Day 54 Twin Lakes

24.0 miles. 

Such a good decision to leave the major climb for the day to first thing in the morning. 

Mindful of the Peach Pit sleeping less than a metre away in her tent I tried to pack up as quietly and quickly as possible to let her sleep. I didn’t hear any stirring so hopefully I was successful. 

With a short 0.7 mile warm up on flattish ground it was straight into an 2 mile uphill slog towards Hopeful Pass. This track went straight up initially with zero switch backs. Hikers have different strategies for such hill from long, bounding strides working the leg muscles hard to slow and steady. My strategy is always baby, half steps. It’s way less fatiguing and easy to work into a rhythm. Often the mind will disassociate from the body, wandering while the legs just keep moving forward. 

Around halfway I encountered a scout group pushing up hill. On command from the leader they all stepped aside to make room, easy pretty much asking a question as I passed. This was great and highly encouraging for the kids. The best comment as I passed was “I love your tattoos!”. 

Rising above the tree line and into the open alpine meadows the grade softened somewhat and long, winding switchbacks kicked in, allowing gradual elevation gain that your legs barely feel. Its the lungs doing the work that lets you know the height gain. 

Before I knew it I’d reached the top for some commanding views in all directions. The top was completely snow free. Later a friend would post me a photo of the same pass a few years ago completely covered in snow, allowing for a fast and long glissade down. For me, the descent meant more switch backs with the odd snow patch to traverse – all frozen solid and easy to negotiate. 

It was a long and winding descent down for several more miles, meeting many CT hikers huffing their way up towards the same pass I’d just crossed. 

I was in need of additional calories, definitely feeling the hiker hunger creep in. In our daily lives, on average, adult’s would burn around 3,000 calories. With the high mileage days over multiple mountain passes the average thru-hiker is consuming more than 6,000 a day! Calories that we cannot carry. The thru-hiker body is always at a calorie deficit and once the body fat has burnt away a huge constant hunger starts to make itself known. So while I had food to get me through to Leadville, two days away, I had a massive desire to drop into the town of Twin Lakes to consume additional food. I was hoping for a burger or donuts. 

To reach Twin Lakes the Red Line follows 10 flat miles around the actual Twin Lakes. There was a second option that involved walking a few off trail miles, fording a river and hiking another mile or so in to Twin Lakes. I chose the river option. 

Arriving in town I headed straight for a food truck for a coffee and breakfast burrito, followed by hitting the general store. Unfortunately there were no burgers or donuts but I did grab some sandwiches for lunch, a coke, beef jerky and ice cream plus some more snacks. Awesome. 

Hiking out of Twin Lakes I picked up the Red Line again and continued until around 6:30pm, along the way passing the trail junctions for Mt Albert and Mt Massive, two of Colorado’s 14ers or mountains over 14,000 feet. I had no interest in climbing these just because they were there, moving past both. Happy with a 24 mile day, I found a suitable camp site near water and called it a night, another solid day down.