I was all set to post a blog entry on the 11th, when we passed through Twin Lakes. However, the ‘town’ turned out to be basically just a store and some lodging, with no wifi to be had. I was a bit frustrated at first since I badly needed to order new shoes, but my brother​ came to the rescue and ordered them for me. Thanks bro! I wasn’t able to post anything on this blog either, but here’s the post which would have gone up:

Pre-hike me liked the snow. Pre-hike me was naive. Despite being June, the elevation of the trail means that we seem to be stuck in perpetual winter, a Narnia where it’s never spring, and my feelings toward snow have quickly soured. The trail from Monarch Crest to Twin Lakes was mostly covered in snow. Correction: pretty much everything was covered in snow, and the trail just happened to be a casualty. We barely got half our normal milage in each day, partially due to the fact that walking in snow is slower, and partially due to the fact that one of my knees has been protesting all the slipping and sliding that occurs when walking in snow. Britta generously walked first almost the entire last leg to spring any “booby traps” where the snow wasn’t actually solid underfoot. (Lest you start thinking she’s too nice, let me tell you that she would also start singing “Oh Christmas Tree” or “The Twelve Days of Christmas” occasionally in what I can only assume is a sly attempt to link the snow to Christmas and make me hate Christmas as well as snow. So far she’s failed.)

The steep slopes are the worst, because I’m terrified of falling. My shoes have been wearing out, and I made the mistake of thinking they could last a bit longer without considering the fact that they don’t have much traction left.

“You know,” I complained to Britta one evening, “I’m pretty sure I nearly die every day trying to cross the slopes. I have one foot in the grave.”

“And the other one slipping,” she said gleefully, cracking up.

“Not funny!” I replied.

At several spots​ we were able to glissade, which is the technical term for sliding down a mountain on your butt. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and it was a relief to be intentionally sliding down for once.

There were some short and temporary places where we actually got to walk on visible ground, and I found myself looking forward to them with the same desperation of a shipwrecked person seeking land. The next stretch supposedly has lots of lower elevation, so here’s hoping for a less snowy next few days!

And that was the post! Turns out, my hopes weren’t totally in vain. We did in fact have quite a bit of snow-less walking…and some nice snowy peaks and descents as well. My knee’s doing better, and we’re looking at only a couple of weeks left of Colorado. It’s going by so quickly! We’re currently resupplying in Breckenridge, and will be headed back to the trail and probably more snowy mountains. At least now I have awesome new shoes.