m@ Hikes... alone

To everyone's great terror... I went hiking... by myself... overnight.  Cue the dark ominous music!  This was a trip I had been planning for over a month and had already tried to do it several times, but since life's schedule rarely jives with mine it got pushed back to this week.  I went back to Lost Creek Wilderness, which is where Dad Colvin and I went backpacking for 4 days last fall.  I was planning to summit Bison Peak (~12,400 ft above sea level) which would have made a hike with an elevation gain of ~3,500 ft.


I camped at the trailhead the night before and let me say that I'm glad I have a sleeping bag that's rated for 0 degrees!  Throughout the night I would wake up and have to lay on my side so I could get my nose into the hood of the sleeping bag to warm it up.  I'm pretty sure it dipped down into the 30's cause when I got up I had a pretty thick layer of frost on the car and my tent.


The hike was beautiful.  It didn't have the dramatic views with all the changing Aspens like last year's hike, but it had a huge beautiful alpine meadow and I could pretty much see Bison Peak and it's amazing granite formations for the entire trail.  After I had climbed 2,000 ft in elevation over 5 miles, I stopped for lunch and was only a little over a mile from Bison Peak.  I took off my boots to let my feet cool down and finally got to see how bad the blisters I had been feeling were.  


Several large blisters plus being pretty tired and knowing that I had to climb another 1,500 ft over the next mile was enough to convince me to head back to the car.  I had already had this idea that morning while I was reading the trail guide and seeing that if I did an out-n-back hike it would be just over 12 miles while the other option was to summit the peak and then come back to the main trail by bushwhacking down 4 miles of trail-less mountainside terrain.


The return trip was pretty easy since it was all down hill.  The worst part were the blisters, which I was more than painfully aware of by this point.  The drive out from the trailhead was 19 miles of Forest Service road, but it was worth it for the views of the Aspens and the free range cows!

Views from the drive in along Lost Park Rd

Making my way through Willow Gulch

Willow Gulch (viewed S to N)

Granite formations on Bison Peak

Can you still call this a game of Chicken?

View South from Kenosha Pass Scenic Overlook

Sadly I realized far too late that I had forgotten the SD card for my good camera, so I was forced to use my iPhone for all pictures - thus the crappy pic quality.

m@