Once I finally got on the trail, things went smoothly. I got a leisurely start on Saturday hiking “west” up the Colorado Trail (segment 4) from the Rolling Creek Trailhead near Wellington Lake. Technically, this was familiar terrain as I’d been here 18 years ago on a near-epic early season trail run where we encountered miles of deep sugar snow, Mike got lost, and we almost had a major epic on our hands. In the daylight, without all the snow, and going the other direction, I can’t say it looked at all familiar.

At two miles I passed into the Lost Creek Wilderness and at five miles hit my first snow—while areas farther north had seen nearly two feet, there were only a few inches here and it was easy going even in trail runners. At seven miles, I crested the pass and headed down into the Lost Creek drainage. By eleven miles I’d made it to the Lost Park Campground (closed still in the preseason). By thirteen miles I was into the huge Lost Park itself with my choice of a dozen different campsites. So I hove to in a spacious clearing aside the trail with big rocks on one side and a broad pre-spring meadow on the other. Good enough for a good day.

The beginnings of the snow North Fork Camp! Lost Park.

Unlike my March trip where I had a lot of time on my hands at camp, I was pretty occupied. By the time I’d pitched the tent, filtered water, cooked dinner and enjoyed the beer I’d packed for a little home comfort, it was getting dark and I was more than tired enough for bed.

This trip was mostly for my own mental therapy, but also to test out some new gear. I’d gotten a small test at the tail end of an unseasonable March, but this time the new tent and sleeping pad was joined by a new backpack. But it was also to see if I had the physical fortitude to put in big days on the trail still and the mental fortitude to do it by myself without any sort of company to keep me on the rails.

Lying there in the absolute silence, I noticed a steady barely-heard bass line thumping. Was there a raging party going on at a campsite a few miles away? Some weird nocturnal animal?

It was my heartbeat.

https://www.strava.com/activities/18457320297

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Day 2 featured more of the same: a peaceful repast of oatmeal and coffee, a quick packing-up of camp, and several miles of easy walking through the abandoned Lost Park. Then it was up and over a small pass where I met a hiker going the other way who warned me of an aggressive pair of moose. There were plenty of droppings and some new, huge tracks, but I saw no sign of angry ungulates. By mile six, I was getting low on water, so I stopped for lunch 1 and to refill bottles before starting the climb up Rolling Mountain, the steepest of the trip.

The climb of Rolling Montain was steep, but went smoothly enough, but the descent turned out to be the hardest part of the entire trip. This is not a well-trodden trail and it winds steeply through dense forest losing 2000′ of elevation in about two miles. Snow covered the slopes which made things slippery. There was a single set of tracks coming up which was very helpful, but there were still many large blowdown trees blocking the way every hundred feet or so. Detouring off-trail was often easier than staying on, but then finding the winding trail again proved difficult. I was glad to have my GPS for navigation, and my microspikes for traction.

About as mossy as Colorado gets No moose here Back on the wide thoroughfare that is the CT Lost Park by morning light

Eventually, I dropped below treeline and the slope moderated. There were still blowdowns left and right, but at least the trail was easy to follow. Eventually I even got to the part where trail crews had started cutting the trees out of the way. Then it was just a matter of slogging down five miles of hot and sunny trail over rolling hills gratefully to the car.

https://www.strava.com/activities/18457328943

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The planned route. The house-sized boulders sounds fun.

As backpacking trips go, this one was far more “real” than my March stunt at Lost Lake. I put in real miles with real elevation gain (14 miles, 2600′; 13 miles, 1900′). I explored a new-to-me wilderness and spent a really gorgeous night happily all by my lonesome out there. All told, I ran across five other people in 26 hours (one trail runner, four backpackers), zero moose, and umpty-brazillion downed trees. The new pack is mostly great (I’m very picky about backpacks) and all the gear worked quite well. Total pack weight was 25 pounds including food and water as well as some heavier items I wouldn’t bring later in the season (winter sleeping bag, microspikes, extra layers).

If I’m going to make my ambitious 20 miles with 3-5000′ of gain per day goal in July, I’m going to need to up my fitness and cut my pack weight, but this is a good start. Next up will be another Lost Creek trip (probably the originally-planned two-nighter farther south in the wilderness). We’ll see what happens!