Day 11, 16.4 miles

Hello there! I got hit hard with rain last night by the lake! Mt tent and fly were splashed with mud and totally drenched, however, I stayed nice and dry and warm inside :) Since I kept gettin woken up by the storm, when my alarm went off at 5:50 I snoozed it and woke up naturally after 7! I think Mt. Elbert took a lot out of me yesterday and my body needed the extra rest.

As soon as I started hiking I started noticing the effects of the Interlaken fire. I guess I didn’t know how big it had gotten, as I was hiking through the burn area for probably the first three miles! There were actually two spots that I saw on the FarOut app yesterday that I was thinking of camping at, but I’m sure glad I didn’t!!

Starting Collegiate East! 

This was one of the spots that I was thinking about last night that I walked by this morning. Glad I didn’t do it!!

Here’s the other! Eesh! I almost wondered if this one was the site that started it all with that unattended fire 🤔 

After the burn area came a gorgeous Aspen grove! 

It went off-trail and poked my eye with a branch for this shot! Tell NatGeo they can pick up my hospital bill 😂 

I broke out of the forest and into some Sage area, reminded me of Eastern Oregon. (I made sure to check for ticks). I laid all my soaking wet tent things on the bushes while I had a brunch and FINALLY was able to chill near some rushing water without any mosquitos!

Now they smell nice too! 

It was there I met Blake and his dog Maui! They were there panning for gold. Blake kept trying to keep Maui from jumping on me but honestly I was down for all the dog loving I could get! Love seeing them out here! We talked for a while and at the end he said he feels inspired to start backpacking! I love that! 

Blake and Maui

Important part of tent ripped of last night during the storm :(

I then climbed a big ole hill, got to the top with no view and then went straight down (claaaaaasic!). I saw some more cacti on the way down though, and the area reminded me of parts of Southern California on the PCT!

A toilet!! 

Choked here at this campground for a bit by the river, with again, NO MOSQUITOS!! Hallelujah

Speaking of mosquitos… I didn’t know how much that pre-Elbert day and Twin Lakes and yesterday afternoon’s hike got me with mosquitos! There are at least 28 total on both legs, the last couple days were the WORST! Claire can tell you those are rookie numbers, but there was one water source yesterday that was giving me Sierra flashbacks! 

After the campground, you guessed it, another climb! 

It got WAY steep WAY fast!!

Going up the steep I started getting a weird feeling above my left kneecap. I really pushed my left hard on the Elbert climb and descent. Also, my right knee is starting to get similar twangs it had the day before it hurt badly. I took these as warning signs and took the climb slow, and taking each step with intent.

In general on East I am going to be able to take it a bit easier, which was a major factor in me choosing this option. The Collegiate West was officially added as an alternate later, can’t remember but I think in 2013.it has about 5,000 ft more climbing and is like 6 miles longer than East, it also sits as much higher average elevation. Don’t be fooled though, East is still hard!! I did over 5,250ft of elevation gain today, even more than what my first 16 mile day would’ve looked like on West!

This was a weather source dribbling over the trail. Many would skip and carry extra water through. BUT

Go through the bushes for 20 feet and you find a perfect little falls to fill your bottle! 

A came across a cool river at the bottom of the descent from big climb 2. This one was 2,732ft of gain in 4.3 miles! No flat break spots, just constant up. So at the river I took another rest, snack, and sock change, and looked for beaver in the dam but saw none while I was there. I love this slower pace I’ve given myself! (The elevation gain still made for a tough day overall though haha).

Gotta take a break now and then! Treat YoSelf!

🦫 

Yo huge climb #3, daaaaaaang!! So I hadn’t seen any other hikers all day, only people at the campground and gold panners.. Then, at about 5pm I saw a dad and son duo coming Northbound. They are just doing three sections and are crushing it! I asked if anyone was in front and they said just one lady recently, and 3 others way earlier in the day. 

As I was approaching my goal for the day, I saw the lady he was talking about, It was Red!! I saw her yesterday as she left for the Collegiate West, but apparently she changed her mind last night while camping, and decided to go East instead so she can go into Buena Vista for the day on Saturday to resupply. She also said the bad weather forecast scared her as well. 

She had her camp setup just before an off-trail junction to Rainbow Lake. I told her I’d see her tomorrow and headed .2 miles up even more to the lake!

Maybe this is called Rainbow Lake? Not too sure

The lake is pretty and there’s very few mosquitos surprisingly. Camping however is tricky… there’s lots of flood prone areas and tons of widow makers. I did find one suitable spot that was still a little flood prone, so I took inspiration n from the beavers and made myself a dam! Not 100% it will work 100% if I get hit hard with rain (a nightly occurrence the last 4 nights), but it will at least help! 

After that was done, I ate by the lake and even was able to sit on a log and blog! How I’ve been longing for a good log and blog! It’s always, “Oh shoot it’s dark now (or raining now), get in the tent and blog”. But today was great I got to enjoy outside and stretch a bit more.

Fog rolling in fast at dark!

Here’s what it looks like in my tent at night. Poles, bag shoes come in and are in the uneven or weather sheltering side. I’ve had too many rodent mishaps to leave ANYTHING outside in the vestibule.

I’m super pumped for tomorrow. 17 miles and less elevation gain and then I get to see Ace for his birthday!! The only one thing that has me sliiiightly nervous is the timing in my day for all that elevation:

It’s only a 3.3 mile climb but with 2,509 feet of gain!! If you do the math it = STEEP! It’s also going to start about 3pm most likely. And as you know, that’s Thunderstorm o’clock! Luckily, the very tippy top is just at tree line, so if worse comes to worse I won’t be that exposed, and then we can jet into Buena Vista to hopefully dry off and grub down! 

Loved this shorter mileage day, Collegiate East is awesome so far.

Thanks for reading!