Lost Creek Wilderness

Sorry, I haven't posted anything lately but I've been a little preoccupied hiking the length of Lost Creek Wilderness from Wigwam Trail head to Goose Creek. Dan and I hiked it in three days and enjoyed some beautiful vistas, wonderful weather, and a few tough climbs over a high pass.  Lost Creek got it's name because the creek disappears and goes underground without any rhyme or reason, other than porous rock.

Below is a photo of one of the historic buildings where we stopped and had lunch on the second day of hiking. We didn't see anyone until we got nearly to this point, and then... lots of people. Nevertheless, we still had a great time.

At the turn of the century they tried to dam up the creek just below this point by building a shaft to pump cement into the underground caverns. The project was a failure, thankfully. We hiked about a mile back into this area from the historic buildings to the Shaft House. If you go a little further you will see this beautiful valley, which of course was never damned up.

There is a bit of a challenge, if you want to see this beautiful valley. It is rarely seen because it's just plain hard to get to. After we reached the shaft house we hiked just another 500 yards or so. Here you have to negotiate through some very large boulders and then climb down this log. Then you walk under some giant boulders over a hundred feet high before you reach the ledge with a view of the valley. Climbing up the log was no big deal, but going down was a little uncomfortable.

We then hiked almost to the Hankins Pass Trail head and camped at Goose Creek for the night. I have to say, that we found some very nice campsites on our hike. And, Dan had this really cool water filter which worked very well for us.