Wednesday, 7/23/08 Roanoke, VA to Phoenix, AZ
I had a flight schedule lined up that took me from Roanoke to Charlotte to Phoenix to Salt Lake City, where Greg would meet me and we’d rent a car and drive the 4 hours to the Wind River Range. Unfortunately, the weather was getting bad in Roanoke, with thunderstorms in the area, and so I was late getting out. It didn’t much matter in Charlotte, because their flights were late too, so I made my connection there, but Phoenix was a different story. I missed that flight and had to overnight at the Clarion in Phoenix.
Thursday, 7/24/08 Phoenix, AZ to the Wind River Range
We had not planned to leave from Salt Lake City until about noon on Thursday anyway, so my 5 a.m. flight out of Phoenix didn’t set us back much, it just took some of the built-in trip planning time out. I arrived in Salt Lake probably about 10 a.m., and Greg had already rented the car and picked me up. From there we went back to the hotel to pick up Greg’s gear, and hit the road. We stopped twice – once for a ‘last meal’ of greasy food, at a Wendy’s, and a stop in Rock Springs, Wyoming, to pick up some of the last-minute items that I’d planned to grab in Salt Lake, like a fishing license, camp fuel, and for the first time, hiking poles.
Soon we reached the tiny hamlet of Farson, Wyoming, home to a few ranches, an ice-cream store, and a gas station, and that’s about it from what I could tell. From Farson, the road to the Big Sandy trailhead, and the wonders of the Bridger Wilderness, was about a 45-mile trek down
a gravel road. We drove along the high desert and scrub brush, at an elevation of probably 6,000 feet or so, seeing the mountains in the distance. Towards the end of the gravel road we started gaining some altitude, and the landscape begin to change dramatically. Soon we were going through aspen groves, and then pine forests and green meadows. Close to the trailhead, we passed a school-bus commune of dirty hippies, and shortly thereafter, at least one nudist. A dude, unfortunately.We arrived at the trailhead, and there were a surprising amount of cars already parked there. We weighed our packs, and I had about 50 pounds, and Greg about 40. It was about 7 p.m. when we finally hit the trail, kind of late in the day. We hiked about 3 miles in, to a place Kacy and I had once camped 6 years before, near Divide Lake. The skeeters were bad again, but we were prepared with DEET and full-body mosquito suits this time! I didn’t bother with dinner, but Greg cooked on one of his homemade stoves - made from an aluminum beer bottle, inverted, and burning denatured alcohol – and we took a peek at the evening’s standard, yet unparalleled, Wind River star show before getting in our respective tents for the evening.
Friday, 7/25/08 Divide Lake to Maes Lake
We got up fairly early and made some breakfast, and were surprised to see about 15 people pack
out before we even left for the morning. That did not bode well, if there were that many people back here! But we were still close to the trailhead, and not into the deepest recesses of the Wilderness, so a lot of overnighters were still close by. Though we’d know of at least one other tent site fairly close every night in our stay, the human traffic was, in general, not intrusive or obnoxious – but it WAS more than I expected.It started as a typical summer day in the winds – sunny, cool, with the promise of the warming sun in no time. We started on the trail, and it was tough going this first day – my pack was heavy, I wasn’t yet used to the altitude, and wasn’t yet used to the physical exertion. I don’t get as much physical work in my engineer’s job! We strolled through the meadows of Fish Creek Park, playing hopscotch with a horsepacker who was providing guide service for a couple bound for Dads Lake (the girl seemed to be having fun, but we heard the guy bitching that the guide was supposed to be waiting up for them). We passed Mirror Lake and Dads Lake – a favorite of Kacy’s and mine from our last trip. We stopped and sat for awhile on a rock overlooking Dads Lake; like all these lakes in the Winds, it has its own distinct personality. Dads has boulder-free, gently sloping shorelines, and lots of boulder islands throughout the lake. It is a beautiful spot.
As we approached Marms Lake, the sky began to darken, as is also typical for a summer afternoon in the Winds (at least West of the Continental Divide – we didn’t get many rain threats
after we crossed to the East). We had run across an older couple from British Columbia at this time that we’d also hopscotch with for about a day at Marms. I only hope that can be me and Kacy when we’re in our 60’s!Rain began to come down, and it became an electrical storm, so we got off the trail and took shelter in the woods to wait it out. But it didn’t last long, and we were back on the Hailey Pass trail, making for Pyramid Lake. We crossed a wide-open flat of meadows on the trail, and the rain seemed to have energized the mosquitoes, as this stretch was the only time that we really had to wear any mosquito netting while we were actually hiking. Soon we were to a crossing of Washakie Creek, and the crossing looked a little unsafe to me - Greg managed his way across (though I seem to remember that he did dunk one boot), but I unbooted for this one and crossed it in sandals. We noticed later that the older couple had not followed – they camped without crossing the river, in a place where the mosquitoes were the worst that we saw! Worse, they had DEET but no netting.
We still intended to head for Pyramid Lake for the night’s camp, but by the time we got to Skull Lake (and by which time we were really “in the mountains”), the altitude and the weight of the pack was tiring me out. We’d come maybe 8 miles by that time, and took a break on the far side of Skull, looking out at the beautiful scenery. The sun had returned, and we were back to blue skies, snow-capped mountains, and a deep, dark alpine in front. It was hard to leave, but we decided only to go to the next lake (Maes Lake on some maps, but unnamed on the USGS topo). It was a good decision, because it placed our campsite back along the Hailey Pass trail, which was the course we would follow in two days.
An open field greeted us upon arrival at Maes, but with no cover or flat spot for camping. We scouted it out, Greg to the left and I to the right, and he found a good spot. What we didn’t know when we set up was exactly HOW close we were to the Hailey Pass Trail – only about 30 yards! We had diverged from it on the Pyramid Lake trail only shortly before, and didn’t expect to be camping right along it, but luckily we had good cover from the trail, and no one could see our tent sites.
I had a meal of Ramen, made totally unenjoyable due to the molestation I experienced at the hands of the dreaded skeeters. Greg’s fishing license was active, and he went and caught a trout, which later escaped his stringer knot. I didn’t fish because we had staggered our licenses, overlapping only one day – and Wyoming only offers out-of-state licenses by the day, at $14 per! So, if we were to eat fish all week, it didn’t make sense for both of us to pay $84.
Saturday, 7/26/08 Pyramid Lake
We decided on a day hike up to Pyramid Lake, mainly because we were taking a layover day here, and it seemed like a good place to check out, and there was word of some fish to be had in that lake. It was about a mile up the Pyramid Lake trail, the whole way along a gorgeous mountain stream that drains Pyramid Lake to fill Maes. We got to the lake and thought about
fishing…and yet….here was Midsummer Dome in front of us….probably better climb up it. We chose what appeared to be the best route, which was on the East Fork side of the dome, but in
retrospect we probably could have done better. We scrambled up some pretty hairy spots, to Greg’s delight but to my chagrin, in some cases at least. We did make it up to the top, and what a reward! The East Fork Lakes all came into view, under the sheer faces of Raid Peak and other glacier-strewn behemoths. And the Lakes, set against the gray of the sheer rock and the white of snow, were an amazingly picturesque deep blue, still partly iced. Another 120-degree turn showed us the whole of the valley that the East Fork River cut through, greening into wide meadows as it descended away from us. A further 120-degree turn gave an overlook of the entire Pyramid Lake, with Pyramid Peak just beyond it. Wow. 
On our way down, we saw some climbers coming up the Dome, and they gave us a better idea of a good way back. We started along the path, and were able to walk down for the most part, but then Greg pretty well lost his trail-blazing privileges when he took us down a snow slope, and then we had to go back up and over a boulder field to get back to Pyramid Lake.
Once back to Pyramid Lake, Greg tried a little fishing, but it had gotten pretty windy, and it was starting to cloud up. We headed back to Maes, storm clouds all around us, but never did really get much rain. I took a nap for awhile, and Greg set to fishing again, this time landing three trout. Of these, one died, one was too small, but one became part of dinner. Greg had brought the necessary preparations to gut, clean, and cook the fish, and he readied the subject in tin foil while I built a fire to get some cooking embers. After ten minutes or so on the coals, fresh fish was ready to eat, and added an already-welcome addition to the dry food diet. Preparation and clean-up were detailed tasks, if we were to make sure to keep the bears away – the tin foil with fish oil on it was burned to a crisp afterwards, and the carcass was buried under a rock, far from camp.
I should mention, too, that during our stay at Maes, after we’d been eating Mountain House brand dehydrated meals for a few days, Greg did make the following statement: “My poo tastes like Mountain House!” Meaning, of course, “smells”.
Sunday, 7/27/08 Up and Over the Continental Divide, to Grave Lake
Moving away from Maes Lake on the Hailey Pass Trail, we got above the tree line in short order, and started getting some fantastic views as we climbed – Maes Lake from above it, as well as Pyramid Peak and Midsummer Dome, a little farther off. The day had started cool and bright with a little breeze, perfect for hiking. As we neared the pass, we saw some huge snow banks on our right, below which the runoff was forming a few fairly wide streams, gurgling over the rocks. We soon came to the Twin Lakes, with that same deep color, and with large icebergs – and this was July! We were at about 11,100 feet when we reached the Lakes, and the Pass was just a bit further, where we crossed the Continental Divide - but not before taking in the fantastic view!
The ascent was not as tough as I might’ve expected, as we’d started to adapt well to the weight and altitude, but the descent was a different story. This was our first extended downhill of the
trip, and it was steep – and snow-covered in some places. We figured out that we could boot-ski down pretty well, and soon we had dropped about a thousand feet, bound for Grave Lake at 9,964. The trail was now named the Bears Ears Trail, and we lost it at one point, but we knew the river we had to cross, and picked a crossing just before it began a big drop into Grave. We got a great look at this waterfall, which cascaded about 50 feet.
We intended to get more to the far end of Grave Lake (a bigger one than most of the others we’d been to) before setting up camp, but the weather started threatening, so we stopped early. The campsite looked very Pacific Northwest, with damp, rotting logs in a few spots, and some lush green undergrowth by a stream. The rain never materialized, and soon Greg was fishing again; this time, he caught a monster mackinaw trout, with odd markings that neither of us had seen before, though it was confirmed as a mackinaw when we showed the picture to a fisherman later. We didn’t eat this one, as we weren’t prepared to go through the fish-cooking routine again, so he got to live to eat another spinner.
We both had some Mountain House, and then put a little fire together back at the camp site. The skeeters were way down, similar to what we’d find during most of our time on the east side of the Divide, so eating wasn’t an unpleasant experience this night.
Monday, 7/28/08 Grave Lake to Valentine Lake
We left the campsite at about 9:30, heading for the far end of Grave Lake, and on to Valentine Lake. We walked along Grave Lake for quite a while, big as it is, before reaching the far end. And
all the while, scenic sunsplashed views of the lake and mountains, as well as the distant Cathedral Peak, where we would be the next day. At the far end, we ran into a fishing camp that had horsepacked in, and they gave us some advice about the Bears Ears Trail ahead – our intended journey would take us up near 12,000 feet on this trail, and I was concerned by the amount of snow we’d seen so far at some of the lower elevations. The head fisherman assured us the trail ahead was plenty passable, confirmed our mackinaw trout, and we were on our way to Valentine Lake, a relatively short hike today.
At the far edge of Grave, there was a nice new footbridge over Grave Creek, who knows how that got there! We passed a little unnamed lake, and a waterfall of about 25 feet on an unnamed creek, before entering a fairly long meadow in a valley through which the South Fork of the Little Wind River flowed. Views were spectacular, as always – we had Payson Peak jutting up before us, and ridges on either side. The Bears Ears Trail intersected with the Washakie trail, and the Bears Ears took an eastward bend, crossing the Little Wind. We had a little elevation to gain, and soon we were at Valentine Lake, our highest camping site of the week at about 10,400 feet.
A mule deer wandered through camp quite noncahalantly, took a peek at us, and was totally unimpressed. So much so, he wandered by us nonchalantly as we fished the lake, too. My license was active now, and we started taking brook trout out of the lake – I took about 10 or so on spinners and rooster tails, three of which were eating size, and Greg took a few more, but no keepers. But we cooked our three, in an unbelievable kitchen – about 60 feet above Valentine Lake, with a full view of its entirety, and as the sun went down on our side, the far side was still lit, creating a powerful image. Greg had also brought couscous and dehydrated veggies, so dinner was as satisfying as we’d had yet.
We did have a another campsite within about 70 yards – I once walked away from the tent to take a leak, and was about to begin the process when I looked down towards the lake and saw a girl in her own campsite; luckily, I spotted her first.
Tuesday, 7/29/08 Valentine Lake to the Cirque of the Towers
We were up and out early this day, by my insistence – seems like it was barely after 7 when we hit the trail, even after having to break down camp, make breakfast, and get the packs together again. But we had a long day of about 12 miles or so ahead, and the topos showed a pretty steep uphill of about 1500 vertical feet to start it. And after we made that ascent, we would catch the Lizard Head Trail, which would stays at an elevation of about 11,500 feet, above tree line and exposed, for about 5 miles of southbound trail. Hardly the place to get caught in an afternoon thunderstorm!
The ascent wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. The climb was fairly gradual, and there were marmot, elk, and pika sightings along the way. It was still fairly early in the morning when we reached the plateau where Bears Ears met Lizard Head, so we were in good shape. We had a break at the intersection, then still had to climb up some as we started on Lizard Head heading
south, over a few snow fields at the beginning. But snow wasn’t really a problem, and as we had come up so high, the views were spectacular. Here the landscape around us had changed – for the next few miles the trail was through mostly high meadow – rocks (but fairly small, not boulders), wildflowers, singing birds, a few marmots, and plenty of majestic views of the sheer ridge faces to the west. As the trail approached an elevation of 12,000 feet, it was mostly all rocks, so we had to follow the cairns, before the land began a gentle descent.
As we began descending, we could see Lizard Head Meadows in front of us (and about 1700 feet down!), as well as high lakes to our west, an unnamed one at 11,260 feet with ice floating in it at the foot of a glacier, and another small one that had an outflowing stream feeding Bear Lake at 10,500. In the exposed land between the lakes, it seems that we got a picture of a bighorn sheep, though the vantage point was pretty far away.
The descent to Lizard Head Meadows was a bitch. We’d traveled a lot of miles already anyway, and then the downhill was continuous until we reached the meadows. About two thirds of the way down, we ran into a group of about fifteen who clearly didn’t know what they’d gotten into, already asking how much further they had to go up. They were a random group from all over that hiked together in various spots every year, but many were out of shape, and it was the organizer that seemed the most beat down. I suspect they had hard going getting to Valentine Lake, their stated goal!
My legs were burning, but after reaching the meadows, the land flattened and greened. We intersected with the North Fork trail and took it westward along the North Popo Agie River towards Lonesome Lake and the Cirque of the Towers. There was plenty of grazing opportunity down here, and it wasn’t long before I came face-to-face with a moose from about 25 feet away. Luckily, he decided to walk the other way instead of bullrushing me, which for a moment looked to be an option he was considering. We got to Lonesome Lake without further incident (although we did see some “hiker”’s llamas, tied off in a nearby field) and set up tent sites in the shadow of the Cirque of the Towers and rested for awhile.
After getting something to eat, we explored around Lonesome Lake and surroundings in the evening, hoping to catch sight of another moose. No luck, but then in the return to camp, we stumbled across a mama moose with her little baby, maybe 100 yards from camp, and got a few pictures.
Wednesday, 7/30/08 Cirque of the Towers to Big Sandy Lake
Jackass Pass was on the menu today, up and over the Continental Divide again. Not until the top of the pass would the views of the Cirque be really awe-inspiring, at least to me. But we started on the wrong foot, taking the wrong route up to the pass, and having to bushwhack back over. But we had gotten acclimated well enough that the rigorous uphill wasn’t a problem. And from the pass there were great views on both sides – on the west side, it was Arrowhead Lake, and on the east, the entirety of the Cirque of the Towers, with Lonesome Lake in its ring.
But now the end of the trip was in sight, as our goal was Big Sandy Lake, and just five miles beyond it the next day, the trailhead. The Winds still had something to show, however, and the trail was still spectacular, going past Arrowhead Lake and an unnamed lake (at least on the topo – other maps showed ‘North Lake’, I think). We were at Big Sandy pretty early, and discovered that bear canisters were required, though we had none. Evidently this lake sees a lot of visitation and therefore attracts bears. And we did see plenty of people – a bunch of groups of kids with packs way too cumbersome to do any real backpacking, who were hiking in to fish and, presumably, do some Bible study. We joked that they’d all disappear around 8 for the prayer meeting, and then sure enough, they all disappeared! I spent the evening fishing, and caught
a few brookies, but wasn’t feeling like cooking them, even had they been big enough. Dinner was a Mountain House, and we also came up with the humorous idea of hosting a dinner party, then serving people bags of Mountain House, and giving them boiling water with which to rehydrate and cook them. High-class.
It was tough to camp very far away from people at this spot, so there was a group of kids not far away – and one of them hung their food, a good, sound practice in bear country – but he had only hung it about 8 feet up or so, and worse, he had hung it in camp, DIRECTLY ABOVE HIS TENT. The Bible study leader obviously had given him some faulty advice.
Thursday, 7/31/08 Big Sandy Lake back to the Trailhead
Only 5 miles or so separated us from the trailhead now, and it was all gentle downhill along the Big Sandy River. We reached the vehicle, luckily still intact, without retracing a single one of our steps over the whole week. It worked out perfectly – I had kind of been thinking that instead of taking the Lizard Head trail, we should go back over Washakie Pass, in case Lizard Head was
impassable due to snow. So it was a lucky break that we ran into that fisherman, or we would have had to retrace about a days worth of travel at the end. Although, I imagine we probably would have picked Lizard Head anyway, if it had come to a hard decision. We weighed the packs out, and I was at about 40 lbs., Greg around 30.
Once out, we stopped in Farson, where I had an ice cream, and saw a lady pull her kid closer to her after seeing me (a bit dirty, definitely stinky, unshaven, in nasty clothes. I don’t blame her.), and then found the first Mexican restaurant (about 100 miles away) for some real food and beer. That is always the best reward on these trips – the first meal out of the woods!
Then there was a four-hour drive back to SLC, where there were showers! Greg had taken pictures for me with his camera during the trip, and I’d taken pictures for him, so we stopped at a drugstore to make digital copies and trade them. Here, a Chickdude was working the photo shop. I had noticed that it was a quite unattractive lady, and thought maybe there was a medical or genetic issue or something, but then Greg commented out of earshot that it was a dude. On closer inspection, it had the biceps of a male, it had a receding hairline, and it had a five o’clock shadow. Definitely a dude.
With a few hours left in town, we took a look at the Mormon art and history museum downtown, looked in their family history library (would have been useful in my work a few years ago!), looked at Temple Square, and then drank some beer at the Red Rock Brewing Company. Then, flew out in the morning.
Once back to Pyramid Lake, Greg tried a little fishing, but it had gotten pretty windy, and it was starting to cloud up. We headed back to Maes, storm clouds all around us, but never did really get much rain. I took a nap for awhile, and Greg set to fishing again, this time landing three trout. Of these, one died, one was too small, but one became part of dinner. Greg had brought the necessary preparations to gut, clean, and cook the fish, and he readied the subject in tin foil while I built a fire to get some cooking embers. After ten minutes or so on the coals, fresh fish was ready to eat, and added an already-welcome addition to the dry food diet. Preparation and clean-up were detailed tasks, if we were to make sure to keep the bears away – the tin foil with fish oil on it was burned to a crisp afterwards, and the carcass was buried under a rock, far from camp.
I should mention, too, that during our stay at Maes, after we’d been eating Mountain House brand dehydrated meals for a few days, Greg did make the following statement: “My poo tastes like Mountain House!” Meaning, of course, “smells”.
Sunday, 7/27/08 Up and Over the Continental Divide, to Grave Lake
Moving away from Maes Lake on the Hailey Pass Trail, we got above the tree line in short order, and started getting some fantastic views as we climbed – Maes Lake from above it, as well as Pyramid Peak and Midsummer Dome, a little farther off. The day had started cool and bright with a little breeze, perfect for hiking. As we neared the pass, we saw some huge snow banks on our right, below which the runoff was forming a few fairly wide streams, gurgling over the rocks. We soon came to the Twin Lakes, with that same deep color, and with large icebergs – and this was July! We were at about 11,100 feet when we reached the Lakes, and the Pass was just a bit further, where we crossed the Continental Divide - but not before taking in the fantastic view!
The ascent was not as tough as I might’ve expected, as we’d started to adapt well to the weight and altitude, but the descent was a different story. This was our first extended downhill of the
trip, and it was steep – and snow-covered in some places. We figured out that we could boot-ski down pretty well, and soon we had dropped about a thousand feet, bound for Grave Lake at 9,964. The trail was now named the Bears Ears Trail, and we lost it at one point, but we knew the river we had to cross, and picked a crossing just before it began a big drop into Grave. We got a great look at this waterfall, which cascaded about 50 feet.We intended to get more to the far end of Grave Lake (a bigger one than most of the others we’d been to) before setting up camp, but the weather started threatening, so we stopped early. The campsite looked very Pacific Northwest, with damp, rotting logs in a few spots, and some lush green undergrowth by a stream. The rain never materialized, and soon Greg was fishing again; this time, he caught a monster mackinaw trout, with odd markings that neither of us had seen before, though it was confirmed as a mackinaw when we showed the picture to a fisherman later. We didn’t eat this one, as we weren’t prepared to go through the fish-cooking routine again, so he got to live to eat another spinner.
We both had some Mountain House, and then put a little fire together back at the camp site. The skeeters were way down, similar to what we’d find during most of our time on the east side of the Divide, so eating wasn’t an unpleasant experience this night.
Monday, 7/28/08 Grave Lake to Valentine Lake
We left the campsite at about 9:30, heading for the far end of Grave Lake, and on to Valentine Lake. We walked along Grave Lake for quite a while, big as it is, before reaching the far end. And
all the while, scenic sunsplashed views of the lake and mountains, as well as the distant Cathedral Peak, where we would be the next day. At the far end, we ran into a fishing camp that had horsepacked in, and they gave us some advice about the Bears Ears Trail ahead – our intended journey would take us up near 12,000 feet on this trail, and I was concerned by the amount of snow we’d seen so far at some of the lower elevations. The head fisherman assured us the trail ahead was plenty passable, confirmed our mackinaw trout, and we were on our way to Valentine Lake, a relatively short hike today.At the far edge of Grave, there was a nice new footbridge over Grave Creek, who knows how that got there! We passed a little unnamed lake, and a waterfall of about 25 feet on an unnamed creek, before entering a fairly long meadow in a valley through which the South Fork of the Little Wind River flowed. Views were spectacular, as always – we had Payson Peak jutting up before us, and ridges on either side. The Bears Ears Trail intersected with the Washakie trail, and the Bears Ears took an eastward bend, crossing the Little Wind. We had a little elevation to gain, and soon we were at Valentine Lake, our highest camping site of the week at about 10,400 feet.
A mule deer wandered through camp quite noncahalantly, took a peek at us, and was totally unimpressed. So much so, he wandered by us nonchalantly as we fished the lake, too. My license was active now, and we started taking brook trout out of the lake – I took about 10 or so on spinners and rooster tails, three of which were eating size, and Greg took a few more, but no keepers. But we cooked our three, in an unbelievable kitchen – about 60 feet above Valentine Lake, with a full view of its entirety, and as the sun went down on our side, the far side was still lit, creating a powerful image. Greg had also brought couscous and dehydrated veggies, so dinner was as satisfying as we’d had yet.We did have a another campsite within about 70 yards – I once walked away from the tent to take a leak, and was about to begin the process when I looked down towards the lake and saw a girl in her own campsite; luckily, I spotted her first.
Tuesday, 7/29/08 Valentine Lake to the Cirque of the Towers
We were up and out early this day, by my insistence – seems like it was barely after 7 when we hit the trail, even after having to break down camp, make breakfast, and get the packs together again. But we had a long day of about 12 miles or so ahead, and the topos showed a pretty steep uphill of about 1500 vertical feet to start it. And after we made that ascent, we would catch the Lizard Head Trail, which would stays at an elevation of about 11,500 feet, above tree line and exposed, for about 5 miles of southbound trail. Hardly the place to get caught in an afternoon thunderstorm!
The ascent wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. The climb was fairly gradual, and there were marmot, elk, and pika sightings along the way. It was still fairly early in the morning when we reached the plateau where Bears Ears met Lizard Head, so we were in good shape. We had a break at the intersection, then still had to climb up some as we started on Lizard Head heading
south, over a few snow fields at the beginning. But snow wasn’t really a problem, and as we had come up so high, the views were spectacular. Here the landscape around us had changed – for the next few miles the trail was through mostly high meadow – rocks (but fairly small, not boulders), wildflowers, singing birds, a few marmots, and plenty of majestic views of the sheer ridge faces to the west. As the trail approached an elevation of 12,000 feet, it was mostly all rocks, so we had to follow the cairns, before the land began a gentle descent.As we began descending, we could see Lizard Head Meadows in front of us (and about 1700 feet down!), as well as high lakes to our west, an unnamed one at 11,260 feet with ice floating in it at the foot of a glacier, and another small one that had an outflowing stream feeding Bear Lake at 10,500. In the exposed land between the lakes, it seems that we got a picture of a bighorn sheep, though the vantage point was pretty far away.
The descent to Lizard Head Meadows was a bitch. We’d traveled a lot of miles already anyway, and then the downhill was continuous until we reached the meadows. About two thirds of the way down, we ran into a group of about fifteen who clearly didn’t know what they’d gotten into, already asking how much further they had to go up. They were a random group from all over that hiked together in various spots every year, but many were out of shape, and it was the organizer that seemed the most beat down. I suspect they had hard going getting to Valentine Lake, their stated goal!
My legs were burning, but after reaching the meadows, the land flattened and greened. We intersected with the North Fork trail and took it westward along the North Popo Agie River towards Lonesome Lake and the Cirque of the Towers. There was plenty of grazing opportunity down here, and it wasn’t long before I came face-to-face with a moose from about 25 feet away. Luckily, he decided to walk the other way instead of bullrushing me, which for a moment looked to be an option he was considering. We got to Lonesome Lake without further incident (although we did see some “hiker”’s llamas, tied off in a nearby field) and set up tent sites in the shadow of the Cirque of the Towers and rested for awhile.
After getting something to eat, we explored around Lonesome Lake and surroundings in the evening, hoping to catch sight of another moose. No luck, but then in the return to camp, we stumbled across a mama moose with her little baby, maybe 100 yards from camp, and got a few pictures.
Wednesday, 7/30/08 Cirque of the Towers to Big Sandy Lake
Jackass Pass was on the menu today, up and over the Continental Divide again. Not until the top of the pass would the views of the Cirque be really awe-inspiring, at least to me. But we started on the wrong foot, taking the wrong route up to the pass, and having to bushwhack back over. But we had gotten acclimated well enough that the rigorous uphill wasn’t a problem. And from the pass there were great views on both sides – on the west side, it was Arrowhead Lake, and on the east, the entirety of the Cirque of the Towers, with Lonesome Lake in its ring.
But now the end of the trip was in sight, as our goal was Big Sandy Lake, and just five miles beyond it the next day, the trailhead. The Winds still had something to show, however, and the trail was still spectacular, going past Arrowhead Lake and an unnamed lake (at least on the topo – other maps showed ‘North Lake’, I think). We were at Big Sandy pretty early, and discovered that bear canisters were required, though we had none. Evidently this lake sees a lot of visitation and therefore attracts bears. And we did see plenty of people – a bunch of groups of kids with packs way too cumbersome to do any real backpacking, who were hiking in to fish and, presumably, do some Bible study. We joked that they’d all disappear around 8 for the prayer meeting, and then sure enough, they all disappeared! I spent the evening fishing, and caught
a few brookies, but wasn’t feeling like cooking them, even had they been big enough. Dinner was a Mountain House, and we also came up with the humorous idea of hosting a dinner party, then serving people bags of Mountain House, and giving them boiling water with which to rehydrate and cook them. High-class.It was tough to camp very far away from people at this spot, so there was a group of kids not far away – and one of them hung their food, a good, sound practice in bear country – but he had only hung it about 8 feet up or so, and worse, he had hung it in camp, DIRECTLY ABOVE HIS TENT. The Bible study leader obviously had given him some faulty advice.
Thursday, 7/31/08 Big Sandy Lake back to the Trailhead
Only 5 miles or so separated us from the trailhead now, and it was all gentle downhill along the Big Sandy River. We reached the vehicle, luckily still intact, without retracing a single one of our steps over the whole week. It worked out perfectly – I had kind of been thinking that instead of taking the Lizard Head trail, we should go back over Washakie Pass, in case Lizard Head was
impassable due to snow. So it was a lucky break that we ran into that fisherman, or we would have had to retrace about a days worth of travel at the end. Although, I imagine we probably would have picked Lizard Head anyway, if it had come to a hard decision. We weighed the packs out, and I was at about 40 lbs., Greg around 30.Once out, we stopped in Farson, where I had an ice cream, and saw a lady pull her kid closer to her after seeing me (a bit dirty, definitely stinky, unshaven, in nasty clothes. I don’t blame her.), and then found the first Mexican restaurant (about 100 miles away) for some real food and beer. That is always the best reward on these trips – the first meal out of the woods!
Then there was a four-hour drive back to SLC, where there were showers! Greg had taken pictures for me with his camera during the trip, and I’d taken pictures for him, so we stopped at a drugstore to make digital copies and trade them. Here, a Chickdude was working the photo shop. I had noticed that it was a quite unattractive lady, and thought maybe there was a medical or genetic issue or something, but then Greg commented out of earshot that it was a dude. On closer inspection, it had the biceps of a male, it had a receding hairline, and it had a five o’clock shadow. Definitely a dude.
With a few hours left in town, we took a look at the Mormon art and history museum downtown, looked in their family history library (would have been useful in my work a few years ago!), looked at Temple Square, and then drank some beer at the Red Rock Brewing Company. Then, flew out in the morning.
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See the photo album below for more pics of the trip!
