August 2-7, 2004
Amazing experience. Went on a week backpacking trip through the wind river range in wyoming with Jason, his Dad, Ken, and members of his ward Including. Turned somewhat epic toward the end as injuries added up...
Day 1 - Drove from Sandy, UT, to the Spring Creek Park trailhead north of Pinedale, Wyoming. Took the Glimpse Lake trail to a ridge overlooking Fremont Lake and a large portion of the winds. Glimpse lake is a nice little place that would be great to camp at, but we wanted to get more miles that day. We continued on to Little Trapper Lake where we set up camp. We had a bit of trouble getting up the bear bags and it was raining on us, but eventually we (Me, Jason, Ken and Gary) got it up and joined the rest of the group for a nights sleep.
Miles that day: ~7
Day 2 - Thinking back at this day, I can hardly believe it was all in one day. we started off from little Trapper going north past Trapper. a main portion of the group went ahead, but Ken was lagging a bit so Jason and I stayed with him most of the journey. we were supposed to meet up with another group that went in the Trapper Lake trail head, but they were delayed and had sickness so they planned on just staying at Trapper the whole time and not continuing on with us. I got a bloody nose on the trail not too long after leaving and that caused us to have to wait for a minute. My boots still have a few drops of blood (I'm writing this mid-november) on them. We hit Borum Lake and took a nice what seemed an hour long break, as Ken wasn't feeling all too well. I remember the mosquitos being nearly unbearable and I was greatful when the Hail came.The rest of the group at this point was nearing summit lake but took shelter from the hail in a patch of trees. We continued on and met up with someone that they had sent back to find us. We joined them in their shelter and waited for the storm to pass. When it did we all continued on up to Summit Lake. The Summit Lake basin is one of the most beautiful areas I had been up to that point, though to be greatly overshadowed the next day. At this point I decided I needed to get going a little faster to keep my energy up, so from Summit lake and on, I was basically leading everyone. We set camp at Pass lake and enjoyed the sunset alpenglow on Sky Pilot Peak.
Miles that day: ~8
Day 3 - We stareted the day going up some nasty switchbacks trying to enter into the Elbow lake basin. Just before reaching it we stopped at a very small, very gorgeous lake for a snack. At this point we were above treeline, and surrounded by granite slabs and lowlying grasses and bushes. It was like this for some miles afterwards. Upon entering the Elbow lake basin, I was in awe of one of the most glorious places on earth. we traversed across the basin for a pass on the other side. about half way across we met a man from Scottland. He had been to mountain ranges all over the norther hemishphere and said that this was among the most beautiful. I didn't doubt it. upon attaining the pass we had amazing views all around us. We were at the highpoint of our journey, at ~11,000 feet. the peaks around us were at 12,000-13,000 so they still towered above us, even at that elevation. Awesome views of Mt. Arrowhead, Mt. Oeneis, Sky Pilot Peak, Henderson Peak and G-17, a minor peak that I fell in love with at that moment (and just recently, as in the past few days, learned the name of). The majority of the group hurridly ran to Upper Jean Lake as we enjoed the view, and we joined them a few minutes later. We had lunch and fished there for an hour, although we planned on staying half that time, it was too beautiful to leave. I didn't fish the whole trip (it's not my thing), so I spent most of the time staring at G-17, which towered over us on the other side of the lake. I will climb it some day. After a good break we continued down, past Lower Jean Lake, a huge lake, and into the basin that the big water slide is in. At the rim of the basin was one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. We reached camp and set up for the night. We also met up with another group, including Jason's brother Jeremy, that was with us that had come in Elkhart park, and the rest of the time we would be with them.
Miles that day: ~6
Day 4 - Rest day. Nothing too notworth takes place.
MIles that day: ~0
Day 5 - I halfway love this day and halfway think of it as living heck. It got started off bad as gary (attpeting to retrive the bear bags from a rock crevasse we hid it in, fell in, 15 feet where he hyper extended his knee. Not a good thing to happen while in the backcountry. So we got some first aid (we had a OB/GYN and a pediatrician, and all we really needed was a knee doctor...( I for the life of me can't remember the name)), gave him a priesthood blessing and went on our way. We had origionally planned to go to Hobbes Lake this day, but we thought it would be a bad idea to have Gary rest on his knee s it would stiffen up and make him immobile. So we hiked. most of the group went on as usual, but we Me, Jason, Kena and Jeremy, stayed with Gary to help him out if needed. after long hours of slow hiking with the gimp we neared hobbes lake and we saw a man with a horse and a pack mule coming down. Ken did the talking and asked if there was room for a passenger. The man said in his wyoming accent "well, he can't ride her cause she's crazy" pointing at the mule. so he gave up his seat on the horse and rode the mule hiomself, effectively getting Gary off the mountain. Well, now with gary getting off the mountain we all regrouped at hobbes to plan our own descents. We had to do a car shuttle from Elkhart Park to Spring Creek, so the Plan was for Ken and another driver to book it down the trail and do the shuttle, two of the kids, 14 or so, were supposed to go first, drop their packs and come back to get ken's and the other adults, so they could move faster and me and jason were to help the weaker people. In my opinion they delegated us to the wrong job. Ken beat the kids to the trailhead, and I almost got there at the same time even with my extra trail milage. For I had to shuttle packs back and forth, wasting time, and waiting for people to come from the trailhead to retrieve the extra packs that the weaker people couldn't carry. Eventually we got sick of this and me and Jason took on two packs at once. The main problem with that was balance, which Jason worked out with climbing gear.. I didn't bring any however. I went a mile or so with 2 packs, and jason went 1.5 to 2 with 2 backpacks. This came to and end and I dropped one of the packs on the side of the trail, and made a haul to the trailhead, beating most of the group down. Near the trailhead I saw some of the people that were supposed to haul to the trailhead and come back and help us, finally doing so. I told them to continue past me and get the packs off the trail and from Jason. Upon reaching the trail, I rested, took a drink, kissed the asphalt and 5 minutes later went running back up the trail. after a mile or so it was clear that no one needed my help, so i went back and made hot chocolate on my camp stove while waiting.
Trail Miles: ~13
Traveled miles (going back and forth on the trail): ~20
Total miles: ~41
This was supposed to be a 50 miler, and got really close for a few of us, but wasn't quite. Oh well, it was still awesome and still a pain in the A.
