Backpacking Lost Creek Wilderness

We have now officially lived in Colorado for a year. To celebrate this milestone, we decided to add another hobby to our adventure repertoire: Backpacking. This has appealed to me for a very long time, but the cost of gear always seemed too high as a grad student, who had other expensive hobbies (triathlon). Now that I have my first 'real' job, I rewarded myself with a trip to REI and the GoLite store. Gear list here!

I planned our first foray into the backcountry for Memorial Day weekend. Colorado has had a very snowy winter, and the most recent snowstorm was only 2 weeks ago, so most of the high country is still blanketed in snow. I researched some closer trails and found an area called the Lost Creek Wilderness that sits at a lower elevation and is closer to the Denver area, so it tends to have an earlier snowmelt than anywhere else.

As the weekend approached, the weather in the Denver area has been some of the most volatile I have seen. Nearly everyday brought with it an epic hail storm, tornado warnings and/or flash flooding. The weekend forecast showed the storm system moving out, but still potential for rain/hail/thunder. My stubbornness would not relent, and I forged ahead with our backpacking plans.

After work on Friday afternoon, we hopped in the Element Camper and drove to the town of Bailey, CO where we had a delicious burger + rueben dinner before falling asleep in the Element to the distant sounds of thunder. By morning the rain was gone. Since our bags were already packed we hit the trail by 7:30am and our adventure began!

Cody impatiently waits for her slow humans

Day 1: Payne Gulch/Brookside Trail head -- Payne Gulch Trail -- Colorado Trail -- Brookside McCurdy Trail. Distance: 17.7 miles. Time: 6:27

Payne Gulch Brookside Trailhead

The first few miles involved LOTS of adjustments to our newly acquired 18 pound weight difference.  The Payne Gulch trail starts with the Brookside McCurdy trail. We opted to take the Payne Gulch trail because Brookside McCurdy was probably going to still be covered in snow since it goes to an altitude of 11,500 feet. The Payne Gulch trail gradually rose from an altitude of 8,200 feet to 9,880 feet in the first 5 miles. Whenever the trail flattened out or went downhill, we attempted to run with our backpacks on. We looked ridiculous. But it was a blast to see what we could handle! Going downhill and running the flats was actually pretty manageable, but the second we hit an incline, the added weight seemed to quadruple.

Ryan adjusting his balance with new weight on his back. Don't fall in!

The Payne Gulch trail was 9.6 miles with 2,700 feet of elevation gain and 1,446 feet of elevation loss before it connected with the Colorado trail. This was a very runnable trail, and we even saw two other runners out there. Hiking through the Aspens and meadows of Colorado in the spring with perfect weather (for now) was exactly what I envisioned for our trip.

Colorado Meadows- and Ryan with some oven mitts ;) 

Aspens in the spring

Cody always insists on climbing on rocks to enjoy the view!

Connecting to the Colorado Trail was exciting. The prospect of hiking the entire length of this trail seems daunting, so even hiking a small chunk just felt cool.

The Colorado Trail seemed like a wide, open road compared to the narrow single track of Payne Gulch. The segment of the CT from Payne Gulch to the intersection with Brookside McCurdy was 5.6 miles, with an elevation gain of 1,400 feet and a loss of 598 feet.

The Colorado Trail/Road

CT Dog

After hiking the CT for a mile we stopped to use our new water filters. Now we were 'real' backpackers- filtering water from a stream!

Reorganizing the backpack

She just got fed tuna

After climbing to 10,000 feet on the CT we encountered snow, but it there wasn't much. We could still find the trail and it only came up to our ankles.

Our next juncture was with the Brookside McCurdy trail, which took us through a gorgeous meadow. We expected to see frolicking wildlife, but it was just shrubbery.

After hiking a few miles down this trail, the skies were darkening, so we decided that 17.7 miles was enough for the day and began setting up camp before the rain started. I just happened to wander off trail at no particular point, and stumbled upon a perfectly set up campsite, complete with fire pit- how random! Our first camping set up in the backcountry was a success. Our new GoLite Imogen UL3 was a breeze to set up.

We cooked dinner and finished eating by 4:00 pm. Ha! Lucky we did, because the thunder rolled in. Usually storms in CO don't last very long, but after an hour of non-stop thunder, we decided to turn the thunderclaps into a drinking game- 1 shot per thunder:

We ran out of alcohol before it stopped thundering. Cody was not very happy:

Guys, make the thunder stop, please!

We finally managed to fall asleep despite the continuous rain. When we woke up, I thought the tent would be flooded since it just never stopped raining all night. Turns out, the drops I was hearing on the rain-fly weren't rain drops anymore- it snowed!

Day 2: Wigwam Trail -- Rolling Creek Trail -- Colorado Trail -- Payne Gulch. Total distance: 18.6 miles

Turns out it's easier to stay dry when it snows vs. rain

Ryan shakes his oven mitt at the weather!

Packing up a damp campsite isn't very fun, but we managed. In order to dry the rain fly before the next rain rolled in, I needed to get creative:

The next segment of trail was the gorgeously flat Wigwam trail that took us in and out of forests along a gorgeous meadow. The sun made brief appearances along the way.

There is a tiny bit of blue sky in there!

You may be sick of seeing this blue backpack. Sorry- this was my view the entire trip.

Cody swam in every stream/lake/puddle

As the sky darkened, we enjoyed a hot lunch of lentils and instant potatoes

After lunch, the next segment was Rolling Creek. Turns out to be an aptly named trail. Except for the Rolling part. More like, StraightUpHill. The Creek part just meant that the actual trail is just a creek that you're supposed to walk in and navigate through. Fun! As we began this trail, we climbed over 1,000 feet in the first mile. During that mile, it also began thundering. Additionally, as we reached the top, it began snowing. While thundering. Thundersnowing. Awesome. Luckily, our ponchos saved us from getting too wet or too cold.

Our true feelings about the weather. Ryan's oven mitts don't have a middle finger.

Once over the top, we had to navigate a practically non-existent trail that was covered in snow and ice. This was the low point of the trip because we are notoriously terrible at route finding. Somehow (probably because we just followed Cody) we managed to make our way without ever going too far off trail. By the time we reached 8,500 feet again, the storm had let up. It actually never rained on us- just snow! The views from this trail were pretty incredible, once the storm cleared:

At the end of this segment, we hit the Colorado Trail again. We decided to hike another 2 miles to a spot we had already been to on the Payne Gulch trail, because we knew the camping spot would be worth it. Total mileage for the day: 18.6 miles.

It was totally worth it:

Sunday night was perfect. Idyllic campsite on top of a mountain, perfect weather and a wonderful night's sleep. We woke up to the gorgeous mountain sun.

Day 3: Payne Gulch -- Car! Total distance: 8 miles.

Our last day of hiking was 'only' 8 miles back on Payne Gulch trail to the car. Of course the weather was perfect for this short hike!

On our whole trip, this was the only wildlife we encountered:

And here was one of our final views as we left the backcountry and entered back into civilization:

Our first backpacking adventure was a success- despite the weather. Since I obsessively researched our gear list we had all of the right gear for the ever changing Colorado weather, which meant we stayed warm and dry. Our total mileage was 44 miles over 3 days/2 nights. Although Ryan and I both had fun, Cody loved this adventure 10,000 times more than we did. She got to 'work' with her pack for 7 hours a day, then sleep outside, curled up with her humans. Nothing in the world makes her feel more important. She is the ultimate adventure dog.

Happy adventure dog!

I love her pack!

On the lookout!

And at the end, she was finally exhausted: