Day 72-Hope Pass and Twin Lakes

In the morning we continued on the same dirt road from the evening before.  We passed many people out enjoying the lovely summer weather. 

The trail went trhough the old town of Winfield.  It was another mining town that went belly up after the silver boom ended. 

The old school house and another of the log buildings had been turned into a museum, but neither were open when we passed through. 

At the top of Hope Pass we met a guy out day hiking the Colorado Trail.  He took our picture (with his camera) and I asked him to take one with mine before the wind blow us off. 

Twin Lakes and the town of Twin Lakes was visible from the pass.  We had heard yesterday from a CDT'er hiking a section southbound that a fire had sprung up just outside of Twin Lakes.  He said when he went over Hope Pass he could see smoke, but the view for us was clear. 

We hadn't planned on going into Twin Lakes, eventhough it is within sight of the trail, but I may have mentioned to Portrait that if we did go in we could drink cold sodas.  Just like that the plan changed. 

Thankfully we didn't have to ford this river.  There was a slightly longer route that took us across a bridge (a bridge that had a locked gate at the far end--we climbed over it.  I guess that's how we do things on the CDT).  Then it was down to the general store for our sodas. 

Portrait checking out the Mount Elbert information at the trail head.  Mount Elbert is the tallest mountain in Colorado and the second tallest in the continental U.S.(Mount Whitney in CA near the PCT being the tallest in the continental U.S.)  We had been talking all day about a summer solstice sunrise summit and a couple more miles would put us in the perfect place to camp.

The Mount Elbert trail and the CDT split off from each other.  We started up Mount Elbert...but only a couple of miles.  We didn't want to camp above treeline.