Friday:

Wisely or not, I decided to front-load the majority of the climbing of the trip to the first day when daylight was limited and my pack was at its heaviest (admittedly, a scanty 22 pounds fully loaded including 3.1 pounds of food and two liters of water). Not super-ultra-light, but still a good deal lighter than I ever managed for an equivalent trip back in the day.

I left the surprisingly-crowded Goose Creek Trailhead at 5pm on Friday and nearly immediately started the steady climb up toward Hankins Pass. It was lush and green and the world was full of dwarf irises and chirping birds. Early evening is usually the time I’m finishing big days, not starting them, but it was a nice change. The six mile, 2800’ climb to Lake Park was relentless in the evening light, but the weather was cool and the trails empty. I gratefully crested the ridge into Lake Park at 8pm and looked for water and a place to camp.

Great scenery straight out of the trailhead Evening light as I climb above Hankins Pass Lake Park and its lack of lakes

Now, the first thing you might expect to find at “Lake Park” would be a lake. Or even a small pond. There were camping spots aplenty and the view the of surrounding rocky knobs was superb in the rapid twilight, but the best water they could manage was an extended marsh with a few inches-deep pools of mucky moosewater. After a twilight dinner, I spent entirely too long looking for the inflow stream, present on the map, but not in real life.

Banger of a sunset though

https://www.strava.com/activities/18830025663

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Saturday:

Worried about water and my usual first-night jitters, I slept poorly before getting up before dawn to see if I could find a water source. After some ill-advised thrashing around in the woods, I resorted to filtering what nasty water I could from the moose wallow. Brown and murky but, in principle, safe to drink. Better gut distress later than dehydration now and I was getting alarmingly cotton-mouthed. Three miles farther on steep climb-and-descent terrain, riddled with stunning viewpoints, I found Hay Creek which, to my joy, featured a small and crystal-clear stream. I greedily filled all the bottles and felt a lot better about my prospects.

This tree has Seen Some Things McCurdy Park is where the Lost Creek gets lost. The heart of the LCW!

The logical second part of the trip involved a long traverse across the plateau from which McCurdy and Bison Mountains rise. These are the highest points in the entire range at a touch over 12,000’ (so not notably tall by Colorado standards). The whole area was dotted by more crags, towers, and weird snowman formations of the big-crystal soft granite of the Pikes Peak Batholith. The scenery was good and the prospects should a thunderstorm rolled through were poor. I hustled north on the rolling terrain encountering a few backpackers headed south.

Traversing across the McCurdy/Bison plateau. Cool rocks perched at the edge of the steep descent.

By noon, I reached the north side of the plateau and started the steep descent passing dozens of people on the way up. Where were all these folks a month ago when I was last in the LCW? Had they also been asleep for two decades in this state before discovering the wonders of this local wilderness, or was this only my own negligence?

Miles passed at speed in a put-your-head-down-and-go mode. I averaged better than 3 mph on the long downhill through Ute Park before reaching the familiar and easy terrain of Lost Park. I was surprised how little had changed since my last visit four weeks previous; things were a bit greener and the last patches of snow were gone, but generally it looked about the same.

I was definitely feeling the miles and the vertical now, but I still had some left in the tank along with plenty of daylight and miles to go. No reason to stop! With no specific destination in mind, but the realization that any mile I didn’t hike today, I’d have to do tomorrow, I pushed on with the idea of ticking over to at least 20 miles. By the eastern end of Lost Park, the weather was getting ominous and water was getting low. I loaded up on water at the last opportunity before climbing the brief Wigwam Pass. I could have pushed farther into the lovely Wigwam Park, but I’d heard that “all the campsites in there are already taken”. I don’t take much room nor require any sort of official campsite, but the summit of the pass featured some nice clear ground and I had packed plenty of water. Why not? I stopped at 5:30 (20.5 miles) and spent a leisurely time setting up camp and cooking a more involved dinner than usual. Tired from a big day on top of poor sleep, I was unconscious before it was even fully dark.

Camp goodness featuring good bourbon, taco mac-and-cheese, and zero company.

https://www.strava.com/activities/18830028023

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Sunday:

After a four-moose breakfast, I loaded the pack and was out and down the trail through the lovely Wigwam Park in early light. Indeed, many of the logical campsites were full of parties in various stages of morning ablutions. I passed the turnoff for the Rolling Creek Trail into the lower part of the park, crossed a beaver dam and started a gentle climb through towering pines along a babbling creek. This was the only significant elevation gain of the day and it went like a charm. For those taking notes, this was perhaps the prettiest part of the entire loop and there were numerous camping opportunities along the way.

Moose visitors for breakfast Crossing the creek in Wigwam Park Random towers in Wigwam Park reminding me of the West Elks.

Things changed as I rolled over a broad, rock-towered area into the Goose Cree drainage. Backpackers I’d seen yesterday heading over McCurdy Mountain and into the McCurdy Park trail (which bisects my bigger, outside loop) started appearing huffing and puffing north up the hill. And it was steep! Despite my lightened pack, I was glad to be heading mostly downhill toward my waiting car.

Elevation dropped as temperatures rose. This is clearly the more visited part of the wilderness with day hikers and less ambitious backpacking groups. The trail became almost a gravel road in places and wound through open stands of pines and more of the big Pikes Peak Batholith granite spires and knobs, like Dr. Seuss took up landscape design.

Little patches of beauty amidst the big patches of beauty The Goose Creek valley is the center of the big rocky jumble. Lovely Goose Creek

The last mile dropped low enough that I spent a lovely time hiking aside the babbling Goose Creek. Finally, I closed the loop and trudged up the final quarter mile (uphill!) that I’d descended on Friday evening 38 miles and seemingly many days ago.

https://www.strava.com/activities/18830025107

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So, this was one part mental health break (successful!), one part training hike (boo yah!), and one part science experiment and gear checkout. Temperatures got to about freezing both nights and I was quite comfortable in my summer-level quilt-and-coat combo. As for consumables, I burned only 36 grams of fuel over two days, one of which featured a fairly involved bit of dinner cooking. 20 g/day is probably a good estimate for fuel use. I started the trip with 3.1 pounds of food and finished with about 1 pound (some of which was empty wrappers and other trash, but a good bit of it was food). I don’t really do trail lunches, but do a bunch of extended snack breaks instead. I tend to bring along a big variety of these depending what I’m in the mood for, but it ends up being heavy. Gotta work on that.

All in all, a good episode and a good reminder that the LCW is amazing!