Goose Creek TH Loop Map

[Randy Martin]

I am considering backpacking the loop that starts at the Goose Creek TH in the Lost Creek Wilderness (Colorado). I find plenty of trip reports and discussions but no really good map information, waypoints or other useful mapping details. I have the Nat Geo Topo software and so just need some decent information on the loop so I can map it out. Any links or suggestions?

[Aaron Armstrong]

Which one?

The 36 mile loop (if starting at Goose Creek and going counter clockwise) continues on the Goose Creek Trail to the Wigwam Trail through Lost Park and back to the Brookside McCurdy Trail back to the Hankins Trail via Lake Park Trail and then to your TH.

The 26 miles loop takes the Goose Creek trail to the McCurdy Park trail through Refrigerator Gulch then to Brookside McCurdy.

The Lake Park trail to connect Brookside McCurdy to Hankins trail is an often done and recommended option.

You can also start these trips from Lost Park.

[Randy Martin]

I am looking at one or two nights so probably the 26 mile loop is better. So the variation that goes up Goose Creek back down through Refrigerator Gulch on the McCurdy Park trail to Brookside McCurdy then across Lake Park (presumably) to the original Goose Creek TH. If anyone has the waypoints or a link a website that has the key data points for that route I would appreciate it.

[Randy Martin]

Pretty good trip report here

http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=8128&parmuser=Derek&cpgm=tripuser

and it includes a link to download a GPX file toward the bottom of the TR. After reviewing my Above The Timber 24k Colorado maps I was able to piece together the route. Looking forward to this trip on Memorial weekend.

[Aaron Armstrong]

If you head into Refrigerator Gulch from a faint trail right before the creek crossing, south or left if coming from Goose Creek trail, then there are a couple neat campsites and the creek flows under some great rock formations. The faint trail goes up the boulders and down into the hidden valley.

[Christopher Wilke]

This is an awesome loop! Refrigerator gultch is one of my favorite areas of the wilderness. Going in the fall when the aspens are turning is spectacular. I did another loop through The Fridge last fall from the Wigwam TH:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=37921&skip_to_post=326905#326905

My wife and I are going to do a trip there this weekend. I've been looking at the northern part of Lost creek. Should be interesting weather wise…

[David Leeret]

When I was a teen in Boy Scouts our troop backpacked from the Lost Park campground to the Goose Creek TH. Right in the middle of the trip we entered a box canyon that was maybe 50 yards wide and 150 yards long. The lost creek came out of the rock face creating small caves that we explored and re-entered the rocks about 150 yards later. There was a sandy beach on both sides of the river and it looked as though no one had been there recently.

That was almost 30 years ago! I'm wondering if anyone has made this trip and found this spot. If so, do know know what it's called and the GPS coordinates? My son is now in Boy Scouts and I want to take this trip with him soon and spend two nights in this box canyon.

[David Leeret]

I was going to bring my son on a short backbacking trip last weekend from the Goose Creek TH to Shaft site. The weather forecast caused us to cancel. Can't play on the rocks when they are wet and possibly snow covered.

Does anyone know what the conditions are up there now? My guess is same as last week but I'd like to make a go of it if there's a chance the rocks will be dry…

[Aaron Armstrong]

There is an old trail that has been mentioned before on BPL in a trip report that takes off about half way from Lost Park on the Wigwam Creek trail. The location you remember may very well be in this area. The trail now seems to play out with an unknown exit. The other option is that it is in Refrigerator Gulch. Lost Creek comes out under some large boulders creating caves underneath them, there was somewhat of sandy beach.

[Aaron Armstrong]

It had rained again y'day and today, snow on the northern end of the area at the highest elevations. Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow.

[Christopher Wilke]

I'm guessing everything is wet or snow covered right now based on the moisture that's been moving through the last week. I'm going to LCW this weekend so I'll let you know what I see. I'll probably be north of Goose Creek.

Edit: Aaron beat me to it. I think I've forgotten what the sun looks like. We're so spoiled here…

[Randy Nelson]

I'll be interested to see what Christopher finds this weekend. We're at 8600' about 10 miles as the crow flies from LCW. We've had over a foot of snow in the last week. Including 4" last night. And we've had lots of snow before that in May. I did the northern loop last Memorial Day weekend. We didn't have the late snow like we have this year and there was still snow on the north side of Rolling Creek. I'm thinking there will be more this year but I'm still heading out there. BTW, don't make camp along Wigwam on MD weekend. Too many yahoos out there because it's a short, flat hike in from the LP TH. Last year on Saturday night some idiot was shooting at 21:00 and 02:00. Glad I always carry earplugs. Normally for when it's windy but you never know.

This situation is where a SPOT comes in handy. I show my wife my proposed route and the options if I run into too much snow, etc. I send OK alerts whenever I change routes so she knows which way I'm going.

@deleeret
When I was a teen in Boy Scouts our troop backpacked from the Lost Park campground to the Goose Creek TH. Right in the middle of the trip we entered a box canyon that was maybe 50 yards wide and 150 yards long. The lost creek came out of the rock face creating small caves that we explored and re-entered the rocks about 150 yards later. There was a sandy beach on both sides of the river and it looked as though no one had been there recently.

I see that on my NatGeo map. It's about halfway between Brookside-McMurdy and Rolling Creek. There's a stream crossing there with 2 or 3 logs making a bridge. It shows an unmaintained trail heading south that gets within a mile of McCurdy Park Trail. It looks like if you take that trail until it disappears and then follow the creek, you will then hit the MP trail right about where it turns south a little ways short of where the switchbacks start. Too early for that but that would be something interesting to check out later.

[Randy Martin]

I have read quite a bit about deadfall all along the Hankins Pass section of the trail. How long is the stretch with significant deadfall? Just how bad is it? Trying to get a sense of how much extra time I need to allow to get through that area.

[Randy Nelson]

When I did that loop last September there wasn't any dead fall to speak of. At least from the Lake Park/Hankins Pass to Goose Creek TH section. But we did have very strong winds earlier this spring.

Where are you reading about the dead fall? I'd like to check out anything that has current info on LCW.

[Stephen B Elder Jr]

It's described in the link that the "other Randy" posted above from 14er's

[Randy Martin]

The Trip Report on 14ers.com (link in one of my earlier posts above) was done in June of 2010. Towards the bottom of that trip report is the following "If I have one major complaint about the trip, it was the southern portion of the loop on the Hankins Pass Trail. Trees were down EVERYWHERE. And I mean hundreds. Most of the falls looked recent, so it may have been due to an individual storm that recently occurred." The TR has pictures.

[Randy Nelson]

Don't worry about the dead fall then. I thought that was recent info. The trail was fine in September. The snow is a lot more likely to be an issue. Hopefully we'll have some warm weather this week to help with that.

[Lars Leber]

I hiked the Goose Creek Trail – McCurdy Park Trail – Brookside Trail – Hankins Pass Trail this Friday and Saturday. There was quite a bit of snow on the western side of the loop (I originally wanted to take the Lake Park Trail shortcut but could not see the trail due to the snow so went down Brookside Trail instead because there were some footsteps to follow). There was some amount of deadfall on Hankins Pass Trail but it was not too time consuming to go over or around it.

[Eric Swab]

Thanks for the update Lars, plan to head down there Memorial Day weekend myself.

If the Lake Park Trail was not open would it be safe to say that Brookside McCurdy going passed McCurdy Mountain and Bison Peak would be closed too? I was hoping to do the same loop the original poster described but know I will need to be flexible.

[Lars Leber]

The trail was not closed and you could probably easily hike it. I was just not in the mood to keep finding the trail because I did not have a good map with me and decided to go the easier way.

By the way, does this public facebook link work to some of the photos from my hike? …

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1732034536628.2083347.1111462351&l=ca5e90e16f

[Randy Martin]

I can see your photos. Thanks for posting, nice to get a visual on the conditions.

[Eric Swab]

Thanks for the photos link and trail info.

[Christopher Wilke]

Thought I'd give a quick update of LCW conditions. I'll try to post pictures tonight. We headed out from the Payne Creek/Brookside TH on Friday. We were going to do a loop that went Brookside McCurdy – Lost Park – Rolling Creek -Payne Creek. There was a lot of snow above about 9500ft on Brookside McCurdy (north facing with lots of tree cover). We turned back at about 11,000ft because the drifts were getting to be 4-5ft deep and going was slow. Day 2 we went back to check out the Payne Creek trail. There was very little snow over on that side. I looked like snow was minimal up to 11,000ft except on north facing slopes. All in all the conditions were great but flexibility is required right now.

Lars,
We saw very similar tracks over on Payne creek but thought they were bear tracks. I was counting 5 pads on the tracks we saw (lions have 4 right?).

[Randy Nelson]

Thanks for info guys.

Randy/Eric. I haven't decided where I'm going yet but if you see a guy being towed by a Golden Retriever, that will be me. Hope to see you on the trail.

[Randy Martin]

Me and a friend are going to head in the counter clockwise direction (head north on the Goose Creek trail). Planning to camp in the vicinity of McCurdy Park and hike out over Hankins Pass back to the trailhead on Sunday. Was a little discouraged about the report of significant snow on the west side but it should be a bit better by the weekend. Might take the croc gaiters.

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