[cheering] Honestly, I didn't even know the Colorado Trail existed.

Hiker!

Over the course of five years, as the hikers tell me, I have a little bit of a reputation on the trail, although Ive never been on it.

More and more we see people say things like, “You gotta stop in Lake City.” [car passing] There's a lot of great towns on the Colorado Trail, but this is one where the Hiker Center and the community that supports the hikers it's a must stop for pretty much everyone.

The unique thing that I've never seen on any other trail is this Sunday tradition of having a hiker dinner on Sunday evenings.

We are having our fifth of these summer hikers dinner.

We started about five years ago.

[crowd noise] Thank you!

I love to cook, and so we started participating in that.

The church and the community all bring sides and desserts so that there's tons of food, and they're just overwhelmed.

Be careful.

Just make sure youre getting the potatoes.

Youre peeling those potatoes, right?

It's a good feeling to know that youve been able to fill their bellies before they get back on trail.

I remember that summer of COVID, no ones in town, it's kind of a weird environment.

Hinsdale County is the most remote county in the lower 48 states.

We have 400 people in the town and 800 in the whole county.

We had hikers, and they'd walk by the church, and they'd walk by my house, We are the oldest Protestant church on the Western Slope of the Rockies.

We were established in 1876.

And the question in the back of my head was, “How can we serve hikers?” “What if we did eight meals in the summer of ‘21?” I didn't know about it when I started the hike.

I started to see Facebook posts.

Every week, Jason would post, or some hikers would post.

I did probably the longest days I've done on the entire trail trying to make it here by the Sunday dinner.

We're all trying to get here for that Sunday dinner.

So I think that's kind of a cool tradition.

It gives you something to shoot for.

[clapping, gong] Hiker!

[gong, cheering] Hiker!

We love that youre here.

We want anything we can do to make your lives easier while you visit our little town, let us know.

The center is open from nine to five, so come back tomorrow and well get you up to the trail.

The first one we had probably 45 of our town folk and two hikers.

Jason “Bamboo” Elwood, he ate 18 tacos, I think, that night.

Last year, we logged 974 hikers in our guestbook, but I know we welcomed and served way more than that.

We opened up the Hiker Center in ‘22.

We did seven days a week, nine to five.

People from the town will donate all sorts of snacks and toiletry items.

Not even including the meal that we do on Sunday night, but just having the center here, and we do their laundry if they need it.

The hikers are overwhelmed, and it's really cool to see.

Are you a hiker?

Are you a hiker?

Its met the need of the hikers.

But I think it's been powerful in the sense of the community its created both here in Lake City amongst my church itself, giving them a sense of purpose.

Are you all hikers here?

Yes, maam!

May I join you?

Yeah, of course!

That's the coolest thing is you meet these mostly young folks that are on trail, and they're from all over.

And it's just cool to hear their stories.

Its so interesting and fun to talk to them, find out where they're from, how far they've hiked, where they intend to go.

And, of course, we could never do it, so we're just fascinated with the fact We live vicariously through these hikers, I guess.

You know, whats funny is that the five-day stretch leading up to here, I probably saw one or two hikers per day.

And when I got here, there was over a dozen hikers here.

We tend to kind of converge in, sort of, these types of places, in hiker-friendly places.

The community of who we are here in Lake City is not just our little church or the larger community.

We're connected to the trail.

We have a place on the trail.

I like to see moments of transformation, and I see both my people being changed by the ministry, and I see hikers being changed.

Being on trail, and the the sense of community really restores your faith in humanity.

It is a cliché, but there are certain times where it rings true, and I think coming here really just makes me feel connected to to, to people.