CDT - Day 60 - Leaving Twin Lakes
I woke up in my room at the Twin Lakes Inn & Saloon feeling fully refreshed and ready to get back on the trail. As usual in a trail town, my first order of business was breakfast. The inn provides a complimentary breakfast for guests, and it did not disappoint. Everything was freshly prepared by the chef and was exactly what I needed before another long day of hiking. Tom and a few other hikers joined me for breakfast at 7:30 a.m.
After breakfast, I packed up my gear and hit the road. From the inn, it's about a one-mile walk along the highway back to the trailhead. Unfortunately, the trailhead isn't marked very well, so I walked right past it and had to backtrack about a third of a mile. No big deal—the highway is flat and has a nice, wide shoulder.
The majority of today's hike was one long climb: about 3,700 feet of elevation gain with roughly 2,600 feet of descent. I made one wrong turn at a trail junction, which cost me about a quarter mile. As wrong turns go, though, this one wasn't so bad. It led me to a series of lily ponds where beavers have been incredibly busy. The ponds were all created by beaver dams, and the surrounding area was full of trees they had gnawed down. Once I found the correct trail again, I hiked past the Mt. Elbert Trailhead and eventually entered the Mt. Massive Wilderness. Even with more than 3,700 feet of climbing, the day felt surprisingly easy. I wasn't especially tired or sore, and my legs seemed to have recovered well from Hope Pass.
Around 5:00 p.m., a little earlier than I had planned, I came across the perfect campsite beside a roaring creek. Sometimes it's just too hard to walk past a campsite that good.