The photos and description below are from a year ago when Mat did a quick solo hike of the Outpost trail. Round trip was about 20 miles (though we may just do more like 15), which took about 6 or 7 hours of hiking (good indication it wasn't that steep). The drive to the trailhead took just under two hours. The scenery along the drive makes you a bit nervous at first - some of this area burned in a forest fire years ago and is in the long process of coming back. That said, we only hike through about 1/4 mile of trail that was in the burn area. It was chilly in the morning (started hiking around 7AM), but I took off my fleece by about 1.5 miles in and was generally pretty warm to hot in just a T-shirt and a pair of hiking pants after that. I was very happy to have a hat, my sunglasses and sunscreen.
After a short hike downhill from the trailhead, we cross a log bridge over a small creek.
We follow the Goose Creek Trail No. 612 until we are around 7 miles in.
The first mile or so of the trail is easy-peasy. It is pretty flat and follows Goose Creek. We pass by several campsites where Boy Scouts (who are not as cool or as well-prepared as Outpost girls) tend to stop and camp. We are out for adventure, not sissy one-mile hikes!
There are lots of cool rock formations that peek out from the trees as we start to climb. The trail (see below) is usually very nice and wide.
About 1.5 miles in we start to climb (see photo below). It isn't very bad. The 8-mile prep hike we will all do will help us easily shrug it off. We climb with varying degrees of steepness until around 3 miles in, where it starts to level off for a bit. Just past 4.2 miles, we climb a really steep portion that tries to intimidate you, but it is short and quickly conquered.
It did rain on me at the end of the hike, so bring those rain jackets!
Surprisingly, I think I found several options where we could put all tents we will have on Outpost. My favorite for us was around 5 or 6 miles in. That is where we will likely camp the first day. At 7 miles in, our route will leave the Goose Creek Trail and follow the McCurdy Park Trail No. 628.
We drop down some switchbacks, which are a bit of a slog coming back up (though I had already hiked 12 or 13 miles by the time I came back to them, so maybe they won't be so bad).
After the switchbacks (going down) we come to Refrigerator Gulch. It is a nice, open area with aspen trees.
A mile or two past Refrigerator Gulch is where the really cool rocks are. The trail comes down to a spot where it looks like the river is coming out of a cave. It is actually a narrow gorge with house-sized boulders that have fallen into it in places and made a roof over the river.
Yes - the water is really that reddish brown - bring those filters!
I climbed around on the rocks for a bit and then popped a couple ibuprofen and turned around to hike back out. This is a fantastic area and a wonderful trail. We are excited to go on this Outpost adventure with you all!
We won't dangle our legs over the edge or take photos that look straight down into the gorge like this one.
