Lost Creek Wilderness Backpacking – June 2021

We set out for a quick overnight backpacking trip in the Lost Creek Wilderness from the Rolling Creek Trailhead just outside of Bailey. We were looking for a pretty easy trail for our first backpacking trip since Andrea’s knee surgery and my injured achilles/sciatic nerve. And we found it!

After a quick 1.5hr drive after ending our Friday workday, we made it to the trailhead. It was pretty warm even at this altitude (8350′), in the mid-upper 70s. Warm for backpacking in the mountains at least!

*Heading west/south on the Colorado Trail just past the trailhead*

*These aspens were amazing! Definitely the biggest I’ve ever seen.*

*The trail turned into an old 4×4 track from before this was wilderness*

*Our water source, an unnamed creek feeding into Craig Creek – 4.5mi*

*Must have been quite the tumble from the old road before this was wilderness*

We hiked in around 4.5 miles, pretty quick hike but a good test for our semi-healed legs. We set up camp right next to a strongly flowing unnamed creek – delicious water! The site we picked was just past the creek, and was massive! You could probably fit a few groups of 20 here. But we had it all to ourselves.

*New tent! Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL3 Platinum*

*You can see how tired Mozzie is. She’s really starting to show her age now – coming up on 7.5 yrs now*

It was a really quiet night – we typically sleep next to a stream or something to get a bit of white noise – not to mention a bit warm at night. But nevertheless, we slept OK and hit the trail early in the morning heading out. A success!

*Our bear hang in the morning, no bears!*

-Kyle