FKT: Chris Dawson-Jouzdani - Lost Creek Wilderness Loops (CO) - 2023-07-28

Today (7/28/23) I set out to run the Lost Creek Wilderness Southern Loop (37 miles, 7,500ft elevation gain) in an attempt to break the current FKT! I started at 6:00am at the Goose Creek Trailhead, and ran in the clockwise direction. The first 15 miles contain some serious climbing, so just tried to keep it steady and worked my way up to the high point just below 12,000ft. The long descent that follows is a good mix of technical and flowy single-track, and you start to come out into a more exposed area of the trail. The heat was ramping up throughout the day, so tried to start the cooling early at many of the streams I crossed, but the last 10-12 miles are in some pretty direct sunlight so it was still a battle! My initial goal was somewhere around the 6:15-6:30 mark, but as I was coming down the last descent I saw I had a chance to break 6 hours and tried to turn it over the best I could. This trail is such a crazy mix of steep and technical climbs/descents, altitude, shrub meadows, bogs, and river beds, so it definitely keeps you on your toes, and I had to enjoy the flowy sections while I could! Despite a few struggles with the temperature towards the end, and some dropped electrolytes somewhere out there, I was super stoked to hit 5:57.40!