“We cannot stay on the summits forever, but sometimes we can choose to stay as long as possible.”
-Gerry and Jennifer Roach’s “Colorado’s Lost Creek Wilderness” guidebook
For the second day in a row the weather forecast wasn’t ideal – chance of rain and snow in the morning, then gradually clearing. However, as I headed for the Lost Creek Wilderness, I noticed huge bands of clouds already moving off east on the plains.
The morning was crisp and cold as I left the trailhead, hustling uphill to warm up. A short hike took me to the Colorado Trail where I began a walk on recently fallen aspen leaves covered with drops of water from last night’s precipitation.
Not all the leaves were down however.
From a rock outcrop at a bend in the trail I could catch a glimpse of the craggy peaks above.
A light dusting of snow was struggling for survival as a the day warmed up.
After a couple miles of easy hiking it was time to leave the trail and ascend toward the peak called Zephyr.
My ascent route stayed in the forest adjacent to patches thick with willows. The recent snow was shaded from the sun under the trees with the morning’s drop of aspen leaves sprinkled on top.
The forest began to open up and I could look ahead to Peak Z, my next goal after Zephyr.
Looking west I could see all the high peaks on the Continental Divide covered in clouds. In fact, everything over 13,000 feet looked to be socked in. Coming to the Lost Creek Wilderness to hike 12,000 foot peaks seemed to have been a good choice today.
From Zephyr’s summit I would continue to gain elevation as I worked my way back down the alphabet on Peaks Z, Y and X. Gerry and Jennifer Roach’s guidebook to this area calls this hike the “Alphabetizer”.
The whole hike was no more difficult than class 2 (off-trail hiking), just making my way across open tundra and rocks. The recent snow did make the north side descent off each peak a little slippery. The one “difficult” move I found all day was scrambling on top of the summit block on Peak Z.
Peak Y came and went quickly, but by the time I started climbing up to my final summit of the day, Peak X, I could feel my legs were tired at the end of my three day weekend.
From X I had a short backtrack to the willow-filled basin between X and Y. This area appeared to be open range for cattle and they kept numerous paths open through the willows. I could hardly refer to hiking through them as “bushwhacking”. I then followed a small stream that would lead me all the way back to the trailhead.
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Those aspens are really beautiful!