Donovan Rice is Mapping a 1,700-Mile Loop Across Colorado’s Wildest Terrain

Donovan Rice is grinding his way across Colorado to build a trail you've never heard of. According to CBS News, the Golden native is more than 70 days into a 1,700-mile loop he calls "The Great Colorado Route," starting and ending at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. He isn't checking off a bucket list. He's forging one from scratch.

A Working Draft, Not a Brochure

The route runs on three design principles: beauty, breadth, and epicness. Rice wants to thread as many scenic zones as Colorado offers while covering real variety — desert lowlands around Grand Junction, the Ruby Range Traverse, the Tenmile Traverse near Frisco, Wheeler Geologic Area, and the high basins between Aspen and Crested Butte. He's already done the PCT, CDT, and Eastern Continental Trail. This one is for home.

The constraints are terrain, not ego. Desert heat near Grand Junction rules out a summer window. Winter snow controls when you cross the Elks versus the San Juans. Rice is aiming for late September, banking on the aspens firing off while he walks past Crested Butte before the ten-mile road walk back to the canyon rim.

What This Actually Teaches You

This isn't a feel-good story. It's a live case study in how a working athlete builds a 1,700-mile project under real conditions.

Rice is solving problems in the field that no guidebook covers. Water is thin this year — a low snow winter means creeks dry up before the maps say they will. He's navigating off-trail sections with no online beta, learning as he walks. That is your life when you extend your own distances. The route doesn't care about your spreadsheet.

The vlog following grew to nearly 6,000 followers, and donations came in unprompted. The money funded his site at greatcoloradoroute.com and bought him the occasional hotel shower — a luxury he almost turned down because he didn't want to ask.

That friction is worth studying. Most athletes quit the funding conversation before they start it. Some solve it with cash from their day job. Others get creative with side income — affiliate work, content deals, and yes, some quietly research crypto exchanges during rest days to keep small recurring donations moving without losing them to fees. Whatever the method, the rule is the same: lock the funding before you lock the start date.

If you want your own long project, here's the takeaway. Test your water plan in the worst week of summer, not the best week of spring. Time your high sections to weather, not wishful thinking. And log every navigational decision — that record is what turns a hike into a route.

Rice is roughly halfway done. He's shooting for a late September or early October finish. Watch the daily vlogs. Then stop waiting and start walking.