Part 1 of my journey across the state began in the Lost Creek Wilderness at the Lizard Head Trailhead and ended with a town day in Breckenridge. The 86 mile trek took me about four and a half days of hiking and featured a variety of unique terrain, from the beautiful rocks of the southern Lost Creek Wilderness, to the old aspen groves of Kenosha and high mountain views of Georgia Pass. This segment had some big variety but felt like a tough warm up: it definitely took me about 3 days to get my trail legs going and to find my hiking rhythm. Once I got onto the Colorado Trail, the experience began to get a lot more social (and fun!) overall. Most of the hikers on the Lost Creek Loops wouldn’t pay much attention to me, or outright avoid me (and eye contact) at all costs. I didn’t think I looked that much like a hobo yet, but perhaps I was mistaken… Along the way, I managed to keep a detailed journal, but for this post I’ll keep each day brief with a few pictures and comments on the day’s conditions, major trail events, and my ongoing mental state.
Day 1 (7/1/23): 18 Miles
The southern Lost Creek Wilderness is fantastic. I’m really happy I chose this as a starting location: the rock formations were truly unbelievable. From a climbing perspective, there is so much beautiful untouched rock out here in the wilderness, it’s just begging to be discovered! Hiking the first 5 miles with my brother Chris and partner Mags was great too, but saying goodbye is always hard. Taking time off from seeing your partner everyday can be jarring. By 12:30PM I was on my own and crushed another 8 miles to the Goose Creek Mining Cabins. Cool historic buildings with old juju. Finding camp at the end of the day was a hassle with the number of weekend warriors out. I hiked for an additional 4 miles trying to find a decent camp that wasn’t swarmed, but ended up settling on an okay spot near some water away from other campers so I could have a quiet night. Feeling: excited for what’s to come!
Day 2 (7/2/23): 17.5 Miles
Couldn’t deal with my hammock last night so after a few wasted hours of tossing and turning, I decided to just set up my ground tarp and cowboy camp and finally slept like a baby! The first half of the day was a brutal 3000′ ascent over the next 10 miles in the heat. I still didn’t have my trail legs at this point so this weirdly felt like one of the hardest climbs of the trip in hindsight. I was struggling hard up this one, but it all paid off when I hit Bison Pass: an otherworldly flat meadow at the top of the Lost Creek Wilderness. Unbelievable Martian-looking rocks and stellar views of the Continental Divide. Pretty neat to see what I was about to be hiking in a week or so. I descended the McCurdy Park Trail and finally met up with the Colorado Trail near the North Fork of Lost Creek. I set up my cowboy camp here in the meadow at a nice flat site and would begin CT segment 4 in the morning. Feeling: tired and happy.
Day 3 (7/3/23): 20 Miles
Never camp in a meadow. Never ever again. Even though this was only my 2nd night out, it ended up being one of the coldest nights on trail because I camped low in a meadow near some water. Not only was my night insanely buggy, but I awoke with frost all over my bivy and beard: not the best feeling!
I packed up camp quick and got moving down the CT with my hat and gloves on. Once the sun came out, I stopped for breakfast and warmed up. It was at this time, I knew the social vibe on the CT would be way different from the beginning of my trip. While I sat and ate breakfast, I had about a dozen other hikers pass by and chat with me for a bit. It was already a strikingly different social atmosphere than the weekend crowd in Lost Creek. It was in part because of this, I decided to not take the Lost Creek North Alternate: I was really enjoying the new vibe of getting into the groove of the CT. Today was a lot of miles hiking through a mild meadow with the occasional aspen grove. Not too many views yet. Got my first 20 of the trip and camped a few miles before Kenosha Pass. A little bit of thunder and rain had me setting up my tarp for the first time on the trip and unfortunately, I lost my Bluetooth headphones today too. No biggie though, I had my favorite dinner (mushroom risotto) and was in a great cozy spot for the night. Feeling: strong!
Day 4 (7/4/23) – 23 Miles
Had another bad sleep. Hammock just seemed to not be working out, so I’d ditch using it for the rest of the trip in favor of either cowboy camping or pitching the tarp. Also LOTS of bugs. Even with the bug net on, they were disturbing my sleep a lot. I’ll get it figured out eventually…
I crushed a quick 8 miles down to Guernsey Creek in the morning, where I met up with my first real trail buddies of the trip. Tigger, Fly, Rambo and Sonic were all moving at a good pace so I latched on and tried to keep up. It was fun finally having a social group now that I was out of Lost Creek. When everyone has the same goal, it makes the experience more social and rewarding. About late morning we had to decide to whether to cross Georgia Pass or chill. The weather could have been better but it certainly seemed doable. We all went for it and made it up and down before the big afternoon storms rolled in. It’s moments like this that make you grateful for fast hiking buddies. We all camped together and I managed to bust out 23 miles today: a new trip record for me so far! 10 miles to Breck and yummy mango sticky rice for dinner. Feeling: Stoked!
Day 5 (7/5/23): 17.5 Miles (+2 Miles in Town)
Finally had a great sleep with the rain pattering on my tarp. I was out of camp early and zoomed down a few miles to a great bench and view of the Ten Mile Range for breakfast. Met up with cool buddies M+M, who gave me some fantastic instant coffee to try. Met back up with Sonic and we rallied down to town together pretty quickly. My first town day was easy! The bus in Summit County took me into town and I got my errands all worked out in a pretty orderly fashion: post office, grocery store, coffee shop, Mexican food for lunch, and a new pair of headphones. I was back on the bus and on trail by 4:30PM hiking another 7 miles to camp. I decided to save money and not stay in town. My body was feeling good and felt no need for a zero day. I set up camp just outside the beetle kill trees with a great view of town from the other side of the highway this time. Only 4 days to Twin Lakes! Feeling: like I’m finally getting into the groove!
Some Thoughts on the First 86 Miles to Breck:
- The first few days were rough, but by day 3 my legs and feet were feeling great.
- Very striking difference between the social vibe on the CT vs Lost Creek. Really happy to be on the CT now. I loved the geology of Lost Creek, but I think I would have gotten more out of starting on CT segment 1.
- It’s really easy to spend a lot of cash in town. Chocolate and cookies and Mexican food is very tempting. Breck is bougie, but a lot of fun.
- This was a great warm up for what’s to come: more alpine passes, higher elevations, crazier weather and bigger climbs! My morale was good and I was excited to see more!
See you in Part 3!
Not Ideal, but Fine 