Day 13: The Cruelest Form of Torture

September 6: Looking at my guidebook, I figured I would have either a really long day of hiking (23.3 miles) or a really short day of hiking (16.5 miles). It would be one or the other, however, because it didn't appear that there were any campsites between those two locations, but even if there was a campsite, it would be near the top of an exposed ridge that--given the afternoon thunderstorms, I would have preferred to avoid.

I made another attempt of a long-exposure photo of a stream this morning.

I decided to go for the long hike, so I woke up for a particularly early start (about 6:45) and hit the trail. When I reached the short destination, I could always stop if I felt too tired to complete the long hike.

Even before the sun rose, I could tell that the smoke and haze from the distance wildfires had grown worse today, but there wasn't anything I could do about that except grumble at the hazy photos I was taking.

The trail descended towards the Twin Lakes Reservoir--a surprisingly desert-like terrain around the man-made lake. The trail passed by a paid, drive-in campground--which I had no intention of staying at, but I figured it was a good time to use the bathroom so I wouldn't have to worry about dropping a load out in the woods. Sweet relief! So I was rather upset when I walked up to a restroom to discover it had been locked. Had they closed for the season? I bet this campsite was packed during Labor Day weekend two days earlier. Did they lock up shop in the past two days? Bastards!

Annoyed, I continued on and along the reservoir passed some picnic areas and take-outs for the lake and I thought, "Yes! Another bathroom!" But it too was locked. And so was the next one. I stopped checking bathrooms after that. I knew they'd all be locked. Bastards. I had an urge to poop next to the door of the bathroom and leave a note that said, "Next time, leave the door unlocked!" Unfortunately, they were all located within easy view of a busy highway, which helped talk me out of that idea. It was the cruelest form of torture.

Twin Lakes Reservoir in the distance. With a heck of a lot of smoke and haze obscuring the view!

Later in the afternoon, I did my thing in the woods, well-hidden from view.

The trail stayed almost absolutely flat for a wonderful 4.6 miles, eventually passing over the dam that created the Twin Lakes Reservoir, and then reaching a point where the Colorado Trail splits--the Collegiate West and Collegiate East routes that, together, make up the Collegiate Loop.

I veered off onto the Collegiate East route since, as far as I could determine, it was considered the main path of the Colorado Trail. I knew the Collegiate West route stayed closer to the continental divide so I figured I'd do that section if or when I ever thru-hiked the CDT. For the Colorado Trail, I'd take the Collegiate East.

But both routes are considered part of the Colorado Trail, and I wondered which direction most thru-hikers tended to chose. I had no idea.

Early in the afternoon, I reached my short-day goal by Clear Creek, and I laid down and rested for the better part of an hour. I was tired having taken nothing but the shortest of rests, and the next campsite was nearly 7 miles away--but it would be the most difficult 7 miles of the day with a 2,500' climb up, before a 1,000' drop to Pine Creek.

Near the top of the pass, strong winds and angry clouds were blowing in. Thunder rolled off the hillsides, and I could see rain in the distance--but it seemed to danced around my location. For the moment, at least. I picked up my pace to get down the other side of the pass as quickly as possible.

I was a little annoyed to arrive at Pine Creek and found about a dozen college-aged students spread out across the entire area filling up every campsite. I could tell they were all together because they all used the exact same model of tent. Some sort of school activity, to be sure, but large groups annoy me--and the annoyance was exasperated by them spreading out leaving no space for others.

If the sun wasn't already on the verge of sunset and I hadn't been so tired after walking 23.3 miles, I'd have wanted to push on to the next campsite to get away from the crowd. But it was too late for that, and I found a location in the trees--not an official campsite, but off-trail and clear of rocks and brush where I could camp for the night. It wasn't as flat as I would have preferred, but it gave me somewhere to camp for the night.

Twin Lakes Reservoir

These mountains are only a few miles away, but I could barely see them at times because of the thick smoke!

Passing under Highway 82.

Twin Lakes

The dam is only for foot and bike traffic. No vehicles allowed!

I think this is the emergency spillway for the dam.

The exit point of the emergency spillway.

Turkey vulture! Sorry he turned out so blurry. I can trouble getting it to focus on the bird and not the background, then it flew off before I got a good shot.

One of the most confusing signs I've ever seen on a trail! It's where the Colorado Trail (CT) and Continental Divide Trail (CDT) splits into the Collegiate West and Collegiate East sections. I came from the CT/CDT part, and would continue on on the Collegiate East direction. I'll do the Collegiate West section if and when I ever thru-hike the CDT.

That's the Clear Lake Reservoir in the distance.

This is also a very desert-like environment that reminded me a lot of the Arizona Trail!

Crossing Clear Creek

I love all the aspen changing colors!

What could the H mean? We may never know!

Day 12: The Mystery of the Smoky Skies

September 5: I woke up and hit the trail, but I passed a couple of small streams and decided to play with my fancy camera some more by taking long exposures of the streams. It was early in the morning so the light wasn't bright, and the streams were deep in the shade. I played around with the manual settings to get the longest exposure I could without overexposing the image, which turned out to be about 20 seconds. I didn't have a tripod to keep the camera steady during that time and would try resting it on rocks or the rail of the bridge crossing the creek so many of my photos turned out slightly blurry, but I really liked the silky look of the creek. It worked out well!

Smooth, silky water! =)

Almost immediately, I noticed that the sunrise was particularly colorful which, as the sun rose higher, I could tell was because there was a fair amount of smoke and haze in the air. I had no idea where the smoke came from, but I hoped and crossed my fingers that there wasn't a wildfire on the trail ahead. Later in the morning, when I got a cell phone signal, I texted Little Red--the friend who dropped me off at Waterton Canyon--about the smoke. I figured being local, she probably heard more information about local fires than most of my friends on the west coast would.

Definitely some smoky and hazy skies! Could there be a wildfire on the trail?

But the reply wasn't immediate, and my cell phone signal would come and go. So I hiked onward, not knowing if I was hiking into a wildfire or not.

I saw few people on the trail, but now that Labor Day weekend was over, I didn't to. The bicyclists were still gone since today I passed into the Mount Massive Wilderness and they were still on their detour since the Holy Cross Wilderness. (It's a 22-mile detour for them!)

Late in the afternoon, I got a reply to my text and Little Red said that the smoke was being blown in from wildfires in Montana, Wyoming and even California. California?! But that there were no major fires in Colorado much less directly affecting the trail. That made me happy! =)

But it still caused some pretty lousy views. I could barely see mountains that were as little as 10 miles away through all the smoke. Nothing I could do about that, however, so I didn't worry about.

The Colorado Trail led through the Mount Massive Wilderness, which is home to Mount Massive--the second highest peak in Colorado and the third-highest peak in the contiguous United States. But I wasn't really interested in climbing it because why? That wasn't my goal, and it wasn't even the highest peak of the state. It's a must-do for people trying to complete all of the 14,000-ft peaks in Colorado, but that wasn't my plan. So I skipped it.

The trail continued onward, eventually reaching the North Mount Elbert trailhead--the starting point for many people to want to summit Mount Elbert. Now this mountain I had wanted to do. It is the highest peak in Colorado, even if it's only the second-highest in the contiguous United States. (Mount Whitney, of course, is the highest.) By the time I reached that trail junction, however, it was late in the day and far too late to summit. Anyhow, the views from the top would probably suck because of all the smoke in the air.

So I pushed onward, eventually setting up camp by the South Mount Elbert trailhead where I made dinner, brushed my teeth, wrote in my journal and read my Kindle. My day was over!

If you look VERY closely at this photo, you can barely see a mountain range in the distance. I estimated the range was maybe 10 miles away, but I could hardly see them through all the smoke.

Another silky stream!

The highest point in Colorado is just a few miles away.... but I won't be hitting it on this trip!

Beaver pond! But I didn't see any actual beavers....

More evidence of beavers! This only happened about three weeks earlier!

Another beaver pond!

More beaver evidence

Sunset from camp

Day 11: Labor Day Festivities

September 4: Happy Labor Day! For today, it was Labor Day! My plan was simple: A short, little hike covering about 20 miles. My topo map suggested that the terrain wouldn't be too hard. A little bit of up, a little bit of down, but nothing particularly steep or prolonged.

And the day certainly started off that way. I made good time coming out from Camp Hale, walking along mostly flat terrain. Almost immediately out of Camp Hale the trail followed parallel to Highway 24, busy with traffic, and I was glad I stopped when I did. I hadn't heard any traffic from my location, but it would have bothered me along this stretch.

The trail eventually crossed the highway, running alongside a scenic meadow, then along a trail so utterly flat and wide that I was certain it had to be a rail-to-trail. I knocked out the first ten miles--half the trail!--a little after 11:00 in the morning. I was burning up the trail!

The trail then headed into the Holy Cross Wilderness, which I was happy to reach because it meant the annoying parade of bicyclists had come to an end. The first few miles of the morning they weren't a bother--it was too early for the bicyclists to have hit the trail yet, but the previous day it seemed like they'd pass by me every five minutes which grew increasingly annoying. But since bikes are banned in wilderness areas, they had to take a large detour on roads going through Leadville. (Leadville is also a popular resupply point for hikers, but I intended to skip it.) Without the bikes, I could count on one hand the number of people I saw all day. Which was surprising to me given the fact that it was Labor Day. A lot of people go out and hike or backpack Labor Day weekend, but Holy Cross Wilderness did not appear to be one of those places!

Not that I had a problem with bicyclists. They were generally all very polite and friendly, but the sheer numbers of them--seemed like I passed at least a hundred of them the day before--wore on me.

But I petered and found myself tired and dragging the second half the day. It wasn't as flat as the first half, but still it was nothing steep or strenuous. The very end of the day included a steady 2,000 foot drop--which wasn't particularly steep but I walked down like it was uphill. I just lost my motivation.

I made it to the Timberline Lake trailhead, which had prominent "no camping" signs in the parking lot, so I pushed on. Not that I really wanted to camp in a parking lot anyhow, but I was definitely done and on the prowl for a campsite. I walked maybe five minutes further down the trail and found a nice site not far from a creek. I didn't know if that close to the parking lot counted as part of the "no camping" area, but it was late in the afternoon, getting dark, and I doubted anyone would ever be none-the-wiser.

So I called it a day, counted up my miles and discovered I had completed a solid 20.0 miles for the day. My first 20-mile day of the trail. Maybe that's why I was so tired....

I found this bench along the trail and couldn't help but rest and give it a try!

That's an odd warning....

Good thing they warned me about this bridge. I might have missed it and walked right into the ditch otherwise! (Not....)

This bridge didn't come with a warning, and I accidentally walked into the creek. *rolling eyes* (Totally kidding!)

Boundary of the Holy Cross Wilderness. The box near the right has permits for people to fill out.

It looks like it's been a long while since this permit box was maintained, though! I couldn't find any unused permits, so I never actually filled out a permit for this wilderness area. Probably an illegal act on my part, but I'm a bad-ass and didn't really care. =)

A campsite visitor!

Another campsite visitor!