Day 17 – Inter-Laken

We wanted to accomplish two things today- see Inter-Laken and fix John’s sleeping pad.

But First The View

The South Mt Elbert trailhead is just off the Colorado Trail and has the best view of Twin Lakes. It’s also just above our campsite, we stopped there for breakfast.

Inter-Laken

Around the lake from the ‘town’ of Twin Lakes is a set of historic buildings called Inter-Laken. You take the Collegiate West trail to get there. (After Twin Lakes the trail splits into two – a west route that travels mainly above tree line and a east route that stays lower. It rejoins about 80 miles later.)

Some rich white dude in the late 1800’s ran a resort called Inter-Laken and also had a summer house for when he needed to escape Leadville.

The summer house was moved to save it when they flooded the lakes to create the Twin Lakes reservoir. Volunteers worked to restore the house and it’s open for people to just walk right in.

But Where Is The Leak?!?!

Lately John’s air mattress has not been holding well, air. Last night was the worst, with it deflating within 20 minutes. Not having a bathtub handy, we set off for the lake to find the holes.

It was really nice to be able to hangout by the lake. Thru-hikers don’t often get the chance to just BE in places since there are often miles to make or a resupply to get to.

Tonight decides tomorrow’s fate. If the patches hold, we hike. If the patches fail we go in search of a new pad. Which probably means all the way back to Breckenridge where we started.

Also, no one probably cares, but I got to watch this wasp carry this caterpillar away.