Backpacking Loop in Lost Creek Wilderness

Goose Creek, McCurdy, Lake and Hankins Pass Trails

Spring in Colorado is one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is amazing with warm days and cool nights. The past few weeks were no exception, so the itch to get on the trail easily won out this week. This trip was in the Lost Creek Wilderness. (Note: if you prefer the northern section, check out my other loop)

Like too much of Colorado, I haven’t explored Lost Creek Wilderness much. Years ago, Edwin and I would backpack in a few miles on Goose Creek Trail with his scout troop. It would be the first troop camping trip of the year and gave the younger scouts an opportunity to get introduced to backpacking. It was always a fun outing but I’d wanted to explore more of the area.

I built a few planned routes using Alltrails, then loaded the GPX files into Garmin Explore and synced them to my GPS. Unlike the Indian Creek trip, I double checked the route against a few different map sources including OpenStreetMaps. Bushwhacking wasn’t on my agenda for this trip…although a little usually happens anyway. I wasn’t sure if I’d be out three or four days so I kept a few different routes handy on my Garmin Explorer+. Lost Creek Wilderness has several loop options making planning relatively easy.

Day 1 – Goose Creek and McCurdy

All the planned routes started at the Goose Creek Trailhead. Goose Creek is a very popular trail most of the summer. There are lots of dispersed campsites all along the creek and several spots to fly fish. I’ve caught several small brook trout here but left my fly rod home for this trip.

The trail goes through pine forest following the creek most of the way. At about 4 miles, you have the option to head left to see rustic cabins. It’s a nice side track I’ve done before on a scout trip. The cabins are in a small clearing and Lost Creek disappears (sumps) in this section. Many people head to the cabins as a day hike from the trailhead. The side hike wasn’t on my agenda this time. So instead, I headed up the steep climb to the right. Climbs always make me feel old and this one was no exception.

At about 6.5 miles, Goose Creek intersects McCurdy. One of my route options was to continue up Goose Creek another 3 miles to Wigwam. The maps showed several camp options at Wigwam as well as some small ponds. I decided to head down McCurdy instead, leaving Wigwam for when I had my fly rod with me.

Another couple of miles took me to the intersection with Lost Creek. This area is filled with amazing rock formations. The trail loops through the formations and takes a track along Lost Creek. There are lots of dispersed backpacking campsites. No one was around so I picked the best one. 🙂 I was in good company with a bunny and baby birds that shared the campsite with me.

It had been a good day of moderate hiking for 9 miles. After pitching my tent and enjoying beef stroganoff Mountain House, I slipped into my bag and read a book on my Kindle. It was a restful night that was pleasantly cool but not cold. Life was good.

Day 2 – McCurdy, Lake and Hankins Pass make for a tough day

Every backpacking trip tends to have some unexpected twists and turns. Day 2 turned out to be that day.

The morning started off with a short and steep climb from camp over a small ridge to get my heart pumping. Once over the rise, the trail has you clamber down into a canyon with amazing views of Lost Creek, including an emergence and sump of Lost Creek. The creek sumps and reemerges many times, thus the name.

Slight navigation error, pretty hiking

The first challenge of the day was when I found myself at a dead end on what I thought was the trail. I’d missed the real trail crossing of Lost Creek. Instead of backtracking, I waded through Lost Creek where it emerged from the rock wall. It was deep enough to get my feet wet but no swimming with backpack required!

Once across, I hit my second challenge. The trail appeared to go straight up a embankment so I dutifully climbed up, huffing and puffing all along the way. The “trail” ended at an overlook. It was worth a picture. 🙂 A quick check of the GPS showed I’d errored and navigated north of the real trail. A bushwhack across the ridge and I was back on track. Hayden would have been proud.

This section of the trail was very scenic. There were several small ponds, most with ice still on them. At 1.6-1.7 miles from my campsite, the trail crossed a small creek and started up. It was the beginning of an ascent from 9200′ to 11,500′. The 2300′ elevation gain is a lot easier without a backpack.

Snow complicates the day

A short ways up this northwest facing ridge, a slight complication occurred…snow. The trail was covered in areas although a few other hikers had made tracks. The higher I went, the less the trail was visible although still navigable. I made some nice post holes and soaked my feet. Little did I know this wasn’t the hardest part of the day.

At 4.5 miles, the McCurdy trail heads west and the trail I was navigating becomes Brookside McCurdy. It didn’t look like anyone had used the McCurdy trail since the last snow, confirming my plan to continue on Brookside. Another .9 miles and Brookside McCurdy intersected with Lake Trail, my planned loop route.

Once on Lake Trail, I quickly ran into much more snow. Lake Trail starts at 10,800′ so the ridgeline is less than a 1000′ elevation gain. Easy enough, right? Not when I was post-holing the entire way up. The previous hiker’s trail faded in parts so I spent time searching for their tracks, verifying position by GPS, post-holing, skinning up my shins with the hard snow, and primarily, huffing and puffing upward. At several points along this section, I was seriously wondering about my sanity. Finally, I made the ridgeline and crossed over to the eastern facing side where there was only spotty snow.

Finding Day 2 camp

My goal had been to make it to Lake Park and call it a night. As I approached the “lake”, I realized it was covered with snow. It was still pretty cold at 11,000′ even at the warmest point of the day. The topo on the GPS said everything was downhill from this point making the decision to push an easy one. The decision was easy, not so much getting my legs to keep going.

Along the way I saw a Dusky Grouse. Below is a real picture of one, followed by what I captured. One is better than the other. You be the judge.

Eventually I intersected with Hankins Pass Trail and headed back towards the trailhead. A few miles on this trail and I found a great spot with plenty of water. After what appeared to be a 12+ mile day, I was glad to settle into camp dead tired. The moose I spotted just before setting up camp made my day.

Day 3 – Short and easy hike to close the loop

My trip was going to be shorter than I planned. After the previous day, however, that was fine with me. It surprised me how cold it was my last night out. The temps clearly dropped below freezing. I could tell since my boots were frozen. Putting on frozen boots is not exactly the best way to start the day.

The final segment was only a few miles. Along the way I saw a grouse and was serenaded by a wren.

The trip turned out to have a hard day 2, and was a bit short. Still, it was a rewarding and pleasant backpacking trip out in the Colorado backcountry. I think I might wait until things warm up a bit more before heading out again.

Value of a super zoom camera

Several of the pictures I took would not have been possible without the super zoom of my Panasonic FZ80. The two pictures below represent this by showing the moose without any zoom compared to a 1200mm zoomed view. Click on the images to get an enlarged lightbox view. You can barely see the moose in the first picture and the second one is a clear view of the moose bedded down.

Recommendations

Lost Creek Wilderness has lots of options. A short backpacking trip is to hike out on Goose Creek, camp along the creek, then day hike up to the cabins. This type of trip provides a few nights in the wilderness and a relatively easy day hike. Plan for a lot of company as this is a popular outing.

My loop is a good route. It would be better when the snow has fully melted and the weather is warmer to open up camping options on ridges and other high elevations. These camping alternatives would provide a more moderate day 2 creating a well-rounded 3-day trip. Extending the loop north to Wigwam Trail and circling back along Brookside would make a nice 4-day trip.

Other loop options start at Lost Park. You can include time to go up to Bison Mountain which appears to have great views of the area.

Lost Creek Wilderness Route