Bogley

[Glockguy]

Well I'm a slacker and just put the finishing touches on this almost a year after we did it. I am heading back in a little over 2 months.

-Day 1-
-Wednesday July 19-

Adam , John , and Ben (Me) left Salt Lake City around 4:30 p.m. to drive the 240 miles to Pinedale Wyoming. We stopped off at Evanston WY to get our fishing licenses and some Wendy’s. The remaining drive to Pinedale was uneventful with us arriving at the Half Moon Lodge at around 10:00 p.m.

We spent the next few hours finalizing our packing and watching Dumb and Dumber. We also sprayed down some of our clothing and hats with permathrin, an insecticide used to fight mosquitoes.

-Day 2-
-Thursday July 20-

After a hot night’s sleep on thin mattresses we went over to Main Street in Pinedale for some breakfast. It was cool to see lots of other backpackers from all over the country in there eating too. People just plopped their packs down right at the entryway to the restaurant while they had there last “home cooked” meal for a while.

As we headed out of town and up to the trailhead, we saw a giant brook trout perched on top of a business. Seeing that fish got us even more excited to hit the trail and go after some of our own.

We got to the Elkhart Park and were surprised to see over 100 cars in the parking lot. This definitely was a high use trailhead as was claimed throughout the internet.

This trailhead and our whole adventure would be taking place at pretty high elevation. Elkhart Park is at 9,100 feet, which is 100 feet higher than Mount Olympus in Utah!

We hit the trail and were excited to see that it was very forgiving. After we had been going for about a mile, we ran into a group of three guys from Minnesota who had been out in the bush for 10 days. They had just climbed Gannett Peak, which is Wyoming’s tallest mountain at 13,804 feet. They were excited to hear that they were almost at the end of their excursion.

Hiking for another mile brought us out of the forest and into a field. Because we were at such high elevation, spring was just coming to this field. It was covered in purple, yellow, and red flowers. The massive rocky peaks provided the backdrop.

We continued to run into other people hiking and horseback riding. One guy was an Indian who was packing supplies into a fishing camp somewhere.

After making our way through the meadow, the trail headed north a bit. The elevation continues to climb, and we came to the viewpoint known as “Photographer’s Point”. It was quite the sight with lots of rivers and lakes below the mountain peaks.

We enjoyed the view for a bit and pressed on towards our next main stopping point, a river crossing at the Pole Creek Lakes. The trail had a few switchbacks and eventually dropped down in elevation towards the Pole Creek Lakes area.

We had some lunch and enjoyed the shade. There was a guy camped nearby that was hiking the Continental Divide Trail which is 3,100 miles long going from Canada to Mexico and taking 6 months to complete.

During lunch we took off our boots and soaked our feet in the cold water. Afterwards we made our crossing. The water wasn’t too swift, but we were happy to have trekking poles and Teva’s to help keep us from slipping on the slimy rocks.

Now we were on the south side of the main Pole Creek Lakes lake. As we headed west to towards the outlet of the lake we were now officially bushwhacking, as the main trail was now gone. This made the going a lot more difficult.

Continuing eastward, we followed the creek out of the Pole Creek Lake down towards 1000 Island Lake. We lost a lot of elevation and did some boulder hopping. When we arrived at the shores of 1000 Island Lake it was about 4 p.m. We were all really tired, and the thought of bushwhacking another 3 miles down to Junction Lake was hard to imagine. We decided to set up camp here for the night.

Camp #1 was at N-43 0.169 W-109 38.284. It was a little marshy as you headed down towards the lake. After setting up camp we all took a nap. We were tired. I had burned ~6500 calories according to my heart rate monitor.

After the nap we had a dinner of chicken enchiladas. We warmed up the chicken with enchilada sauce, cheese, and tortillas. It was pretty tasty.

With full stomachs we decided to do some fishing. We fished for about 2 hours and only caught 5-6 fish amongst ourselves. As it was getting really dark, I hooked into what had to have been a pretty big fish. It began to take some drag out of my reel. I think I set it too tight, because the fish then made a turn and snapped my line. I was kinda sad I didn’t even get to see what the fish looked like.

We hung our food in a tree then started a fire. It was a desolate feeling because we were not where we had planned on being that night. We were a little concerned with how long it would take to get out of here now. It was a good feeling to know that we had all the food and supplies we would need to live for a while though.

-Day 3-
-Friday July 21-


The next morning after a breakfast of oatmeal we broke camp. We were eager to head down to where we had originally planned on spending night #1. We climbed south of 1000 Island Lake and took in a cool view. The lake reflected the deep blue of the sky. This view kind of reminded me of some pictures I have seen of the coastline in Greece.

Remember from this point on we were traveling over terrain without a trail, and that made the going a lot slower than it could have been. Once we climbed high enough we saw a few lakes that had lilies and yellow flowers floating in them.

We eventually made our way down a long rocky chute. It took a long time to cover with how slow we were moving with our heavy packs as we hopped from boulder to boulder. We were way happy to have our trekking poles with us here, because they helped us keep balance on the odd shaped rocks. This would have been a dangerous area to be traveling by yourself, as the huge boulders would move from time to time. If one fell and trapped you, at least the other 2 guys were around to know where you were at.

At this point we were a little concerned about heading back to the Sweeney Lakes Area from where we were at now. At the rate of speed we were going it seemed like it might 2 days to get out of here. We knew that we could always turn around and head back the way we came, but we weren’t ready to give up yet.

We decided to spend the night at this lake. We found a pretty good area and set up camp. It was a flat crater shaped area just below a small ridge overlooking the lake. We set up camp in the crater area and used the ridge area to do a fire.



After we set up camp and headed to the east side of the lake to catch some dinner. The brookies here were pretty big and easy to catch. We caught 8 or so and cleaned them. We just put the fish in foil and buried them under the coals.

We also did some swimming and laundry near the south end of the lake where it narrowed down into a river. The water was cold but it felt good to get clean and cool off.

I also noticed that I had a major lack in appetite. I think it was from getting dehydrated and from the elevation. I brought along some Gatorade and had to force myself to drink that.

That night it seemed a few degrees cooler at night, but it was nowhere near cold. We had fire just for dinner and for the fun of it. We also burned all of our garbage and other stuff we didn’t want to pack out in the morning. We had decided after looking at the maps that we should try to just head out going east the next day. We did not know for sure how long it may take us.

-Day 4-
-Saturday July 22-

I got up around 9 the next day. I was kind of mad that I had slept in and not got up earlier to do some more fishing. We packed up camp and headed out of the small valley we were in. It took about 45 minutes to get out of that area and on some more level ground.

What was probably our best luck of the whole trip was when we ran into an unexpected trail at about N-43 59.753 W-109 39.854. This made the going a lot faster. We noticed lots of elk carcasses along this trail. Many of them were scattered around and pretty chewed up. There was also a lot of bear scat in the area. I was happy we had bear spray and a firearm with us.

The bugs were really annoying at this point. There was a constant swarm overhead that kept us on the move. If you got tired and stopped they would tick you off even more. I had some Ultrathon repellent that worked ok but it seemed like we sweated it off too fast.

After climbing up the hill we ended up in some kinder terrain near Middle Sweeney Lake. We stopped and had lunch. It was a little breezy here and the bugs weren’t too bad at all. The flowers appeared to be in full bloom and were awesome. They carpeted the areas near the lakes and made for some nice pictures.

After a little break we headed towards Miller Lake. On the west side of this lake we found some pretty good spots to camp. Looking back it might have been better if we had just spent our first night here instead of the hotel. It would have been cheaper and I think we would have slept better.

On the hill up towards the Pole Creek Trail we ran into a guy and lady from the UUtah website that were on their way down to Junction Lake. I thought it was funny to run into them. I had planned my trip here back in November 2005 laughed at the coincidence of running into them now. We talked to them about the area for about 10 minutes then wished them good luck.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We ran into TONS of scout groups heading in for the weekend. We were tired for the last mile or so, but visions of cold drink in Pinedale pushed us forward. We were tired but happy to get to the vehicle.

Here are some things that I will do different next time I head to the Wind Rivers.
-Bring less food, there is plenty of fish
-Only carry about 1 Liter of water, there are plenty of places to get more.
-Plan out group gear better (No need for 3 stoves for 3 people)
-Bring less clothing, just wash dirty stuff
-Take more pictures
-Lighter sleeping bag for July? I was pretty warm. I think I could have been ok with just a fleece blanket.


Overall it was a fun trip and I am looking forward to two more trips to the Winds in August 2007.

[goofball]

the winds are beautiful. i spent a few nights up in bear basin a coupel years back. gorgeous...

[spiraleyes]

The half moon... LOL cheapest place in town (for good reason)

It's very important to pack light and follow a good trail when you're in the Winds. They are very different from the Uintahs and you can get yourself into trouble easily. Besides the thick over growth, dead fall, and boulders, the elevation gain and loss can be dramatic.

Good report and pictures! :2thumbs: