We started out hike on July 18, 2010, at around 11:30 am. It was already quite hot, super sunny and a few clouds. We signed the registry at the TH and headed off. Start of the trail was pretty easy. It was well maintained and wide. In a few miles we reached Mill Creek and kind of lost the trail after crossing the creek, but luckily we had our trusty GPS with us and we were able to find the trail in no time. This was only the first of many times we had to rely on our GPS. At the creek, we had great views of the Castles. After the creek, the trail started to climb. 
We hiked through a beautiful aspen forest for awhile, then reached a huge wall that we had to steeply hike up. This part of the hike was a bit grueling. After some switchbacks and some tight spaces that the trail went through, we finally took a good break and had a late lunch. Who knew chili mac would taste so good? Good thing we took a break because I was getting a bit dizzy, sleepy, and nauseous. After putting some grub in our tum tums, we loaded our packs onto our backs and headed back onto the trail. We finally got our first glimpse of the infamous Storm Pass after getting out of treeline. What an awesome and relieving sight! We almost missed the trail, as it split, but good thing Jake noticed the huge cairns with big wooden sticks pointing to the correct trail. The trail after the split wasn't too bad, it gradually climbed with a few switchbacks. Towards the top, we hit a patch of snow, and then...the view! The view was absolutely amazing!
Looking north, we saw another section of castles, and mountain ranges that went on forever! After a few photos, we headed down the trail and boy was it steep! It was a bit precarious coming down, as the trail was littered with rocks and loose dirt. Good thing we had our trekking poles. If it weren't for those poles, we'd still be up there. The sun was setting quickly, so we tried to get down into treeline as fast as we could, which was no easy feat. It's odd how a tiny sense of panic allows you to lose the feeling of pain and fatigue. After losing about 1000 ft in elevation, we crossed South Castle Creek and managed to find a decent campsite not too far from the creek. We were in a bit of a hurry as we were losing light quickly. At about 8 pm, we finally set up camp! We immediately set up the tent, pumped some water from the creek, bathed, and ate dinner. For dinner we had some so-so freeze dried beef stew. At least it was hot and plenty of it! Jake started a fire which kept us warm and the bugs away. After dinner, we packed up all of our food, hung it in a tree, and headed into the tent for a much needed sleep. According to our GPS we had hiked 9.6 mi...phew!Day 2
After a pretty decent slumber, we awoke to clear and sunny skies. As we woke up ourselves and our muscles, do we realize that we are both pretty darn sore. Oh well, we poppped in some Motrin and got ready for the day. Jake retrieved the food bag, and got some water boiling for our delicious breakfast of instant oatmeal...breakfast of champions! After we ate, we cleaned up camp, teared down the tent, applied our sunscreen...and don't forget the bug repellent. At about 9:40 am, we set off onto the trail.
For most of the morning, the trail rose and fell with each spur and draw we hiked over. We crossed many small creeks, hiked in and out of small patches of forest, and then came upon an open field of corn lilies. By this time, it was getting pretty hot as the sun was beating down upon us. We stopped at some shade after passing the corn lilies and had ourselves a few snacks. Never knew that rice crispy treats and fruit snacks would be so good. We loaded our packs on and headed back onto the trail when we came to a pleasant surprise..a lake!
We wished we kept hiking till we got to the lake, then had our snack, as it was a very scenic area. Anyways, we hiked on and to our unpleasant surprise, we came up to a barbed wire fence! We were in a bit of a dilemma, but after consulting the map and GPS, we decided to move on and hop over the fence. The trail was very well maintained during this section of the hike. We were still on the Mill Castle trail, and after a few more miles we finally hit the trail junction with Lowline trail. Also, in the distance we could see huge tents, kind of like the ones you see at festivals or farmer's markets. It was a bit odd..I wonder what they were doing there. At the junction, we stopped to make sure we were heading onto the right trail as the sign there didn't have "Lowline trail" on it, but instead Mill Creek in the direction we were going to go. Oh well. We headed off southeast and it was getting to be around 1 or 2 pm, so at the next patch of trees we stopped to eat some lunch. Clouds started to close in and it rained pretty lightly for the next 5-10 mins, which felt really good after hiking in the sun most of the day. We setup our stove and food in some trees, which unfortunately had dried up cow pies all over the place! Yuck! I managed to find a tiny spot that was supposedly free from remnants of cow pies. I boiled some water and dumped in mac n' cheese. Jake cut up some summer sausage for it and boy, does salty meat taste so good! After scarfing down the mac n' cheese, we cleaned up the cookware and loaded our packs again.
We hiked through some flat areas and a large open meadow. In the distance we see what looks like a horse. As we get closer, we realize it's a cow! As we get even closer, there is another barbed wire fence and lots of cows! Again the trail went through the fence, so we jumped the fence, but instead of going straight we decided to head south a little to try to go around the cows. That didn't work since there were more cows everywhere! We consulted the map at this point and realized we needed to head east to get back on to the trail. So, we cut through some Aspens, more cows, and came to a valley, with South Castle Creek at the bottom. We noticed 2 trails in the distance; one that headed east and one that headed south east. According to the map, we needed to be on the trail that was going east. We made our way down to the creek, but couldn't cross it where we were. Where we could cross, was where all the darn cows were. Hence, we hiked up the creek and luckily we were able to scare off the cows, but they didn't seem happy about our trespassing.
Trying to cross the creek, I completely dunked my left foot in water, which made for a great hike after wards with a "squish" sound with each step. As we made our way to the trail, we crossed over a patch of mud, which helped us, as the cows started to follow us, but stopped right at the mud. It's funny to think that cows are like humans in that they didn't want to step into the mud and get their feet dirty! So finally, we were hiking on the right trail did we notice that we were both running out of water. Fortunately, we came up to a small creek and replenished our water. I didn't like this part because a darn horsefly bit my thumb and when I tried to shoo it away, it clung on for dear life. When I finally whacked it away, he drew some blood! Err! By this time of day, my spirits weren't too high, and Jake had to put some motivation back into me. I managed to put my mindset back into gear, and we trudged along a long section of uphills and small ponds. For awhile we were hiking along a fence, which was a bit odd. After reaching the top of the hill, we started hiking down and into forested areas. We needed to reach Middle Creek, as it was the next and only water source along the part of the trail. Our feet were in misery, and each step felt like we were stepping into a pile of nails. After which seemed an eternity, we finally came up to Middle creek. We unloaded our packs to look for a place to camp by the creek, since it looked like there were already people in one campsite in the most ideal spot. Nothing looked too good, but Jake decided to investigate a little closer into the "ideal campsite" and saw that no one was actually there. It was just some trash, camping chair, and a bucket. So we decided to set up camp there. My feet were in so much pain that with each step I would lose my balance trying not to put any weight on them. Despite the pain, we setup the tent and went down to the creek to take our bath. It felt so good to get all that grime of sweat, sunscreen and bug repellent off of us! Unfortunately, while I was bathing, I got devoured by some hungry mosquitoes. After getting into a change of new clothes, did I start to notice the itching. Jake looked at my back and I had a row of 5-6 mosquito bites, plus 2 near my butt! And on top of that I had 5 more on my arms! Yikes!
The sun was setting quickly, so we boiled some water and had freeze dried lasagna for dinner. It actually wasn't too bad. Jake made a fire after a few unsuccessful attempts, but finally got it going. This evening was surprisingly very warm, which is odd considering every night I've backpacked the temperature drops significantly after the sun sets. After packing away our food and hanging it, we brushed our teeth and climbed into the tent. It was still really warm that for the first time I slept outside of my sleeping bag, at least for the first part of the night. This day we hiked a total of 10.3 miles, and the total mileage for both days was 19.95 miles.
Day 3
After some much needed rest and sleep, we awoke the next morning and had our usual oatmeal for breakfast. We packed up our stuff, loaded our packs and headed off on the trail. The start of our day consisted of dense forest, which meant more humidity, therefore a ton of mosquitoes! We had to stop a few times to lather on the 100% deet, aka. "jungle juice" from REI. That kept away the darn blood thirsty buggers for awhile. As we hiked further, we came upon an open meadow and much to our chagrin the trail again disappeared. So, we consulted our handy map and GPS and Jake found a very faint trail to the right. We followed the trail for maybe a quarter of a mile and what do you know? The trail disappears again! This time we kept going to see if maybe we would see the trail again, but unfortunately we didn't. Once more we consulted our GPS and we realized that our car was only a little over a mile away to the southwest of us. We thought for a moment to just trail blaze to the car, but after looking more closely at the GPS, we noticed that the terrain was very steep, so we decided against that. We did see on our map that the actual trail should be near by and decided to cut through the dense forest, which included going up and over many fallen trees. Boy was that tiring! I don't think I'll ever take a well-maintained trail for granted! After a lot of clumsily maneuvering up, over, around fallen trees, we came up to another open meadow and saw a trail in the distance. We followed that trail and luckily it continued to be well-maintained. Not too much later we came up to our last barbed wire fence. We hopped the fence and it was pretty much smooth sailing after that.
It was such a relief to see the view of the ranches and farms to the southeast! Our moods definitely were up and we started to hike with a purpose. During this time, we stopped to check our GPS and noticed that we ran out of batteries. So, unfortunately we were not able to know the exact mileage our whole trip! Nevertheless, we trekked on. We pretty much as this point were speed walking. The end of this hike was just at our finger tips! We crossed a large creek and not too long after we finally came up to the dirt road we had just driven on a few days ago! And there at the trailhead was the sign for "Lowline Trail". We took one last photo with the sign, thinking this was the end of our long backpacking trip. However, our car was still a mile up the road! We contemplated to leave our packs and hike to the car and pick up our packs on the way back, but ultimately decided to just keep our heavy packs on and sweat out the last mile to the car. I don't think I ever hiked so fast with a pack on my back! It's amazing what a little adrenaline can do even when you are completely exhausted! After what seemed like 5 miles, we finally got to the car, and what a relief to see my car! Thank the Lord for a safe and finished trip! I believe we hiked about 25 miles in 2 and a half days!
