I wrote this trip report to post to our online hiking communities. I will post here for anyone that wants to read as well. Sorry so long. We hiked 80+ miles through this incredible wilderness. It was a great challenge and great experience with most of our hike above treeline at 10500 ft. Cant wait to go back Doug and Anita Tour 2014 Wind River Range Wyoming The drive out was fun. The anticipation always adds to that. We rented a car to avoid the wear of 3000 miles on ours. We had a Ford Focus and it got 37 mpg. Sweet! Stopped at Wall Drug we did our part to keep them in business. Anita got nail polish remover and we got ice cream. Then hit the road again. Not big on the touristy stuff. We drove through the Bighorns early evening. What a beautiful area that was as well. But as we got higher it was rainy and foggy. So we were glad to drive out of it. Made it to the sleepy town of Worland WY. just in time to grab some beer and wine and our favorite Subway! We had drove over 900 miles that day but it flew by. Off early the next day, heading toward Pinedale and I must say Wyoming is beautiful, right from the start. So much different terrain. A very enjoyable ride. We were getting our first looks at the Winds. Super excited! We got to Pinedale early afternoon. What a beautiful small town. It has this Hiker culture slash cowboy vibe going on. ...very cool. And we stayed at the Log Cabin Inn early afternoon. Nice place to stay, great history. If we had a extra $1.5 million lying around, might consider buying it because it is for sale. Visited with the owner for a bit. He had recently done a horse pack trip into the Winds. We were right in town so we were able to walk to anywhere. So we headed over to the Great Outdoors Shop. Laura and Josh had been a big help throughout the planning process. It was nice to meet them finally. We heard from them then, the reports of 6 inches of snow and 60 mph winds in the Titcomb Basin. Flocks of hikers coming out early. And we later talked to the guy in the next cabin. He had been on a 10 day solo out of Big Sandy area and said he was literally running down the trail seeking some shelter. Needless to say we were a little spooked by these stories. But the forecast looked ok so our plans where still a GO! So we left our itinerary with the GOS picked up the hot trout lure. And went right next door to the Wind River Brewery and shared a great salad and big burger along with a few of their tasty brews. We kinda let our normally healthy diet slip a little on this trip, but hey we are on vacation, and besides were gonna burn it off. Right. We took a nice evening drive up to Elkhart Park. Just to see. Once again, the weather forecast wasnt bad. With the best rain chances early in the trip. Up early next day. Its GO time! We both have a few butterflies as we head to the trailhead. We hope we are ready. Its cool out, but pretty nice. We make the last minute call to bring our fleeces despite the added weight. Turned out to be a good decision. So I crawled under the car clipped the keys to hidden spot above coil spring. And we were off. You do see quite a few people coming and going from the Elkhart Park TH, but once the trails start to branch off, everyone scatters off in all directions. We have a nice hike out to Hobbs Lake but didnt get any decent pics at Photographers Point, the high peaks were wrapped with clouds. But calling our name nonetheless. By talking to some guys along the trail, they told us of a nice campsite on the north end of Hobbs so we headed for that. It turned out to be a beauty. We could have gone further but almost everyone was headed to Seneca Lake. We were alone at Hobbs...cool! You catch glimpses of the high country as work your way in, just adding to the excitement! After dinner, time to fish. Not much for surfacing trout at that time. Tried a few spots with no luck. Had a relaxing time that eve, taking it all in. And on cue the fish started to surface. So I slid down to the lake for a last attempt. Made a few casts and then the raindrops started and shut the action off before it could get started. Day 1.....0 fish. No worries, had a great start to trip. Up early to clear skies. The mornings were always cool. Upper 30s. But the sun quickly warmed things up and in no time your stripping off layers. Headed toward Island Lake today. Laura at GOS had told us of some nice off trail campsites above the falls. So here was our first experience ever off trail. After a bushwack through the willows and a steep climb up from the falls the views really opened up. Incredible sights in all directions. We were giddy! We found some nice spots on the now open tundra just below Indian Pass trail but it was early, So we decided to push on into Titcomb Basin. It was a beautiful day and we knew how hostel an environment it could be on a stormy day. So this was our chance and It was well worth it. We were treated to a gorgeous day in Titcomb. What an amazing place towering peaks in all directions. We set up camp on a ledge above the trail and above lower Titcomb Lake. Being in the Basin has such a surreal feel to it. All the time and planning involved to get here,and now here we are sitting in the sun in this ominous place. Unbelievable! We had a nice falls down below camp so time to wet a line again. Worked the areas I could with no luck again. What was I doing wrong? Day 2....0 fish. We had hopes of trying climbing up to Dinwoody Pass or Knapsack Col, but the fresh snow above us prevented us from that. We werent prepared equipment wise and had only a little experience crossing snowfields. Sotoday we just hiked up the Basin towards those obstacles. We met up again with a group of 10 that we had met the previous day. Today they were heading over Knapsack Col. We wished them well and we enjoyed watching their progress through binoculars as they made their way up into that snowy environment, as we had a little lunch on the edge of a snowfield below Dinwoody Pass. The peeks of blue skies had turned to overcast now so we started back toward camp. No need for a trail, it was a blast working our way back over the open slabs of granite and small boulder fields, winding thru all the small streams running down from everywhere now. We could see Mistake Lake hanging above our camp behind a small ridge. We were headed for the small draw below it. As we worked our way back towards camp there was some light showers. Once we were back, it was raining enough for us to slide into tent for a bit. An hour later it was over and we decided to move camp. This became our pattern. Dayhike then move camp in the eve. As we packed up the skies where still gray and threatening. But the showers were done. We hiked back over and set up camp on the benchland below Fremont Peak and the Indian Basin trail. The sun came out again for a beautiful evening setting, sitting in shadow of these towering peaks! Also had a small rapid below camp and first cast in the swirling waters. Bingo... fish on! That was it..missed a few strikes and have renewed hope Yay.. 1 fish today. Another wonderful day in the Winds! It was a beautiful clear night, I know because Anita was outside in the middle of the night, doing whatever girls do in the middle night and she told me so. So I stuck my head outside to check out the beautiful display of stars. Clear and cold to be exact. And it dawned the same way. Theres nothing like the warmth of the sun coming over the mountains on those chilly mornings. Indian Pass was on the schedule today. We had thoughts of Fremont Peak, but a lot of fresh snow was still visible so we ruled it out. We headed up the path just looking around, trying to stay on the trail but unknowingly heading up to the east. Slowly the trail petered out near a dry, boulder fill drainage. We worked our way up that and came to A lake. One lake? This didnt look right. So I pulled out map and compass and realized we had wandered up the wrong drainage and where at the tarn below Elephant Head. No problem, we can work our way down the lake to north and follow the connecting creek to the west and get to the Indian Basin. One problem. This is some damn rough terrain and you really have to scope things out to avoid crossing the boulder fields and steep slopes and ledges. Eventually we made our way into Indian Basin for a little lunch. We had lost to much time taking the long way that we didnt make it to the pass. We actually found the real trail. Then promptly lost it again and ended up on a high ledge looking down another dry rocky draw. But from above I could see the route we needed to go and creatively made our way through the rocks a down a grassy steep slope and found the trail again. This time for good. We made our way back to camp, tired and sunburn, but exhilarated by the days experience. So hey! Lets move camp. So we packed up and headed down to Island Lake for the evening. This is where we seen the most people. There were quite a few tents along the south shore of the lake. But its a vast area and we had a sweet shady spot right across from the falls. Found a nice spot to cast from shore, but skunked again. Oh well. We were beat. Another epic Winds day in the books. Woke up to sunshine the next day. Our goal today was to get to Upper Jean. We were kinda slow getting out of camp today and then backtracked to much so we ended up putting some miles on. We hiked back SE above Island Lake. We also continued up the drainage going away from the lake beneath Mount Lester. We followed the trail until it kinda petered out. Had a little snack before meandering back down and then up again steeply to catch the Highline trail again only to walk past it and then after realizing our mistake, had to backtrack again. Finally on the right trail, we still had 5+ miles to gotoday. The first few miles were an unwelcome hard up and down stretch. We stopped for a much needed lunch at the bridge at Fremont Crossing. We were kinda kicking ourselves for not just talking the shortcut from Island Lake to here and We talked of getting to Lower Jean today and calling it good. We started back, on the up and down trail. And as we were getting close to Lower Jean it turned into a beautiful walk. We were re energized by lunch, the trail seemed to level off and we continued all the way up to the north end of Upper Jean. We had the lake to ourselves in this incredibly scenic spot and all the way down the lake I was constantly seeing fish surface. After a quick camp set up. It was down to the business of catching some fish. And business was good. I never caught so many trout in a short time. My hands were freezing from so much catch and release. So all the while we were at Upper Jean. I would whip the water into a frenzy every chance I got. This is what its all about for me standing below these massive snowcapped peaks, catching these beautiful fish from these crystal clear, cold waters! What a great day it had been. We were beat again. But had huge smiles on our faces. We had the lake to ourselves until a group of 3 arrived late. They were on day 7 of 11. Mostly off trail, we were the first people they seen for some time. They hadnt had any luck fishing so far. I told them their luck was about to change. Later we could hear them whooping it up and laughing as they caught fish too! Cant say it enough. Great day! Our plan today was to hike up over Shannon Pass and Cube Rock Pass to check out Peak Lake. So after breakfast and a few casts and a half dozen more trout caught and released, we were off. We met up with the two guys from the other camp. They were older then us and we are 40 something. And they were going to climb one of the peaks across the lake and I thought to myself. Man. ..we are going to have to step it up here. We are day hiking and these old guys are climbing mountains. We both said after that we wished we had went with them. We still had a awesome day but we could have bagged a peak. It didnt take them much longer than our adventure. But we had a great day hiking to Peak Lake the Cube Rock Pass area is like a moon scape high above the lake. The sheer vastness of the Winds continues to amaze. We also did a side trip over to Elbow Lake hoping to catch a fish or two but the wind had pick up and made it hard to fish from our vantage point. Had a little lunch before starting back. And again losing the trail. No worries, you know where you need to go and the country is so open its fun just to rock hop back. The wind had picked up considerably and skies started to grey. We thought about the old guys climbing, still saying, we should have tagged along. We made it back to camp and the wind was really whipping down Upper Jean. In between gusts I was able to land a few more fish. But decided we should move down to Lower Jean to find some shelter from the elements. With all this wind, you know its blowing in something. As we packed camp the old guys went through and said they had made it to the top and then beat the weather down. They were planning a campfire and fish fry tonight and invited us to join them. We made our way back towards Lower Jean trying to get out of the wind. Most of the trail is above this steep sided lake away from the shore but we did find a nice spot an the south end down near the shore. Nicely out of the wind. Got camp set before the raindrops started and also managed to catch a few fish between squalls. We made good use of our Golite trekking umbrellas today. They worked great!.We had also used them for shade on previous days and as a wind block for the stove too. At 8 oz. A great gear addition. We ate dinner under them in a short hail storm followed by sun then more wind and so on and so forth it went for the rest of evening. Seen a rescue helicopter fly in and out to the SE of us. Later learned that there was two rescues that evening. You have to be prepared for anything in the Winds. It turned out to be a long night of thunderstorms and lots of wind at times, hoping our tent will withstand. Trying to catch a few winks between rounds. Then waking up to snow sliding off the tent. After It had stopped snowing/raining. We were able to grab a quick breakfast. One look at the sky said it could be a wet day. Se we packed up and prepared for a muddy, wet hike. Our plan was to make it back to Hobbstoday for our last night out. Not long after we started, we were stripping off layers as we walk through sunshine followed by rain and then near white out with snow and fog. This continued the whole time. As we passed Seneca Lake it might as well have been the ocean because all you could see was the shore at your feet. It was tough hike without the weather but slipping and sliding over the muddy trail really made it a grunt. We made it to Hobbs for lunch time but it was still trying to snow so we decided to hike out the last 7 miles. Not looking forward to setting up a wet tent for a cold wet today only to hike out tomorrow. It was a long 7 miles including the last 3 from photographers point that were incredibly muddy. We were beat from an already long hike. Happy to reach Elkhart Park but sad that our Winds trip was over! We had a wonderful trip with spectacular scenery beyond what we could have imagined. It was a tough test for us as well. These arent your national park maintained trails! The Wind River Range is challenging, unforgiving place. But you will be rewarded for your efforts. Beer and wine still cold in car..Yay. This definitely calls for toast. To Us! Made our way back to Log Cabin Motel. And after a much needed shower and to actually sit in a chair. We walked over to the Great Outdoors shop to give them our little trip report and to thank them for their help again. Then once again over to the Wind River Brewing for another great meal with fantastic beer. We still had a couple days to drive through The Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Beartooths, and the Bighorns. Just kinda scouting for our next adventure. They all were beautiful. It will be hard to decide. Happy Trails! Doug and Anita
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 16:12:52 +0000
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