Day 17 to Tunnel Lake

We woke to a raucous sky: bright sun and cirrus clouds to the east, gray cumulus and rainbows to the west. I'd never seen anything quite like it. The mountains here were also different. We had transitioned from the steep, primarily volcanic peaks of the San Juans to the massive granite mountains of central Colorado. They were higher and drier. Instead of staying right on the geographic divide, our route tended to climb up then drop down as it struggled to push its way north through the Sawatch range.

This morning we dropped by gorgeous Bald Lake and down to dirt road along the north fork of the Arkansas River. Climbing over Chalk Creek Pass we encountered a large group of backpackers who'd been at a cabin. When we passed the dilapidated structures I thought, Who would want to sleep in there? A quarter of a mile later we passed the new cabin, more like a backcountry lodge, which would make a great destination especially in the winter. At Hancock Lake Cassi and Beckham took a bath. I was too chicken (or perhaps wise as the water was 40 degrees max) to get in over my ankles.

Coming down from Chalk Creek Pass we encountered trail magic that turned a little sour. A local trail angel had put out a cooler of refreshments for hikers. It was empty but to lighten our loads we opened Beckham's pack, got out our trash and placed it in the container. Negligently, we forgot to zip up Beckham's pack. A mile later just as a thunderstorm hit we realized our mistake and that his pack was now missing his bowl and half his food. Cursing, I backtracked through the down pour, found his bowl but no food. Fortunately Cassi scanning the bushes managed to recover it. Definitely a waste of psychic and physical energy. We vowed to hence forth always keep packs zipped.

At Hancock we encountered more history. This is where the Denver,Southpark&Pacific was trying to win the railroad race to Gunnison by tunneling under the divide. They lost to the Denver&RioGrande who went over Marshal Pass. In its 20 years of operation the Alpine Tunnel was closed half the time due to blizzards, rock and snow avalanches and flooding in the tunnel. We hiked the old railroad path on perfect grade surrounded by beautiful wild flowers. The tunnel itself had collapsed on this side so we switched back up above it and regained the divide. We found a nice flat spot protected by krummholz above Tunnel Lake to pitch camp.