Day 103 - Hope Pass

September 29th

14.5 Miles

Near Granite Mountain

Today Spins and I slack packed around seven or eight miles up over and down Hope Pass from Twin Lakes with Molasses, DC, Emily, Natalie, and her dog Beau. We got up and organized a bit past eight and drove the drop off car over at the Sheep Gulch trailhead and then headed over back to Twin Lakes. We parked by 82 where I left off yesterday and mosey over to the Willis Gulch trailhead area instead of following the ridiculously illogical CDT which went around the other side of the lake adding countless unnecessary miles.

It was brisk and a little cold this morning but nowhere near as freezing as yesterday morning. A few miles in we started going up towards the pass and after a mile or so took a break. There was small patches of snow but nothing terrible and we continued further along until reaching treeline where there was beautiful views of Leadville and the range behind it:

We continued up and hit patches of snow that weren't terribly deep and got closer and closer to the pass. 

When we reached the pass the wind was ripping at us so violently. It made the nice fall weather turn cold and uncomfortable quite fast. We snapped some shots and Spins and I took off down to a wind break.

We made it down a mile or so before finding some small trees to hide behind and have a snack at. Continuing down was an array of beautiful snow capped mountains and multicolored aspen leaves:

Then we made it far enough downtown walk the light the golden aspen groves:

When we reached the trailhead, we both collected the rest of our gear and said our goodbyes and a huge thank you to Molasses and everyone else for helping slack pack us and hike with us for the day. We continued along a dirt road for the next six or so miles passing an old abandoned mining town and found camping at the end of the dirt road with this as our view for the night: