Hiking With Gadget Girl
It's All About The Adventure!
After yesterday's zero day, we were looking forward to getting back on the trail this morning and starting the Collegiate West Alternate trail.
This was a more challenging trail and we reckoned we were up for it. Ha! For the first five miles, life was good, rolling along on the south side of Twin Lakes.
Then we started the uphill to Hope Pass, 3,500 feet elevation gain. I had heard this Pass described as "brutal" getting to the top and by the time I got to the top, I was in complete agreement. In fact, my journal post was originally going to be "blah", "brutal", hate it", and "if this is going to be like this for the next umpteehump miles, I'm turning around and skipping this part". Well, like a good little hiker, I perservered and stuck it out.
We arrived at the top and it was blowing like stink. We took the required pics of the peace flags and then started down the other side.
It was just as brutal as the uphill. Steep, rocky, not much enjoyment out of this day. Ugh. Didn't take many pictures because I was doing my uphill plodding and hating this day. But we still got our 15 miles in, mostly because the downhill side was so steep, there wasn't anywhere to plant a tent.
More trail art:
NOTE: If you are interested in seeing more pictures of this day, click here.