Weekend Hike, Lost Creek Wilderness

Well, I'm new to blogging... I don't know what the purpose really is but thought that I'd try it to help me keep focused and motivated to train, race and basically excell at life and living.

I did a hike with my friend Ed into the Colorado Lost Creek Wilderness area on Saturday. We left Castle Rock at about 0700 and got started on the trailhead about 0900. The objective was to retrieve a lost camera that had been dropped over the side of a cliff a few weeks ago. I brought a 165' line, harness and a few caribiners.

The weather on the front range was overcast & misting when we left but as we hiked up toward the 'falic' rock (no you don't need any imagination to know which rock we are refering to) the overcast broke and we had clear blue skys and a very light breeze. I kept commenting that the aspens golden color was absolutely fantastic... again, we wish that we had a camera.

We reached the top of the rock at about 1100 after an easy hike up. Ed really knows this area well and having him along sure made the day enjoyable. I didn't have to think hard about navigating (there is no formal or marked trail) as Ed had been here many times before.

I set up my rapel station on a pine tree and rap'ed over the edge. The rock is steep but really doesn't warrant this kind of protection but a fall would ruin your day and potentially be life threatening... guess that I'm getting smarter in my 'old age'.

After a thorough search of the rocks, including crawling into a hole where the camera was suspected of falling I finally abandon the search when it started raining and sleeting... I sure was happy to have my rap gear when the rain started... what was originally a super sticky rock surface became slightly greasy. Though I didn't locate the camera, I now know where the camera isn't, that's important too!

The hike out was really something, the rain that was falling was slowly trickling into shallow groves on this massive rock dome, soon the water was cascading down these troughs several hundred feed to the canyon below... again we wished we had a camera.

We didn't find the camera but we sure had a great day which included nearly all of the weather that Colorado offers... sun, overcast, rain, sleet... just no snow.