When: June 8, 9, and 10, 2020. We will leave Arvada early on the 8th and will go to girl's camp after we hike out on the 10th.
Where: Lost Creek Wilderness Area (assuming the snow cooperates). We will access this via the Goose Creek Trailhead. Liz and Mat will hike this route the week before Outpost to check out snow conditions. If snow is bad (usually not in this area), we will give details on an alternate route.
Distance: The overall mileage will probably be around 15 (most likely) to 20 (if we are all feeling up for it). The first day will be the hardest. We will hike about 6 miles to the place we will camp. The 2nd day we will do some hiking, but will leave most of our gear at camp, which will make the packs nice and light. Usually, girls just share a pack (food, water) and take turns carrying it. The final day we will hike out (mostly down hill).
Elevation Gain: We will start at about 8200 feet, climb to 9500 feet and then descend back to around 8900 feet where we will camp. There will be some up and down between that though.
Route: This link will let you access the map of the route. You can right click on the map to get weather forecasts and can click on the route to see the elevation profile. The route shown shows the total trail we will be on. We won't be camping at the end of it, though. We will hike as far as we want on the 2nd day.
What is it like? This is a great area with lots of really cool rock formations. The route will all be below 9500 feet. Mat and a buddy did a 26-mile loop that went past this same area a couple years ago. You can see photos of the area using this link. Please note we won't go past (or even attempt to cross) the river. So, the photos before the one with the guy crossing a river on a log are most applicable. Mat did another hike with his brother last year in this same area and photos of that adventure can be accessed here.
Friendly Mountain Goat at Mt. Harvard