Date: July 19 and 20, 2019
Location: Lost Creek Wilderness
Distance: 26 miles
Elevation Change: 6000 feet
Group: Mike and Mat
With the record snowfall in Colorado this year, I've already done a couple trips in the Lost Creek Wilderness, which tends to be less snowy than other areas. When my brother decided to come out to Colorado for a backpacking trip we opted to do a loop in this area. Accessed via the Goose Creek trailhead, we went over Hankins Pass, through Lake Park, down along the McCurdy Park Trail, and then tied back in to the Goose Creek Trail.
We were on the trail and hiking at about 7:30 AM on Friday. Denver was experiencing highs close to 100 degrees, so it was nice to experience some cooler temperatures in the mountains.
Mosquitoes were pretty bad on this trip. Even at 11,000 feet without any water nearby we were getting swarmed by them as well as a variety of other flying insects.
Lake Park is a cool area with some great rock formations that are prevalent in the Lost Creek Wilderness. We had some fun climbing around/exploring some of the formations.
The Man from the Midwest
Some steep switchbacks took us down from the summit of Lake Park to the McCurdy trail.
Lost Creek disappearing into a narrow canyon/slot.
The evening was very warm (didn't even get under a sleeping bag for a few hours after going to bed). Mike tried out an MSR solo tent (the Hubba) and Mat used a Mountain Laurel Designs Grace solo tarp. We were back on the trail before 6 AM and enjoyed hiking as the sun was coming up.
We had 10 miles in before 10 AM while still having a minute or two to enjoy the wildflowers along the way.
