DESTINATION FS-560 Wellington Lake Rd to Long Gulch - CT#4 1 Photoset
2015-07-01 | |
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| Backpack | 17.20 Miles |
2,200 AEG |
| | Backpack | 17.20 Miles | | | |
| 2,200 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | The morning began with a steep climb from ~9,300 ft to ~10,400 ft along alternating single track and an old logging road in Lost Creek Wilderness. Along the way me and Aaron ran into clusters of downed trees we had to navigate around, sometimes briefly losing the trail. Numerous streams ran across and on the trail, making this a muddy affair at times.
After a couple of hours of climbing, lots of huffing and puffing, and a couple of breaks, we topped out and began a short descent. Near the end of the descent we left Lost Creek Wilderness, popped out of the trees, and entered Long Gulch, a 6 mile long meadow nestled in the mountains at 10,000 ft.
The views along this meadow were spectacular. These were the kinds of landscapes I had only seen in pictures and finally I was in the flesh experiencing them. Up to this point, each segment was beautiful in its own right, but now the trail was becoming exceptionally beautiful. My spirit was lifted as we meandered through the flower filled meadow which made its slow ascent to nearly 11,000 ft.
As we made our way through Long Gulch, the weather started to look ominous. It would occasionally sprinkle, and it was clear that a storm was building.
After reaching the end of the meadow and returning to the trees, we ate lunch. At nearly 11,000 ft, the treeline of the nearby peaks was visible.
From here it was all downhill to Segment 5. As we made our way down the mountain, a group of large rocks created an opening in the trees and we got our first views of the Collegiate Peaks!
Almost immediately after we reached the beginning of segment 5, it started to rain. We put on our rain jackets and continued along the trail until we reached the next water source a few miles up the trail.
Once we reached the stream, we again met up with the couple we had been leap frogging with the previous day and sat down for a break. Not long after we sat down, it began to pour and every so often we would hear thunder and/or see a crack of lightning. We briefly took shelter under some trees, but decided to keep on trekking and stop when the storm let up a little.
Occasionally, the trees thinned and we could see the mountains we had just traveled through.
We continued to hike in on and off rain, and eventually reached a stream near mile 4.5 in segment 5 where we planned to make camp for the night. A few other hiker had already taken the established campsites near the stream, so we trekked a little further up trail and made camp on the flattest piece of ground we could find, which wasn't particularly flat. The rain stopped but it looked like it could start storming again any minute. We quickly set up camp, cooked dinner in our vestibules and slowly drifted off to sleep. |
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