No Payne
For many Front Range Hikers, the Lost Creek Wilderness is the home wilderness. So close to the city, but so far from anyone. Yesterday, I hiked to the summit of No Payne, a mountain high point in the Wilderness, to which I’d never been. The book made it sound easy, but it turned out to be a double black diamond backpack. Almost nine miles to the camp and 3,600 feet of elevation gain, with no water resources near my camp. I camped in a beautiful meadow with a broad view of the far west ridge, across Craig Park. There was probably no one around within eight miles. After supper. I bushwhacked less than a mile further through the boulders and small evergreens and climbed No Payne. At the top, in all directions I saw views of crags in the Wilderness and of the snow-covered peaks beyond. We return again and again.