| Lost Creek Wilderness May 2002 |
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| South Park | |||||||||
| This was a late spring/early summer hike in one of Andrew's favorite places, the Lost Creek Wilderness of Colorado. We went to the west side out of South Park; someday I want to go back and go to the east side which Andrew loves because of its interesting rock formations and caves. We started out hiking on the Long Gulch Trail that headed into the Kenosha Mountains, but we apparently lost the official trail early on and instead followed a user trail up the creek. The creek drainage was completely iced over and it was challenging trying to avoid the icy spots! We made our way up to a high glacial bowl near timberline. We hunted for a flat space to pitch the tent (quite a challenge, nothing was flat!) and finally found a spot underneath a huge spruce tree. We hiked up to the ridgeline at sunset and were greeted there by vast alpine meadows and rocks colorful with lichen. It began to snow so we headed back to camp and we snuggled in our bags for the cold night. The next day we cut through dense forest back to the trail and followed its switchbacks back to the trailhead. It began to snow on the way back and I got hit by a falling tree! Well, okay, it was a small aspen, but it hit me on my head and I got a small cut near my eye. It was my first injury on the trail! |
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| Map of this area More about the Kenosha Mountains Back to Backpacking Back to Tarol's Homepage |
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