25.4mi

Bluebird skies. Met dean, Who is doing volunteer trail maintenance with the Colorado Mountain Club. The two of us showed up at either side of a loud shooting stream, yelling at each other over the white noise trying to figure out what was the safest way to cross. I noticed a faint trail up to long jump to a rock that may or may not have been slippery. Poking it with my hiking stick I skipped quickly across. On the other side we discussed the trail conditions south of me. I realized I hadn't been associating the names of the trail with the actual locations, because cottonwood pass didn't ring a bell. Passes seem to blend into each other approaching 3/4 of the way through Colorado. Ann Lake Pass was something to mention since it covered with suncups on the north side, steep too. Something to remember.

Hope pass was the second and last pass of the day before descending to the town of Twin Lakes, CO and boy was it a steep and long up. It kind of looked like Windows XP computer wallpaper from the south side. I couldn't do my usual huff and puff to the top, took a long break at a campsite half way after going straight up. It got me. The north side of Hope luckily wasn't all white. Plus you could see the beautiful lakes sitting still in flatness below. Camped right on one of the lakes on a pebble and sand shore after walking the sunset around the long trail that made a half circle around the east side of the lakes. Sherpa plopped down not too far behind in one of the many primo camp spots on such a nice afternoon. We planned on doing a half day tomorrow hanging out at the General Store in town.