Backpacking to Lost Lake
Conor and I planned a multi-day backpacking trip over the Labor Day weekend; We were to hike from Dunraven Trailhead, 5 miles outside the National Park, to Lost Lake, 4 miles inside the park and at nearly 11,000 feet elevation The original plan was for 3 nights so we needed to pack in all our gear including clothing and accommodations for potential snow. Back country permits were required along with “bear cans” to protect our foods (and ourselves) from the bears but after all the paper work and piddly things, we got to hiking on Saturday late-afternoon…
After hiking only 4 miles, we setup camp just outside the National Park to rest for the long climb up to our scheduled camp site for tomorrow.Day 1 and night 1 went smooth as pie. We were in the tent and ready for sleep by 9PM but as luck would have it, neither of us got much sleep. I dont think I got any more than 2 hours worth as I was just too uncomfortable sleeping on the ground now that I’m an old fart.
We woke early on day-2 to start the next stage of our journey. Though it was only 5 miles further down the trail to our final destination, 5 miles with 60 lbs on your back is a marathon… or so we found out. After hiking 4 of the miles, we were met with a 700+ gain in altitude in less than a half-mile of trail. I dreaded coming to this point in the trail all morning and it sure measured up to it’s look on the maps. It was at the top of this climb that we broke through 10,000 ft in elevation. A quick 1 mile further brought us to our camp… just in time for my legs to fail.
Conor got in a quick nap while I struggled to stay awake, and on my feet, for the afternoon. I feared if I napped, I would not get to sleep again at night, so I kept my eyes open by taking a few pictures and reading for a few hours.
By evening, Conor and I were back on our feet and hiked the last mile to Lost Lake before the sun set. For this short stint we were without our large packs so the climb went easily and we got to explore a bit of the Lake area. We did run into a Moose (my first!) on our way up, only to be out dine by 2 Moose (Meese? Mooses?) just as we were about to leave to head back to camp.
At the end of night #2 we were both ready for a helicopter to come pick us up. We discussed it and decided another full day exploring as planned was no longer what we wanted. Instead, we choose to wake early and head back down the full 9 miles and get back home in time for dinner.
8PM and we were both in the tent and trying to sleep when the wind kicked up. Huge gusts of wind tossed the trees around above our head. The only thing I heard (other than the wind) was the Park Ranger’s warning about falling tree-limbs due to the bark-beetle damage. That was enough to keep me from sleep… and then the rain came. All night it rained which was just another subject to ponder all night (how muddy will our hike down be?) to prevent sleep.
By the time we woke, I again got less than 2 hours of sleep and not an ounce of quality sleep. By 8am we were packed and on the move, and as luck would have it the rain was not as bad as the tent made it sound. Moist but no mud… not bad. 4 straight hours of hiking got us down the mountain and into the van with only seconds worth of energy to spare.
We traveled roughly 20 miles distance and gained 3000 feet in altitude in 48 hours. Both of us acknowledged that this was the highest we had hiked in our lives.
