Lost Lake in the Gore Range

August is supposed to be my “get outside more” month this year, so I decided to head out to the always beautiful and challenging Gore Range. My hike ended up going to Lost Lake although that wasn’t the original plan. Bubble Lake has been a destination on my list for a few years, so I’d mapped out a route to get there and possibly summit a few 13ers. It didn’t happen. Lost Lake, however, was a nice discovery and it can be a nice day hike for those interested.

Getting there

The Brush Creek Trailhead provides a nice access point to this area of the Gore Range. Head north on Route 9 from Silverthorne and turn onto County Road 30 south of Green Mountain Reservoir. Shortly after exiting, take the first left onto the fire road. Fair warning, this is a 4WD road, mainly because it has a lot of big dips and washouts. The Jeep didn’t have any issue as I took my time going up the road. It’s nice to have good approach and departure angles!

After about 2.5 miles, the road ends at the trailhead. There was a couple car camping near the trailhead. It’s a nice spot to camp before heading out into the range. The temp was in the low 60’s at the trailhead making for a nice change from the hot weather in town.

Lost Lake trail

As I mentioned, my plan was to backpack up to Bubble Lake (more on that later). I put on my fully loaded backpack and headed out. It was good to be on the trail again and the morning was beautiful. I took the short (.6 mile) trail to meet up with the Gore Range trail. There was a nice crossing of Brush Creek there…with plenty of mosquitoes. Already I was wishing I’d put that bug spray in my pack. I took a left at the fork and continued on.

Lost Lake and Bubble Lake in the Gore Range

Bear Encounter

Within a quarter mile of the fork, I lookup up ahead and saw something on the trail about 100 feet in front of me. At first I wondered if it was another hiker resting. Nope, it was a black bear which I thought was pretty cool since I haven’t run into one on the trail before. I saw two cubs with the mama bear. She didn’t know I was there yet, so I started talking in a normal voice to try to let her know about my presence. Apparently my voice was too soft because she didn’t seem to do anything. My louder “Hey bear!” reached her and she took off into the woods with her kids. After watching to make sure they were well away from me, I slowly went up the trail talking to myself to make sure they could hear me if they were listening. Shortly after I continued on my way.

Lost Lake

I wasn’t on the Gore Range trail very long, about a mile, until I took a right onto Lost Lake trail. The hike up to the lake was pretty uneventful and took me through a nice trail, nothing crazy steep and well shaded in the forest. About 2 miles after leaving the Gore Range trail, I arrived at Lost Lake.

Failed Bushwhack to Bubble Lake

I didn’t linger too long at Lost Lake as this was where I was supposed to leave the trail and head up to Bubble Lake. The original planned route is shown below. At Lost Lake, I was going to go about 1/3 mile through the woods and link up with the South Rim Black Creek trail. I knew this might be a little tough as this section of the Gore Range is notorious for the large amount of downfall.

Planned Route to Bubble Lake and Slate Lakes via Lost Lake

The first few hundred yards off trail weren’t terrible. There was some scrambling over downed trees but nothing too daunting. Then things took a turn for the worse. I found myself using trees that had fallen on other trees as bridges, testing my balance as I “tree surfed” my way through the forest. Eventually I made it to where the trail was supposed to be, and nothing, not a single indication of any trail. I’d counted on following that up through most of the lower section until I could get to Black Creek where the forest was supposed to be more passable.

The short adventure into this section of woods made me think the bushwhack was going to be a lot tougher than I’d estimated. Plus, my legs had taken a beating in the woods with lots of scratches and gouges from trees trying to take me down! In hindsight, I could have continued up and it might have been easier after another mile or so. The prospect of it being this tough for another 4 miles, however, made me think I’d overestimated my abilities…again.

Chastised and humbled, I headed back to Lost Lake where I had a snack and fished for about an hour. I didn’t get a strike and I’m not sure there are fish in this lake. It was, however, the worst time of day to be fishing. I decided to loop back to the trailhead and see if I could spot a sign for the South Rim Black Creek trail. Just before I left, a couple showed up at the lake. They were planning the same hike I had attempted. They probably made it.

The humble return from Lost Lake

Leaving Lost Lake, I headed north along Lost Lake trail to see if I could find the missing trail. I looked carefully when the GPS said I was near it and there was nothing to be found. My guess is that this old trail no longer exists. To clear one now would take a lot of cutting through downed trees! My plans dashed, I continued to the trailhead.

On the Gore Range trail, about a mile from the trailhead, I met Doug, a 71-year old fellow hiker. We stopped and chatted for a while. He was also headed up to the South Rim Black Creek trail. He told me how 40 years ago that was how he’d entered that section of the wilderness. After sharing my experience, he decided to head back to the trailhead with me. He’d parked at the old cemetery off CR-30. I gave him a ride back to his van. Chatting with Doug was one of the better parts of the day. We exchanged numbers and talked about meeting up to hike in the future.

Plan B

I felt pretty beat up after scrambling over all that downfall but my injured pride wouldn’t quite let go of the Bubble Lake fantasy. Why not go over to Piney Lake and hit the lake via Kneeknocker Pass? Just because I’d failed at that route before didn’t mean I would again, right? Wasn’t it time I conquered that pass? Never mind that I wasn’t in peak condition and had a full pack to haul up there.

With a bit of hesitancy, I did head out to Piney Lake and set up camp near the trailhead (camp spot #6 if you’re interested) and had some dinner. I fished the Piney River (really a creek) and Piney Lake. The creek yielded brook trout, and the lake rainbow trout. The bugs were pretty bad although I tend not to notice them when I’m catching fish. The sunset at Piney Lake was gorgeous and is the featured photo at the top of the page. The photo of the deer at camp was blurry so it didn’t make the cut. It was cool to see the deer anyway.

The end – as expected

By 6:30, I was out of camp and on the trailhead. The morning was brisk and I felt reasonably good and optimistic. My mind kept worrying about Kneeknocker Pass and going up that thing with my pack.

It didn’t take long for me to get to the turn off the main trail to head up to the pass. I started up and suddenly remembered just how steep this trail gets. I reached the half-way point to the pass and sat down to reassess my plan. There was plenty of time left, but did I have the gas in the tank? Would I have the nerve to go up that steep pass? In the end, I decided today wasn’t the day. I suspect if someone had been with me then it wouldn’t have been an issue, we’d have made it to the lake and enjoyed it. By myself, self-doubt seems to creep into my mind more easily so I turned around and headed back.

There were lots of options to make this trip more successful. In the end, it is what it is. The idea of doing a bunch of 13ers in the Gore Range is probably beyond my skill and risk acceptance. Getting to Bubble Lake will eventually happen when I’m in better condition, and hopefully have someone to push me a bit up that pass. At least now I know it will be via the pass. I don’t see trying to bushwhack through that section of the wilderness again.