Continued from the previous page.

I CAN SEE FOR MILES AND MILES AND MILES . . .

All the way to Leadville and beyond, in fact.

Here we are at Hope Pass, my destination for today's hike. This is the view I had as I approached the pass looking south, which is outbound for LT100 runners:

It was warm but windy on the pass, and the sky was still cloudless in three directions. The views were superb from 12,600 feet.

Because of my lack of altitude training in recent weeks, and all my stops for photos, etc. it took 3˝ hours to get there (a little over 5˝ miles, with backtracking at the beginning). I took photos in all directions and  went down the south side a couple hundred feet:

LT100 runners continue south on this trail to Winfield. That side is steeper than the one I was on.

The trail descends on the slope of Mount Hope (right) to Winfield Rd. in the valley. In the background
are (L-R) Mts. Oxford, Belford, and Missouri, all 14ers.  I've climbed Oxford and Belford.

I wanted to sit down to eat and enjoy the view for a few minutes, preferably out of of the wind.

I went back down the north side a few yards to just above the snow patch and had a beautiful view of Twin Lakes and the broad valley between it and Leadville:

Looking north, the way I came up and the way I'd go back down.

I rested for about ten minutes while we ate a snack, talked to Jim on the phone (more Verizon phone bars up there than down in the valley), and enjoyed the fabulous view to the north.

Then I reluctantly began the descent to Lake Creek and Parry Peak Campground. I could have stayed up there all day! Although the weather was great up high, I didn't want Jim to worry about me if I was late to our rendezvous.

THE 3,400-FOOT DESCENT

Whee!!!!

Going down the north side of Hope Pass is an exhilarating freefall if you can run it. I've done that numerous times in training. In the race the descent is about Miles 55-59, when runners who are still in the game are more than happy to let gravity do most of the work.

I'm not supposed to be running, especially downhill, but even hiking back down is still a blast. I came down faster than I went up, as always, although I took even more pictures on my descent. It took me two hours to get down to the Willis Creek bridge at 10,000 feet; I’d been going for 5˝ hours and still had two or three miles to go.

Here are some photos from the descent:

 

The summit of Mount Hope

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I got down to the bridge across Willis Creek at 10,000 feet I still had an hour left before I planned to meet Jim. I knew I could get back to Parry Peak CG that fast if I went down the trail on Twin Peaks that I came up, but I really wanted to see that other trail that is down in the valley closer to Lake Creek. It's the one I ran/hiked 10-12 years ago.

I decided to keep going down the (very rocky) LT100 course on the Willis Trail until I got to the distinctive metal sign that says "Closed to All Vehicles:"

A little below that I turned left (west) on the narrow, unmarked trail that I vaguely remembered from a decade ago.

The first half mile was what I remembered – over some little creeks and through groves of aspen:

 

    

 

Then the trail started going up. Ugh. I was on a roller coaster and no longer recognized where I was:

 

 

Mt. Elbert dead ahead

The rocky terrain was interesting though, and afforded more views of Twin Lakes as I got higher:

I finally got to the intersection I’d seen this morning re: Twin Lakes down, Big and Little Willis up. Then it was just a matter of going back down the trail past the beaver pond, wet area, and muddy trail to dirt/gravel FSR 82A and then past the neat canyon and waterfalls again. I was able to get much better pictures of the creek then than in the morning when the sun was low.

The way back was at least a mile longer, plus I had to hike through the campground (fee area), across the bridge, and out to the road to meet Jim. He waited for me in a free parking area on CO 82 just west of the campground entrance until I called him to pick me up.

HIKE SUMMARY

Total mileage = just under 12 miles. Total time = 6:48 hours.

Cody had plenty of water. I didn’t make him wear his pack today. I had my Camelback with 100 oz. of water for myself and drank only 60 oz. of it. I carried an empty water bottle in the pack for Cody and filled it at the last stream so he’d have water on the pass. He drank that 20 oz. and got water 7-8 times from streams. He also immersed himself in a pond near the end.

Cody splashes in one of the creeks about 1˝ miles from the end of our hike.

I saw eight runners going up or down the trail and a hiker with a dog on the pass; he went down the other side toward Winfield Road. I also saw four hikers near Lake Creek when I was almost done.

I had a great time out there today. I’m tired but not sore. The weather was perfect, the scenery and flowers were gorgeous, and I felt good the whole way. I ascended slowly but I'll get faster as I get more acclimated to high altitudes.

JIM'S DAY  

While I was having fun on the trail Jim was busy doing a variety of things on his “rest day” (yesterday he rode 23 miles hard on the Mineral Belt Trail).

After dropping me off at Parry Peak CG this morning he drove up as far as he could with 2WD on the roads to Columbine Mine, where he will probably be working radio communications on Saturday during the bike race. He was able to get within 1˝ miles of the aid station location in our truck.

What he’d like to do Saturday is have me take him up there to that point, then ride/walk his bike the rest of the way. After the race he wants to ride his bike down from Columbine on part of the race course and back to our camper.

CR 10, part of the LT100 bike race course

He also did laundry, began reading a new book, and did other things around the camper before coming back to Twin Lakes to pick me up.

On the way home he showed me part of the race course (CR 10) that he plans to ride on Saturday. 

After supper we enjoyed a couple hours’ conversation in our camper with Marcia and John Rasmussen from CA. We hadn’t met them before but I’ve enjoyed Marcia’s posts to the ultra list for several years. It was great to meet them.

Next entry:  wildflower photos from today's hike to Hope Pass

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, and Cody the Ultra Lab

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© 2011 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil