So, OK, yes the trail from that "K059XT" waypoint down into Twin Lakes is basically a part of the Leadville 100 trail race, and as such, I've "hiked" it twice, but alas, both times after dark and in the rain (I've paced a buddy twice in this race). Good trail, on USGS TOPO maps it's still labeled as the CDT. It's about 1.7 miles and drops 1100 vertical feet, not too steep. It turns into a road about half way, IIRC.
See attached pic, the thick blue line is the route. The town is where the blue, yellow and purple lines come together. It would definitely save a couple miles over the red line (CT, leading to C-east) followed by the yellow line road walk into town, though you could probably fairly easily hitch that road walk.
Thx..I'm trying to avoid hitches as much as possible as it's an unknown.....as others said would be easy hitch from near Leadville airport to 82/24 intersections...took me several hours ended up walking part way....rather take a more direct hike into TL than hitch back to it.....thx for heads up
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We took the Willis Gulch trail on both thruhikes. We don't use GPS and had no problem following it. We did have some confusion heading north out of town, because the road we needed to follow that led to the Trail was marked "Private Property" so we ended up following the wrong road for a while. We should have followed the Leadville 100 signs, which were fairly frequent.