My wife and I planned to backpack from August 12-16 in the Lost Creek Wilderness, doing a clockwise loop starting at the Goose Creek Trail Head, west along the Hankins Pass Trail to the Lake Park Trail, north up to the McCurdy Trail, and then to the Goose Creek Trail, and back south to the trail head. Five days is a leisurely pace for that loop - I'm sure Andrew Skurka could do it in one day - but we weren't out to set any records, and my wife sometimes has knee problems, and, as sea-level babies, we knew the altitude would get to us. As it happens, she did better than I did.
I made two mistakes that kept us from doing the loop, but we had fun anyway. Those with more experience, especially with this part of CO, will probably have a good chuckle at some of this, but here goes. Comments are welcome!
The first mistake was getting a very late start on Wednesday; long story, but it was unavoidable. In retrospect, I probably should have delayed the start until Thursday, but I didn't know what was in store.
The happy couple begin the journey!
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Perhaps this sign should read, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."
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The late start had one good aspect, in that it made us cautious. I learned quickly that "off trail" in the LCW usually means immediate and serious bushwhacking. We stopped after only two miles at the first reasonable hanging spot we found. We didn't want to stop that soon, but we weren't sure what choices we would have ahead, and we prefer to set up before the sun sets. As we learned, if we had continued, it would have been well after dark before another spot would have been found.
The first campsite
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The bad aspect of the late start was that it meant that we would reach the switchbacks on the Lake Park Trail during the hottest time of the afternoon.
Along the Hankins Pass Trail:
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You need more experience than I have to find a place to hang here:
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One of the dozen or so water crossings on the Hankins Pass Trail:
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The site of the second mistake. I had read somewhere that it was better to go north on the Lake Park Trail to join the McCurdy Trail further up, rather than continue west to where the Hankins Trail meets the McCurdy.
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I guess this is OK, but not if you expect Lake Park to have a lake; what it has is a swamp. (Actually, it's called "Lost Lake", which should have been a clue to me.OK, go head and laugh, but the next day we met another backpacker, originally from CO, who had expected to find water there as well.)
Along the Lake Park Trail:
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The swamp water was was a dark red, and remained so even after filtering. I know that the tannin in leaves will turn standing water brown - which is OK - but red, well... My wife would not go near it, and I was afraid that I was going to have to give her the little good water I had left, and drink the red stuff the next morning. Fortunately, nature would provide.
The second campsite - at 11,000 feet, according to GaiaGPS (a really awesome app I'm just learning how to use):
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(Gosh, my bald spot is getting huge!)
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It had been raining each afternoon, and that day I was able to trap a liter of water from the tarp! The Cloudburst in this tandem-hang configuration has trapped water in my backyard testing, and I have been trying to figure out how to stop it. I was oblivious to what was happening, but my wife noticed that water was building up between the tarp ridge line and the ridge line of one of the hammocks. (Later, I think she figured out how to keep water from pooling on the tarp, but, fortunately, I had not given her that problem, yet.
The next morning we had to make a decision: continue north to the McCurdy Trail, where the map said there was water, or go back down to the Hankins Pass Trail, where we *knew* there was water. Discretion being the better part of valor, we went south.
Back along the Lake Park Trail:
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We had decided that when we got back to the Hankins Pass Trail we would continue west until we reached the McCurdy Trail, and then go north. We stopped as soon as we found water, which happened to be at a great campsite, for the third night:
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Looking up while on the McCurdy Trail:
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The jog up and back down the Lake Park Trail meant that we didn't have time at that point to continue north on McCurdy to finish the loop. So we hiked back to the Hankins Pass Trail, and then went east back towards the trial head.
The fourth night's site:
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This was the same site as the first night. We had decided to make Sunday a short day rather than cut the trip short by making Saturday a very long day (including the drive back to where we were staying).
On the hike back to the Goose Creek Trail Head:
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OK, I will want to do this right next summer, but, still, I think, not so bad for our first extended backpack in CO.
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