North Fork Area/Lost Lake Overnight (RMNP)

Trip Date: Mar 10-11, 2018

Caltopo map here:  caltopo.com/m/SV60

It had snowed just a couple days prior and no one had tracked it yet. This is always fun.

This snow was nearly completely gone the next day.

After about 4 miles I moved out of the Comanche Peaks Wilderness and into Rocky Mountain National Park.

I'd originally planned on camping around Lost Lake and possibly venturing further into the valley the next morning towards the Rowe Glacier.  I was hoping that the snow conditions would be like the previous week near Coney Island in Indian Peaks Wilderness where it essentially disappeared above the tree line.  At a minimum it should be wind swept and crusty to speed up travel.  

Well this didn't work out.  Even with snowshoes I still post-holing about a foot deep with every step.  I was pretty gassed and stopped about a mile short of Lost Lake planning on checking it out the next morning. 

This also turned out to be one of the coldest nights so far.  By the time I got in my sleeping bag it was about 8 degrees F outside (my tent was several degrees warmer).  The next morning when I woke up there was a crust of ice on the outside of my sleeping bag and my pants were frozen completely solid.  I couldn't get too excited about putting them on in that condition so I slept in till late morning to give them a chance to thaw out.  This ate up a lot of time and I decided I'd have to save Lost Lake for future trip.  

It was disappointing that I never got above the tree line and didn't get any great views from the actual trip.  The best pictures I got from the whole weekend was looking back towards Indian Peaks Wilderness once I got back to Boulder.  

Indian Peaks Wilderness at sunset from Boulder.