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Got around to doing a shakedown of my latest gear.  I chose the Lost Creek Wilderness, no snow, some decent elevation, and beautiful!  There are a number of trails in the LCW that you can connect to make loops of various lengths  I chose a loop with a total of around 24 miles which and some pretty good elevation gain, a two night trip.

Starting at the Goose Creek trail head I hit the Hankins Pass Trail, Lake Park Trail, Brookside-McCurdy Tarail and finally McCurdy Trail into McCurdy Park where I called it a day.  It was a long day for me!  Somewhere around 11 miles and 2000 feet of climbing.  Found a sweet spot to camp and was able to setup, have some dinner and settle in before the storms arrived.  Rain and quite a bit of wind.  All equipment worked well except my sleeping pad, just couldn’t get comfortable.  Also it got pretty cold, down to the upper 20’s.  With almost every stitch of clothing on and was able to stay warm.  This was the second time in my life I camped at a rather high altitude, 11,500 ft.

The morning was cold, but dry.  I had my breakfast of hot coffee and as I watched the sun slowly come up over the mountains.  I just sat there watching the rays of nice warm sunshine inching towards my camp, drying things out and warming me up once they arrived.  Some things were damp, the tent with condensation and my quilt with said condensation in the foot area from touching the tent wall while sleeping.  None of it a big deal and the sun dried things out rather quickly.  Hitting the trail, I continued on McCurdy Park Trail and again experienced some of the treasures of LCW, Refrigerator Gulch and Lost Creek getting, well, lost.  It simple went into some rocks and popped out elsewhere.  I was on a mission and very tried so did not explore much but I will be back!  After all that fun I hit Goose Creek Trail and headed south. After around 10 miles and 2700 ft of climb I found a place to camp in a small valley with a stream.  Pretty much rained all afternoon so camp was wet but there was a gap in the rain to set up the tent so it was dry.  Also found it dry under a large tree where I could make dinner and just watch the rain.  Again, not great sleep, could not get comfortable but I did stay relatively dry.

I was dry but my tent was still soaked and there was no sign of any sun getting to where I was at in the near future.  So, breakfast and hit the trail.  Only had 5 miles or so to get back to the trailhead, so took my time and enjoyed some more LCW scenery along Goose Creek.  Great campsites along this section, I’d like to come back someday and setup a multi-day spot here to relax and explore.  Back to the Jeep and headed home.

The trip was a great success.  I got the conditions I needed to check out all my gear and myself.  What did I come away with?  Sleep system needs work, mainly a different pad but also I could use some straps for the quilt on cold nights.  Shoes, the are pretty good but not quite good enough, will have to upgrade those also.  Most all of my other gear worked as expected.  My body, well, it did “ok”, just need to keep working out so I have a bit more energy in the evenings and fewer aches. All and all a great time in LCW and I definitely need to spend more time here.