SUMMARY:  It was very windy and chilly when we left the RV park, and the wind increased till it made walking a bit difficult, since it was a headwind. Sometimes it even felt like pushing against a current of water. We were on Hwy 24, following the Arkansas River as it roared and foamed along.

We had lunch at a wonderful place called Cafe Sage in the village of Granite. They even told us a backroads route instead of the highway. Black clouds were rolling in, with silver streaks of lightning, and finally torrents of rain and wind. We raingeared up and hiked on.

It finally stopped as we reached the first lake of Twin Lakes, but it did another round just after we reached the Twin Lakes Inn. So glad to be inside! Several hikers are here, all with ‘trail tales.’

DETAILS:  When I got up this morning and checked on our wet gear we’d hung up all over the cabin last night, hooray, it was totally DRY!  We headed out along Highway 24 into a dark and cloudy morning, but the sunrise was yellow, not red, which is a good thing.  It was chilly, with a very strong headwind that made walking a bit difficult.  The sunshine came and went, depending on the cloud formations that were racing by overhead.

Since I didn’t have to be watching my footing with every step, it was great to be able to just walk and look at things.  Geology is one of the things I look for, and I noticed that before Monarch Crest, most of the rocks were obviously volcanic in origin, then after that, along the CT, they were granitic, and now we are back into volcanic again.  There are dramatic lava cliffs along the river.   We passed several properties that were for sale, including a ranch where they were irrigating pasture.  All the “For Sale” signs emphasized water rights, and there are ditches everywhere, carefully guiding every precious drop of water to the right place.  Well, for now at least, there’s plenty of water to be had!

From the highway, we could catch occasional glimpses of the Arkansas River as it went roaring along, and I kept hoping to see some kayakers.  We know they are out, because we’ve seen a lot of cars with kayaks on top, and even yellow buses towing trailers full of kayaks and rafts.  We also got some glimpses of the mountains up above–very snowy-looking.  That’s where we would be if we’d stayed with the CDT.

We stopped at one of the rafting places to get a cold drink to go with our midmorning snack, and we found out that Highway 24 (which we are following) started as a trail, then became a stagecoach road, then a railroad, and finally what it is today–a paved highway for cars.  (And hikers!)  We pushed on into the headwind as the clouds began to build up overhead, and at 11:00 it began to drip rain a bit.  The drips slowly increased, and we were just starting to think, “Time for raingear!” when we spotted a cute little cafe, and decided to have an early lunch there instead of sitting out in the rain to eat.   The place is called “Cafe Sage”, and it was great!  The food was really good, and everyone there was very friendly.  They told us about a local event called the “Burro Race”, where you do 25 miles on trail (running wherever possible), leading a loaded packburro (just like the miners used to do).  And they were so excited about what we were doing that they insisted on taking a picture of us.

But most importantly, they also told us that the next stretch of Highway 24 is so narrow that there is hardly any shoulder by the road, and it’s dangerous to walk (or even bike) through there, and told us how to do a backroads route instead that was safe and scenic.  So that’s where we went.  Wow!  It sure was scenic–grand views of the Divide, scattered houses and pastures….and lightning.  It wasn’t actually raining at this point, but the clouds were black, and there were frequent silver streaks of lightning.  I counted the seconds till I heard thunder, trying to reassure myself that it was pretty far away, but we were out in open country without even a tree, and walking straight toward those silver streaks. It was almost like watching a lightning “show”–often there were 2 or 3 jagged bright flashes, not just one.

Just before we finished the backroads route, the skies opened up, and it began to pour rain. We quickly raingeared up and kept going into a downpour mixed with hail, blown by the wind.  Ow!  That hail hurt!  But we just sort of hunkered down and went on.  This continued for a good half hour, then suddenly stopped, and the sun came out!  We kept the raingear on, though.  We did not trust those clouds!

The roadwalk around the two lakes (it is TWIN Lakes!) was really nice–the lakes are beautiful, with their dramatic mountain backdrop.  We couldn’t see too much of the mountains at first–they were swathed in clouds.  But finally even those blew away, and the view was amazing!  We walked into the tiny village of Twin Lakes and headed straight for the store to get our resupply box.  “Look around till you find your box, and just take it,” said the owners, and I wandered around the store (there were boxes everywhere) till I spotted our brown cardboard box with a green stripe on each side.

The next thing to do was find a place to stay–the historic Twin Lakes Inn had one room left, and we took it.  The room is really set up for tourists (dainty bedspread, lacy curtains, cute accessories) not hikers, but we carefully set down our grubby packs and headed back to the store to hang out with the other hikers.  There were CT hikers and CDT hikers, all just in from the trail, and everyone has stories to tell.  AND there were runners getting ready for the Leadville 100 race, as well.  Doubleshot was there, and said, “What?? How did you guys get here so fast??”  One of the CDT hiker gals was telling me about her adventures up on the high trail.  “How was the snow?”  I asked.  She paused.  “Well, let’s put it this way….it’s a good thing my mom was not there to see me climbing over some of those cornices” she said.  I thought, “Yeah, I’m SO glad we decided to take a lower trail.”

Finally Fixit and I went back to our room to take a shower (the bathroom is down the hall) and I also washed our socks in the sink.  Just as I got back to our room, a violent storm began.  I could not believe what I was seeing out the window–unbelievably heavy rain, fierce wind.  Finally it stopped.  Fixit and I were staring at it and talking. “What will we do if we get hit with something like this out on the trail?”  We decided we would not even try to hike, but would just stop and wait for it to die down.  When we went downstairs, we found that even the locals were freaked out.  “We have never seen weather like this!” they said.

At dinner we really enjoyed the great food, and surprise!   Eric the Red was there!  He had just come in, and looked very tired.  He said he was going to eat and get warm, then go look for someplace to stay.  Hope he finds one–it looks like all the rooms and cabins are taken by hikers and by runners.  Our room is so tiny that there’s barely room for us–we would not be able to fit him in, even sleeping on the floor.

When we went back up to our room and I looked out the window, the sky had cleared, and there was sunshine on the mountains!  Amazing.  Fixit went straight to bed–he is really tired.  I stayed up a little longer to write the journal and look at the beautiful mountain view.  Back to the trail tomorrow!