Day 2 Backpacking | This loop keeps getting better and better...
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- This video describes Day 2 of my 3-day backpacking adventure in the Lost Creek Wilderness. We are doing a 30-mile loop starting at the Lost Park Campground. We will be tackling this loop counterclockwise and starting on the Brookside McCurdy trail.
On this trip, I have my son, Nate, who is on his first backpacking trip of the year. I also have Sherpa with me for her first backpacking trip of the year. I also have a good friend of mine, Charles, who likes to join me for at least one of my backpacking trips each year.
We are hiking this trip in the middle of June. It is one of the few wilderness areas with big views and decent elevation gain (up to 11,800 ft.) where there is no snow on the trail. There were patches off snow here and there once we got on top of McCurdy Mountain but nothing requiring micro-spikes. For me, it is an ideal area for a backpacking trip in Colorado during the month of the June. The scenery is beautiful, and the hike is challenging.
Day 2 started off nice and easy. It was straight down over the next 3 miles until you hit Lost Creek. It was well graded with switchbacks and a good warm-up for the day. This is where is starts to get interesting...
Now, I never look at the hiking elevation too closely, I like for it to kind of hit me when I'm on the trail. I had a general idea but nothing ever exact. Well, I think I was comparing Day 1's climb to today's based on the elevation chart view and it seemed like not much of anything. This is when I need to pay a bit more attention to the elevation chart. So, there were several climbs, nothing of significant length but decent elevation gain (300-400 ft) over half a mile. Then to immediately lose all the elevation gain became physically and mentally exhausting. Then at our lunch break I realized that we had one big push before we got to camp. It covered about a mile with 1k ft elevation gain, so it was a 5 star huffer, as my wife would like to say. Once we got past that point, it was all downhill to our camp alongside this beautiful meadow and eventually making our way into the forest.
We also experienced some interesting stream crossings. With it being June, Colorado is still experiencing snow melt and the creeks and streams are moving swiftly. For most of the crossings, we were fine with wood logs for a bridge. But there was one crossing where the water would have been above our waist. Other hikers told us about this crossing and said there is an easier place to cross upstream where the water level is around your calf/knee. For me, I wouldn't have mind walking in waist deep water, although the water was moving pretty good. My biggest fear was Sherpa, with the water being that high and moving that fast, I think she would have been swept away by the current because we had a good 10-20 yards to cover, it wasn't a narrow creek. So, we looked upstream and found a better place to cross and Sherpa did just fine. But now we had to find the trail on the other side which required some bouldering. There was a section where Sherpa needed to climb about 10 ft. up these rocks with a narrow trench on the side. Once I took her backpack off, she easily jumped up on top of those rocks. From there, the rest of the trail was easy sailing, except for those elevation gains and losses.
Today was a total surprise me, in a good way. I thought day 1 was going to be the best day because of all the big views on Bison Peak. And those views were amazing and hard to beat. But today's hike was more fun. I like the adventure of stream crossings, rock scrambling, looking at cool rock formations and big views. It was definitely tough, but this was the most fun day on the trail. Again, type 2 fun, but I loved it.
Once we got to camp, Charles and I were pretty tired, but Nate still wanted to go fishing. Well, we were still about a mile from the beaver ponds, so Charles and I decided to stay back and camp, not wanting to hike an additional two miles. But Nate was ready to go! So, he took my Tenkara rod and was able to snag several fish, all small, but still fun he said.
This has definitely been a great loop so far and looking forward to what Day 3 will deliver.
Thanks for watching!
#backpacker #backpacking #hiking #hikecolorado #hammock #hammockcamping #hammocklife #hammocking
looks awesome! i have been slowly getting into longer backpacking trips and this looks like it would be perfect! i live in denver and love camping out in the lost creek wilderness area so its familiar to me, i usually just stay close to the road.
is there a name or easy to find map of this loop you did?
Thanks! It is a beautiful area. Challenging but not too difficult if you are trying out longer backpacking trips. Many different types of loops and out-and-backs that you can hike in the Lost Creek Wilderness.
@@crimsonblaze_backpacker for that area, is it difficult to find suitable spots for hammock camping?
@@mtnbound2764 this trips was the second backpacking loop that i've done in that area, and i've never had issues with finding campsites for hammock camping. there are definitely spots that you have to be mindful of like bison peak and mcCurdy mountain but for most of that area you are below tree line and there shouldn't be any issues.
@@crimsonblaze_backpacker good to know, thanks!