Day 20 North Willow Creek to Twin Lakes Village

Day 20

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Mileage: 13 miles (Completed Last 4 miles of Segment 10 and started first 6 miles of Segment 11)

Elevation: 11,100 ft down to 9,300 ft 

Awhhhhhh...the sound of a deflated air mattress. Pippy thought she was dreaming. But, no it was really happening. Zippy was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning and was an eager beaver waiting to start the trail at the wee hours of daylight. 7 am departure. After Pippy had her morning green tea to warm her up (thanks Zippy for making the tea)

Can you see me? The simple things that make us smile. A reflection...in your teacup! 

As hard as it is to get up out of our sleeping bags, it's so worth it to start the trail early. 

Hmmm....Batman was here. Thanks for the photo bomb, Batman!

We finished the last four miles of segment 10 rather quickly as it was all downhill. We reached the trailhead where day hikers gather to hike the highest peak in Colorado, Mt. Elbert at 14,433 ft. We even saw two twinkle toe runners heading up to the mountain. More power to them! We cross the road, fill our water, and head up the side of Mt. Elbert to begin Segment 11. 

Pippy here preparing our lunch for the day. 

We sat next to a stream and had a power snack to head up the next climb

Over the river and through the woods to Mt. Elbert mountain we went!

At the top of the hour long climb, there was a detour to go right up to the tippity top of Mt. Elbert. It took us 1.4639 seconds to decide that we were NOT going to oxygen deprive ourselves with our 30 pd. backpacks 3,500 ft later at 14,400 ft. Instead, we kept meandering through the woods at a comfortable, vacation-like pace. At the next stream crossing, we found a nice spot to have a lunch of.....guess what.....B E A N S. 

Beans, beans, and more beans. Like Lima beans, white beans, Anasazi beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, great northern beans, refried beans, oh and don't forget green beans! Mmmmm..... Yup, we've had the pleasure of sampling all of these in the last 20 days. You can just call us the bean connoisseurs. The star of today's bean mix is Cuban style black beans and rice with coconut milk and Pippy's favorite, bananas. That's all she ever talks about. 

We begin descending through an aspen grove ....

Which opened up into a meadow...

A few more miles to go and we arrive at the turn-off of the trail to head down to the town of Twin Lakes Village. 

After a longer than predicted, boring, and windy downhill to the village in the rain, we come across these cute little log cabins for rent. They had one left. It didn't take us but a second to secure it! We were cold, hungry, tired, and stinky. 

These cabins were built in 1892, and have been slightly altered but most is in the original state . The cabin we stayed at originally had an outhouse, and the bathroom/shower was added on in the 1960ʻs. 

Out house , still standing.

Here's Pippy opening up the front door

The owner has been running this place for the last 40 years....if you do your math right, what decade do you think she decorated it in? You'reeee right! We felt like we were on "That 70's show". So unique, so cozy, and so fun! 

Lounging in the kitchen 

And when Zippy was relaxing in the lounge chair, look what was staring at her. She couldn't sit there anymore or sleep on that bed below the staring carcass 

Once settled in, we walked the 300 feet to the General Store to pick up our resupply box.

Here is Pippy looking in the closet full of hiker boxes to find ours. Wasn't here, but luckily we found it in another storage area. 

Pippy heading back to our cozy cabin to look through our box of goodies...we were getting hiker hungry .

Took a shower and put on our matching warm Jammie's and pretended that we did not know. Then we meandered over to have a delicious meal at the historic twin lakes inn.. 

We enjoyed a Niçoise salad and pellegrino sparkling water..celebrating our 175 mile mark!!!

Morning cup of tea before our long expected hike of over 15 miles...

Wish we had one if these cool rides to take us to the trailhead.