Bob's World Travels

No Payne

June 6, 2017

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.