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- Apr 25, 2007
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So for the past several summers it has become tradition for me and some friends to do a backpacking trip to the Rocky Mountains. This year I was the only one of the normal crew that went, but I did get a couple new guys to come along. This year I decided on a route in the Wind River Range of Wyoming again, making it 2 years in a row for that range, and my third trip overall to the Wind Rivers. The Wind Rivers are in the Teton-Bridger National Forest.
Unfortunately the other guys I went with were not fully prepared (in my opinion) for the rather intense alpine route I had originally planned so I changed the route after the first morning in and we did a base camp/day hike plan instead. It was still a decent trip but not nearly as good as it would have been otherwise. I had made it quite explicit what the trip demanded but they still were underprepared and had a lot heavier packs than I would have liked to see them carry for the trip.
Anyway, on to the trip itself. We started at the Elkhart Park trailhead and hiked in to Island Lake where we camped for the majority of the trip. We spent two full days camped at Island Lake. First full day we dayhiked Indian Pass, second day I let the other two guys run around while I just moped and fished around Island Lake all day. We did five days in all, two days to hike in, two days at Island Lake, and one day out.
On to some pictures:
First up is my now traditional final pack prep picture. My pack is the blue Kelty that is unattended in this shot:
First day we started fairly late in the afternoon, about 4:30PM local time. This shot is from a place called "Photographer's Point" along the trail. This is the first good view of the range that you get when hiking in on this particular trail.
On the morning of Day 2 it rained for quite some time. We broke camp pretty late (after I prodded the other two out of the tent
) in the day and this is the point where I made the decision to call off the big loop and do a base camp at Island Lake instead. This image is from Big Seneca Lake, about halfway between the first camp and Island Lake, where we took a short break.
We made it to Island Lake in fairly reasonable time. From the trailhead, the trail is *very* easy for about the first six miles, then becomes a very rough, rocky trail the remaining six or seven miles to Island Lake. The lake is a great place to camp though, as it is close to a lot of great dayhike and peak climbing opportunities. It was also very crowded while we were there, unfortunately, although it wasn't a huge issue in the end.
The fishing was pretty poor as well, unfortunately. This is the one fish I caught in three days of pretty hard fishing. It was a really nice fish, though, and it certainly tasted very good.
We were treated to an amazing evening on the second night:
The next day we made a run up to Indian Pass, which was part of my original route. The pass is at just shy of 12,200ft elevation I believe. We had to stop halfway up and wait for some low clouds and storms to pass through. Here are the clouds obscuring Fremont and Jackson peaks.
The weather cleared and we were able to hike up the pass in some pretty good conditions.
To be continued...
Unfortunately the other guys I went with were not fully prepared (in my opinion) for the rather intense alpine route I had originally planned so I changed the route after the first morning in and we did a base camp/day hike plan instead. It was still a decent trip but not nearly as good as it would have been otherwise. I had made it quite explicit what the trip demanded but they still were underprepared and had a lot heavier packs than I would have liked to see them carry for the trip.
Anyway, on to the trip itself. We started at the Elkhart Park trailhead and hiked in to Island Lake where we camped for the majority of the trip. We spent two full days camped at Island Lake. First full day we dayhiked Indian Pass, second day I let the other two guys run around while I just moped and fished around Island Lake all day. We did five days in all, two days to hike in, two days at Island Lake, and one day out.
On to some pictures:
First up is my now traditional final pack prep picture. My pack is the blue Kelty that is unattended in this shot:
First day we started fairly late in the afternoon, about 4:30PM local time. This shot is from a place called "Photographer's Point" along the trail. This is the first good view of the range that you get when hiking in on this particular trail.
On the morning of Day 2 it rained for quite some time. We broke camp pretty late (after I prodded the other two out of the tent
) in the day and this is the point where I made the decision to call off the big loop and do a base camp at Island Lake instead. This image is from Big Seneca Lake, about halfway between the first camp and Island Lake, where we took a short break.
We made it to Island Lake in fairly reasonable time. From the trailhead, the trail is *very* easy for about the first six miles, then becomes a very rough, rocky trail the remaining six or seven miles to Island Lake. The lake is a great place to camp though, as it is close to a lot of great dayhike and peak climbing opportunities. It was also very crowded while we were there, unfortunately, although it wasn't a huge issue in the end.
The fishing was pretty poor as well, unfortunately. This is the one fish I caught in three days of pretty hard fishing. It was a really nice fish, though, and it certainly tasted very good.
We were treated to an amazing evening on the second night:
The next day we made a run up to Indian Pass, which was part of my original route. The pass is at just shy of 12,200ft elevation I believe. We had to stop halfway up and wait for some low clouds and storms to pass through. Here are the clouds obscuring Fremont and Jackson peaks.
The weather cleared and we were able to hike up the pass in some pretty good conditions.
To be continued...
