When I woke up this morning it was still raining. I tried to pack up as much as possible and waited for a break in the rain to pack up my tent. I even used my InReach to check the weather and saw there wasn’t really going to be a good time for a few hours.
Eventually the rain slowed down and I decided to start hiking. I needed to get to town and figure out where to dry my stuff. I looked at cabins and the lodge in town, but nothing was available and we didn’t really want to spend the night.
On the walk in I passed by the abandoned Interlaken Resort. It’s been preserved by the forest service and there’s a few of the old buildings there with signs about the history of the resort.
In the 70s, the Bureau of Reclamation wanted to dam the lakes and raise the water level. The forest service had to move the buildings higher up the banks of the lake to preserve them.
The best preserved house was the personal residence of the owner of the resort. It was open for people to go in.
I wish I would have known about this house last night. It would have saved me a night in the rain.
To get to town I needed to walk all the way around both lakes. It’s possible to cut the trail off by fording a river, but that’s cheating. I also heard from some other hikers that the ford was nearly impossible because of all the rain last night.
So I hiked all the way around to the far end, passing dozens of car campers, backpackers, and the dam. I was able to enjoy some cell service most of the morning and I could call my dad for Father’s Day. I eventually made it to the road where the trail connected and got a ride the mile or so into town.
This town is tiny. There’s some houses, a general store, a restaurant, and a couple food trucks. That’s it. When some rain came through our only option for shelter was an old building with a small awning around it.
It was here we met the thru hiking family. They have FIVE kids with them. The smallest one, an infant, needs to be carried and has the trail name “Dead Weight.”
Even with all the rain, the kids seemed excited to be out there. They left town long before we did and I’m sure we’ll catch up to them.
After hanging out under the awning for a bit the sun actually came out. Everyone grabbed all their gear and laid it out to dry. It was so lucky that we had that sun because the weather forecast didn’t call for it.
We decided we would go get dinner before leaving. There was another storm coming through and we wanted to wait it out. Unfortunately the restaurant was all booked up for Father’s Day.
As we were leaving the restaurant a man with his dogs overheard us saying we needed to find some shelter. He happened to own the old dance hall in town and said we could rid out the storm in there.
As soon as we got inside it started raining. The building is currently being renovated, but the electricity, water, TV, and Internet all worked. We ended up staying pretty late and the guy said we could spend the night.
There’s 8 of us in here and we spent the evening watching some movies on the TV. Tomorrow we will climb Mt. Elbert, the tallest mountain in Colorado.