From the Valley to the Lakes

Day 14 – Buena Vista & Twin Lakes, 0 miles

I was awake with the sunrise, and with the noises of early-morning children at the campground overlooking Buena Vista. Even though I’d decided not to have a full rest day there, I still gave myself a bit of a lazy morning, lying in my bed to read my book until the sun warmed the tent. I stuck around a bit longer to have breakfast and to bring my battery pack and my devices up to full charge, then packed up and headed out.

I walked a mile and a half down the road to a coffee shop and then walked into Buena Vista. The downtown is quaint and historic. I didn’t take too much time to appreciate it though as I was on a mission to get groceries for the next leg of the trail and get back to the trailhead.

I was feeling a bit nervous about hitching on my own along a busy road and instead had arranged with a nearby trail angel to get a lift back to Twin Lakes. After some town food and sleep I figured I was better armed to face the chaos of the Leadville 100. She picked me up around 1 pm from Buena Vista and very kindly drove the 30 minutes or so to Twin Lakes.

The tiny town was definitely still busy, but it was a much more organized chaos than the day before. The support crews had their tents set up and everyone was cheering on the runners as they came through.

Once again I found myself hanging out in the shade of the visitor’s center along with a few other hikers. We had a good laugh about a couple of the hikers who’d ended up “in” the race. The Sungod had hiked quite a few miles that morning, stepping aside frequently and cheering on the runners going past. Sarah had followed the flagging right into the center of town, being cheered on herself, photographed and even asked some questions!

More importantly though we were discussing our plans for the next segment.

At Twin Lakes the CT splits and hikers have the option of going through the Collegiate Range along the western or eastern crest. Both are of similar length, but the west side has a lot more elevation change and stays above tree line (and above 11,000 feet) for the majority of the 80-mile route. It also usually has more dramatic weather. I really wanted the high mountain experience and had decided to tackle the Collegiate West route.

Because of the race we were also discussing where we’d try to camp for the night. One hiker was going to camp along the trail on the far side of the lake. Sarah was going to stay in town into the evening before hiking a few miles, hoping to avoid as many runners as possible. I’d been thinking about hitching to a nearby trailhead and spending the night on a connecting trail, away from the racers.

I’d just met Sungod, one of the other hikers hanging out with us. We connected initially over the fact that we were both wearing purple Purple Rain skirts. Similar to me he’d also already done some thru-hiking before starting the Colorado Trail. I’d really been hoping to find a hiking partner to at least get through the Collegiates. I was getting good vibes from Sungod and invited him to join me to hitch a few miles out of town to an alternate trailhead for the West Collegiate Route where we could find a campsite away from the race crowd.

Camp above Twin Lakes

We hiked about half a mile down the trail and found a somewhat reasonable site that at least had a nice view. We got to know each other a bit more over dinner and decided to join forces for the trail ahead.