private sections,” he said. His next goal is to reach out to the property owners to acquire hiking permissions, which he’s hoping to have in the next year or two.

In addition to navigating areas of private land ownership, there are also two parts of the trail that require passes or permits. On the eastern edge of the trail, hikers will find themselves in Rocky Mountain National Park, where they’ll need a national parks pass as well as an overnight permit should they choose to sleep in the park. “There’s also another section early on in the trail going through state forest state park, which requires a $4 per day pass,” said Silvernale.

Having thru-hiked the Colorado Trail, Silvernale can attest to some of the similarities between it and the Northern Colorado Trail. “[The Northern Colorado Trail] was very similar minus a little bit more road walking,” he reflected. However, with the exception of his Steamboat Springs resupply (which overlaps with the Continental Divide Trail), there was very little thru-hiker activity on his chosen route.  It’s also slightly shorter than the CT, taking about three weeks compared to a month or more.

Since launching the Northern Colorado Trail website, Silvernale has been ”stoked to see all the support.” He encouraged hopeful Northern Colorado Trail hikers to check out the website or reach out to him for more information.

He added that the trail is still in development, and that hikers should respect private land and follow the re-routes until further notice.