Twin Lakes Colorado Run - June 11th

I am now in the mountains.  I just went through Leadville in the morning.  It is an awesome town, part upscale, part rugged.  I could definitely live there.  The higher peaks like Mount Elbert still have a good amount of snow.

I found an awesome free camping spot near Twin Lakes, south of Leadville.  It is below Mount Elbert, but above the beautiful lakes.  I set up camp and eventually got around to an afternoon run.

I wore short and short sleeves.  The weather was decent.  It looked like it might storm again on this trip, but I wasn't planning to go high.  I could bail when I wanted.

I didn't have a good trail map, but it looked like the trail went around the lakes.  I had found an old mining area and trailhead.  I followed the trail out.  I was above the lake slightly and it was a stunning view of the snow capped mountains.

I followed what I thought would be the trail around the lake.  I guess it was just a trail to nowhere, to take photos.  I was sort of on a beach type terrain after that.  I just kept running, but realized the trail was gone.

This was tough running and it was sandy and kind of muddy.  I didn't want to ruin any plants, but I didn't want to turn back either.  I picked my way around some little streams.  I tried to follow what I thought was a trail out, but it wasn't.

Eventually, I headed back toward the beachy area.  I could see people fishing off in the distance.  I knew they had to drive there, so I worked my way over.  Eventually, I got there and got some funny looks.

I ran back to the trailhead on the road.  I had not gone very far, so I decided to run on the road a bit and see if I could find the trail around the lake.  I went out a bit, but never had any luck with that.

I'm getting a bit used to the elevation now.  I felt okay at over 9,000 feet.  It also certainly helped that I wasn't running up a mountain at all.  This run was relatively flat.

Eventually, I made it back to the trailhead.  This was a very short run.  It was frustrating, but at least the backdrop of the mountains was still stunning.

I'd like to hike Mount Elbert tomorrow.  We will see, as it has so much snow and I think has a lot of gain to it.  I could run or hike in Maroon Bells, but I might bypass that.  I'd love to run at Hannging Lake if it isn't too crowded when I get there.

3.56 miles - 47:23 (13:19 pace) 169 feet of elevation gain