Trail magic, and also some of the half-dozen balloons the Leadville Hostel had tied up on the trail to draw attention to the goodies.
A place to rest a moment, courtesy of the Leadville Hostel.
The start of this segemnt is pretty incredible. Not only are there bathrooms -- nice ones! -- at the trailhead, but also the Leadville Hostel sometimes leaves trailmagic around here. Trailmagic is a frequently morale-saving treat left on the trail specifically for through-hikers, anything from a box of medical supplies, to a cooler of beer or a cache of water in dry sections, to a semi-permanent shelter with cookies and cooked food and knowledgeable advice. Nobody knows how it started, but the rules are simple -- if you benefit from trailmagic, you're obliged, sometime in your life, to give something back to the trail.
The Leadville Hostel had left cokes and chips this time, and the salt tasted like ambrosia. A little further down the trail, they'd left a cute little swinging bench, too. I sat there and watched the light play over distant mount Elbert, and savored the bubbles in my belly. It's so strange -- so American, perhaps -- that someone would just leave treats on the trail for strangers. The Leadville Hostel folks will probably never even meet me, yet they'd left me gifts, just for the heck of it. Nobody would just leave presents out for strangers in Malawi. Churches don't often assist their poorer members... at least they didn't in my village. It was so strange, so... American, perhaps. I'd forgotten how things work around here.
As I sat in thought, an odd popping noise intruded. It was repeated. Then a mountain biker burst into sight. He skidded to a halt where the Leadville Hostel had tied a balloon to a tree to mark the way to the swinging chair, leaned over, broke the balloon with a squeeze. Then he looked up and saw me, and froze.
"Erm. Was that entirely necessary?" I asked, not certain what was going on. What followed was my strangest encounter on the entire trail.
"They're always doing this!" he yelled, a burst of loud and angry words I could scarcely follow. "Always leaving their crap all over the trail, and half the time they don't even clean the pieces up!" His face was flushed nearly as red as his helmet.
"..." I wondered if I should get behind the chair. I firmed my grip on my walking sticks. "...You didn't pick up the balloon bits from the one you broke," I pointed out. If you ever see a biker in this area wearing a red and white racing jersey, by the way, you might want to stay clear.
"I did! I picked up what I could, and I'll come back and get more but they shouldn't be doing this! If they want a party, they can have one at Lamar's, not on the trail! This doesn't belong here! Not here, not here!" Screaming that last -- literally screaming -- the biker pedaled off, shaking his fist with all the unnatural rage of someone who really needs to adjust his steroid dose downward.
Yeah. Maybe sometimes, America works that way, too.
Sunset over the lake at 6.3
Sleeping by the lake had one disadvantage -- rodents! They were after the salt from sweat which had accumulated on the trekking pole.
Interesting old cabins. In some of them, the remains of beautifully-worked stoves and utensils can still be found.
The Holy Cross wilderness, named for a mountain which, in the spring, appears to have a snowy 'cross' on the side.
Carefully-maintained sub-alpine trail, just past Porcupine lake(s).
Guidebook update suggestions:
0.0
There are bathrooms here! Also, the start of the trail, from the parking area, is a tad hard to find. Head towards the highway; the trail you want is the second path to the right, before crossing the paved highway. There's a CT info board up there just a bit.
0.3
The Leadville Hostel sometimes leaves an awesome little swinging bench above the trail to the right. A sign points the way to a cabin to the right, but the CT heads straight/left, below the bench. The way is marked only by blue diamonds.
4.1
The guidebook says there are several turns here which are poorly marked and confusing. They are not -- in fact, the wrong trails are faded and all but unnoticeable. Oh, but there is a marked sidetrail to the left, leading 0.1m to an old mine, somewhere around here.
6.3
Shortly before the entrance to the Holy Cross wilderness, the trail dips close to a marshy lake with decent campsites nearby. The lake, and the little stream just after the registration book, are thick with fish. There are plenty of interesting old abandoned cabins in the area, too.
7.7
Despite the abundance of rain, the porcupine lakes... well, there was only one of them, actually. It was small and marshy, and lacked fish, though it had plenty of salamanders and what might have been leeches. Very picturesque, though.
The elevation chart is roughly correct.
----> Onward, to segment 10!
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