Review: Heavenly 45 Mile Loop from Stough Creek Basin to Wind River Peak

Reading Time: 83 minutes

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This is my favorite hike in North America, though it is not quite the most beautiful. The range of scenery makes it worth every mile; when I do it again, I’m going to make some changes to the route.

In this post:

• ➻ Quick Facts
• ⤷Introduction
• ⤑Day 1: Worthen Meadows/Roaring Fork Trailhead to Leg Lake
• ⤑Day 2: Leg Lake to Stough Creek Basin, Lake 10550
• ⤑Day 3: Day Hike to Upper Stough Creek Basin
• ⤑Day 4: Stough Creek Lakes to Mountain Sheep Lake
• ⤑Day 5: Mountain Sheep Lake to Lake 11088
• ⤑Day 6: Lake 11088 to Wind River Peak Camp 11800
• ⤑Day 7: Wind River Peak Camp to Worthen Meadows TH
• ➤Conclusion and Rating

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➻ Quick Facts

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⤷Introduction

My Texan friends, Hank and Peggy Hill, wanted to hike with me after having seen some pictures from the Cloud Peak Wilderness. Although they were interested in the Cloud Peak Wilderness, Hank had to work nights, and the long drive to the Bighorn Mountains didn’t excite him. Since it would be their first hike of the season, I told them that we should try Stough Creek Basin instead, which is outside of Lander, and a short hike in. It seems that it can be done R/T in about 13-14 miles.

In planning this, we knew that I would spend about twice as long out in the mountains as my party, which actually saves me time in the end (less time driving to and from the range if it’s done as one big trip, less time spent on the approaches, etc.), so I wanted to be somewhere that I could do some extra hiking. After looking at maps and Google Earth, I made a tentative plan to go over the cirque’s mountains to Atlantic Peak, and then to hike all the legs along the way. I’d previously been to Upper Silas Lake (boring) and wanted to check out Saddlebag Lakes (the name reminded me of an ex-girlfriend), then hike Atlantic, Calvert, Thumb, Island, and Boulder Lake back out to Worthen. It would be mostly off-trail and probably not pretty, but I heard that there was decent fishing, and it would let me complete a large section that I wanted to knock out.

Both Hank and Peggy were amenable to the idea of Stough Creek, though they’d need to leave later in the day than me or my mom, who also was coming along for the trip. After looking at some other pictures and talking to folks online, we decided to bushwhack to Leg Lake first (more below), and then to go to Stough Creek Lakes from there. Looking at Google Earth and my Topo Maps, I decided that I might not go to Saddlebag Lakes, but instead make my way to Wind River Peak, which I’d read was an easy rock-climb up. We’d spend the 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st together; on the way back, I’d leave them at the Stough Creek connector trail and head on, either to Saddlebag Lakes and the others, as described, or to Coon and Tayo Lakes, then up Wind River Peak. My initial plans were all mapped in two GPS files; I shared them to Hank so that we could meet up at Leg Lake, since we’d be ingressing at different times, and to my family, so that they could have some awareness of where I might be. After we’d part ways, I wanted them to have a general overview of the two routes I would probably choose from, so that I could save some data on my SATCOM—I always have lots of extra data around, in case of something truly bad.

I didn’t end up going to Saddlebag Lakes, so I’ll just share my potential Wind River Peak plan, which I also shared with them.

My proposed route is above in red. It has the benefit of seeing Jug and Ice Lakes, along with Deep Creek Lakes, but has a bit of backtracking, and also has to go back up into the mountains. I ended up not taking that route, and instead took the one below. When I do this again (Lord permitting), I’ll take the backtracking route I originally proposed, as the Sheep Bridge exit was just interminable, boring, and ugly.

Prior to the trip I read a few reports of the trail to Tayo Lake. In my mind Tayo was quite a ways from Coon (it’s not), and the whole walk to Coon from Worthen was quite a haul. Reports that I read made it seem as if this were true, with two of them noting difficulties with creek crossings, among other travails of the trail. In my experience, no difficulties as such would arise.

I also had looked at a few maps, which showed some significant differences in trails listed in the area, so I wasn’t sure how the trip would pan out for me once I departed from my fellowship on day four. A very nice man online had recommended that we “bushwhack in via elk trails to Leg Lake,” and then take the saddle over to Stough Creek Basin, as it would save time. This man, from what I’ve been told by my party, who used both methods, was very wrong, if well meaning.

As a last bit of introduction, a very notable tragedy occurred at Leg Lake.

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⤑Day 1: Worthen Meadows/Roaring Fork Trailhead to Leg Lake

The drive to Worthen Meadows was boring, but the road to the campground and trailhead is great; my phone said that the weather would be iffy. We stopped and bought a very cheap ($2.49) trowel since my nice trowel had been stolen by cretins. Boo. On the way up, I saw that the University of Missouri has an outpost here; having once had a girlfriend from the state, it was of some interest.

Arriving at the trailhead area, the reservoir is ugly, but a ton of people were recreating, so it seemed popular with the locals. You can look at my GPS map to see where the trail begins; we were a little unsure of where to find it at first, though we got it correct on the first try.

Up front, ALL of my camera pictures from the first day somehow vanished. They aren’t on my SD card, on internal memory, or on any hard drives. Every other photo from the hike is there. I don’t know what happened to the photos, but you won’t get to see many, as I did most of the picture taking. I do have a few from my mom’s phone and from Peggy’s, but don’t expect too much for this section.

As we entered the trail, some horses came up behind us, and we stepped aside to let them pass, commenting that they were going faster than us. The lead horseman commented that they’d pass us sooner or later, and the rear horsewoman made some comment about “bunch of horse-hating backpackers.” I thought that it was kind of a hostile remark, but maybe I’m wrong.

The trail made its way through arid, pine forests, covered with dusty rocks for a half mile, and we then had the option of going left or right. Right goes to Stough Creek Trail, and crosses a stream. We kept left along the tree-laden edge of Roaring Fork Lake, which seemed a bit ugly in my book. Again, no pictures, so at least you’ll have a surprise waiting on you! The lake is only about 800 feet long, and the trees provided shelter from the noon-day sun.

We left Roaring Fork Lake but only a half mile later we stopped to fish, as the pretty, little stream was just too enticing. The area we stopped in had deep pools, with clear water running over rocky bottoms. There was also an area of “boulder jam” that yielded fish and beautiful pictures. As you know, the pictures are lost to us. Blegh. For whatever reason, a short video of the area survived. I really don’t know why.

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Both my mother and I ate some Woody’s Smokehouse Beef Jerky, which I’ve mentioned plenty of times, since I love it, and then we packed up and headed out. Almost immediately we were greeted by a beautiful, green area of river, where the stream meanders and the brook trout jump. Continuing past the flats, we re-entered the forests for a very brief period, listening to the Futility Closet podcast on Wojtek (voy-tech), the bear who went to war. From their description,

During World War II a Polish transport company picked up an unusual mascot: a Syrian brown bear that grew to 500 pounds and traveled with his human friends through the Middle East and Europe. In this week’s episode of the Futility Closet podcast we’ll meet Wojtek, the “happy warrior,” and follow his adventures during and after the war. We’ll also catch up with a Russian recluse and puzzle over a murderous daughter.

I’ve never had anyone dislike the Futility Closet; all of my friends and family have consistently enjoyed the episodes, and especially the lateral thinking puzzles.

Although I didn’t manage to recover any pictures from this period, Hank and Peggy did. My mother also had two pictures, though they were basically the same.

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There were plenty of nice places to camp in this section of trail, but a few hundred feet later, that all changed. In fact, the trail itself vanished, and we were confronted with thick forests, through which the stream steeply cascaded. We tried to pick our way along beside the stream; some logs were down as crossing aids at one point, but going to the “right” of the creek was a mistake. As we crossed the stream, one of my feet got wet. I happened to look down and see people well below us, also beside the stream, and not at all where we’d been. They were getting water and appeared to be only day hikers; they didn’t see us.

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As I said, crossing the creek was a dumb idea, and soon we were crossing it back the other way, staying to the left from then on out. What a hassle. As we made our way up, the creek vanished. While the trail itself follows a low-lying cut up into the hills, the stream breaks off to the right through a narrow, rough section of woods—it doesn’t SEEM like it should come from there.

The process wasn’t the fastest; during our climb toward the next lake, we learned about a half-crazy Smithsonian entomologist who was a definite philanderer (in the most bizarre way) and who also dug tunnels under Washington DC. By “dug tunnels,” I mean that he would get done with work and set about to digging insane labyrinths underneath the city “for fun.”

I guess the moral of the story is that people were more productive before facebook. He also managed to have two families, whereas I have only 0. I should have loved bugs and multiple women.

The forest became drier and uglier was we advanced, though a trail reappeared, and we occupied our minds listening to the history of the Greenwich Time Lady. What did Ruth Belville do for 50 years? Well she kept time, because keeping time used to be a very difficult task. Effectively, she offered a subscription service, carrying the correct time to different places in London, so that you could set your clocks. Other methods of figuring out the time included cannon blasts, though those were less accurate given the speed at which sounds travels. Anyway, I was pretty fascinated.

Finally, we arrived at lake 9975! It wasn’t beautiful, but it had plenty of fish, so we walked along the northeast shore and fished for a time. The brook trout were ravenous, but then again, they always are. I showed my mom how tenaka fishing works, but she was scared of breaking the pole. She has her own pole, but rarely brings it. What idiot would manage to break a tenkara pole, anyway? Am I right? (Portents of evil.)

By this point, we were navigating mostly based on the topo, and were already well over half-way to Leg Lake, though it was dragging on. We went back to the little use trail that we’d left, and took the southwest side of the lake over to the inlet creek; we crossed at different areas, since mom isn’t as bold with her leaps as I happen to be.

Unfortunately, as we wandered upstream through the forests, we were listening to Futility Closet’s 124th episode, which was on this guy:

My father, given his history, has always been a big fan of the dude above—do you know who he is? Mom and I got in a deep discussion on the topic, and wandered along a small lake around 10,015 feet. We realized at the far end of the lake that we should have taken a left and crossed the outlet, and then kept following the stream. We’d been so deep in discussion that we’d missed the turn. I looked at my topo and didn’t think that it would be too much harder to just follow the contour around, in order to avoid backtracking, so we set about to do that.

I implore you not to make that mistake.Below you can see the way I’d plotted, versus the way we ended up going. Our route in yellow took us through rocks, blowdown, and up higher than we needed to go.

Eventually, we reached a high point and could see the creeks below us in both “divisions” of the lumpy drainage. Hank and Peggy, who went the way I’d told them (as I’d sent them the red GPS route beforehand), had that section much easier than we did. Below is a picture from Peggy.

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The march down to the creek was straightforward with only one hiccup—crossing the creek. The creek itself was small, but the area around it was marshy with lots of riparian growth. We managed to scramble over some rocks and make it across, and then went uphill about a minute using a little use trail which was very faint. The area flattened out; we got some water from the wide area or slow-moving creek, and then angled up to the hill to the southwest, hoping to cut a direct line to the lake while avoiding the marshy areas. around the creek. On the way up, my mother was enraged while listening to a debate on atheism vs theism. The atheist in the debate denied the definition of atheism (as found in the dictionary), which made the debate pretty pointless. The other debater pressed on with his points well enough.

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The outlet from Leg Lake leads to a very rocky little chute, at the top were some large fish in small pools, but they wouldn’t hit any of my fishing gear, so we only wasted about 10 minutes trying. We followed the creek up a little way further and started to get cliffed out. It’s better to just climb the granite slabs as soon as you have the opportunity. The area around the lake on the northern edge is not easily accessible; it’s steep and densely wooded; the area near the outlet is about a 20-foot cliff to the lake.

It seemed like a great place to fish, so we spent about an hour trying, but to no avail. The trout showed only minimal curiosity and appeared to be spawning. Wrong time of year, I reckon! My mother kept fretting, saying that this hike was “no way to do friends,” and that Hank and Peggy had surely given up and headed back to their vehicle. We couldn’t text them since they wouldn’t have service, but we did wait for a while to see if they’d arrive.

While I spent an hour fishing, I also looked for places to camp. The southern edge of the lake had some grassy spots too close to the water for comfort, and the farthest edge looked the best, but getting there looked hellish. My mother loathes being in the wind, so she rejected my suggestion that we check it out. By this time, she’d pretty much given up on Hank and Peggy arriving and hoped that they’d use the trail in the next day when we’d go to Stough Creek Basin. I gave up trying to fish and we went up to the “flatter” area of the granite lip to the lake to look for places to camp. (Note: Wade Nield on instagram talked to me, and without me telling him about my fishing woes at Leg Lake, mentioned the exact same thing!)

It was getting a little late, and we couldn’t see the actual “shoreline” of the lake, though there’s not much to speak of. For the most part, it’s either boulder fields or steep forest that plunges straight to the water; consequently, you won’t find many spots for tents, especially if they’re big tents. I was still convinced that Hank and Peggy would arrive, so I wanted to find a place that had enough space for both of our tents. They use the 3P version of the Copper Spur, whereas I use the 2P. Combined, they take up plenty of space.

Thankfully, we finally spied a flat spot. It was too close to the water, but maybe there’d be more in the way of flat areas beyond our view. Getting to the flat area was tedious and we had to backtrack a few times, but eventually we made it and started to set up our tent. As we were working on that, we heard,

LUUUUUCASSS! LUUUUCCCASSSSS!

It was PEGGY! Yelling for Lucas! (That’s me!) And where Peggy is, Hank is never far behind, except for when he is very far behind indeed.

We yelled for them and tried to see where they were, but it was a bit before we could tell where they were. I headed up to them to show them the easiest way to reach our campsite. Since they had made it, mom and I moved our tent uphill to a small terrace that was the perfect size for the 2P; this allowed their 3P tent to be down below with the fire that we were getting ready.

Peggy told me that Hank had cursed my name quite a few times on the way up, and that they’d both become convinced that I was trying to kill them, so I worked diligently to point out the flaws in their backpacks, which were filled with about 140lbs each of various trailmixes—what goobers. (Later on, I would contritely ask if I could please have some of their burdensome trailmix for my own bag.)

Poor Hank was dying. He would have stopped. Can’t blame him since he had just gotten off graveyards. I was having none of it, though at the end I was seriously losing steam. I did start to worry that we would not make it, but I blocked it out of my mind for the most part. We can all laugh about it now…while we learn to trust you again. 🤣  

—Peggy

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We got a fire going, fished, had dinner, and chatted. I’d bought a few new types of rehydratable meals, though I didn’t like most of them that much—the Italian style beef pepper steak was OK, the fajita bowl was gross (the chicken would never plump up like it’s supposed to), but the chicken n’ dumplin’s were the cat’s dadgum pajamas.

Anyway, the camps were closer to the water than I’d like, but we had run out of daylight; heck, we were putting up bearbags by flashlight.

If you look at our egress track for the next day using Google Earth, you’ll notice that we stumbled upon some standing pools of water uphill. There we found some flat places for tents, but the hike to and from the lake is a pain.

Day 1 Totals: 5.01 miles, +1952/-243. Elevation min/avg/max 8844, 9719, 10,570′.

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⤑Day 2: Leg Lake to Stough Creek Basin, Lake 10550

No one felt like getting up early in the morning, and Hank and Peggy are the type who consume food to fuel their powerful brains (Hank is a nuclear engineer, whereas Peggy is a mechanical engineer), so we weren’t on the road super early. Some of my photos from this day are also missing, so you’ll have to use the GPS download in Google Earth to really follow along.

Climbing up from the lake, we reached some ponds and could head left or right, as the middle section of the ridge had large boulders. We chose to head left, until we were up the ridge a bit more, and once again we could go left or right. I persuaded everyone that heading right, toward the cliffs overlooking the lake beneath Leg Lake, was the correct choice, as it avoided elevation gain. Boy was I wrong! Soon we were almost cliffed out, and having to crash through trees that were clinging to ledges. Make the sacrifice and just climb a bit higher, but avoid the northern ledge. (Though we did have good views of the little lake beneath; I wonder if it has trout!)

Soon we found an opening to go “up cliff,” which we pursued. I reached a pond and then had to wait for the rest of my party; they finally arrived and I pointed to a low-lying area in the granite knoll we were on, so we headed uphill and blasted through it. At the top, as on the Google Earth imagery, we encountered snow. The snow had some footprints on it, but they didn’t look too fresh. We also found a lost item.


From this high point at 10,720 feet, we made our way down to a pond, and below it, another pond. The second pond gave us the option of going north or south around it. We chose south, since we’d have to cross the outlet creeks anyway, since there’s a bigger pond just to the SW. At that bigger pond, we stopped to get pictures and to drink. The outlet creek was pretty. While the party was resting, I scoped out the next little section of hike, where we’d be climbing the saddle to Stough Creek Basin.

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From the pond, it seemed best to us to climb the granite slopes up toward the saddle, rather than taking the ravine up. The ravine had a small creek and lots of brush, so it offered no real advantages. We walked along the granite ramps following the path of least resistance upward. Peggy and Hank were pretty exhausted, as they were not in shape, so we stopped a couple of times. I got a few pictures looking back; I’ve overlaid our two routes up to leg lake in one of them.

The next “challenge” was what to do with the snowfield. To the north and east there were tons of boulders, and I felt like I could climb the field just as easily, sticking to the randkluft. I tackled it and advised the others to take the boulders up; they quickly disappeared from view as I ascended.

I waited quite some time at the very top of the field, but no one came around the bend. After about 10 minutes, all three of them appeared on the snow, trying to follow my tracks up. Sheesh! They might get themselves killed. I’d found a stick, so I threw that down to my mother, as she, like I, does not use magic sticks during hikes. Hank and Peggy both do, so they were better off than her, despite being weak or tired. If you look closely, you can see them in the first picture below. I checked the weather while I was waiting, as there was 4G service intermittently. On hikes, I like to note areas where emergency cell service might exist, and I also like to use cell service when possible, as checking the weather or messages on my SATCOM isn’t cheap.

As we reached the saddle, Lizard Head Peak came into view—that mountain is just a stunner, and you can see if when hiking in the Winds from so many places. It’s massive, angled body dominates the landscape. Also visible was Wind River Peak. I commented to my party that, while I had thought about taking the boulder field down to a glacial lake after ascending it, I was now considering simply following the long, “gradual” slope all the way to Deep Creek Lakes. Of course, if you’re going “up” that gradual ramp, it’s more of a hellish slog than anything else, at least according to Beatriz’ friend “Jerry,” who we met while crossing the glorious Big Balls of Cowtown Trail.

The topo was inviting, as was the view from the angle we had. Still, the peak looked to be very far away from our current position. (It wasn’t, really, but I’d be doing all that hiking by myself.) We also saw a number of yellow shelters near Lake 10,668.

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The overall view from the saddle. Wind River Peak is just left of frame. Lizard Head juts up, angling right, near the dark clouds toward the center of frame. As you can see, the walking is easy.

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The view into Upper Stough Creek Lakes was blocked, and created the perception that there were perhaps a couple of “canyons” to the south. There aren’t, but it was a cool area. We all made our way down the hillside. It’s not exactly gradual, but for the most part was very easy walking. As we approached Lake 10,550, we decided to camp there rather than continuing on to other lakes, mostly because we were certain that there was no one else at this lake, while we knew that at least one other lake had people. Why risk having to look around, and why be any closer to the ingress trail than need be? Right? Given that there are at least 23 lakes and ponds along the length of the basin, I think that Hank and Peggy were happy with my decision to park us after only about 1.5 miles of walking, especially since I “nearly killed [them]” the day prior.

Regarding the lakes, I believe that the “middle area” ones around Lake 10,550 are the nicest. These lakes have plenty of trees, nice grass, and good fishing. The upper lakes are very exposed and have howling winds, while the lower lakes are trapped in the trees and don’t have good views of anything. Stough Creek seems to be considered “minor Wind River” since it’s south of Sweetwater Gap, but I thought that it was very gorgeous in its own way, and it reminded me of Lost Twin Lakes in the Bighorn Mountains, though much more expansive.

The top of the saddle was around 11,100 feet (about the save elevation that I would camp a few days later), so it’s not all that far down to 10,550, though I always loathe losing elevation. The first place we saw to camp was up on the hill and had amazing views. We threw down our packs, but were a bit like a dog circling its bed, in that we weren’t super convinced that it was the best place to be. Or rather, everyone but me was convinced, because we literally took things out of our packs, set up our chargers, etc., before the folks I was with really began to bray.

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We made out way to site “2” and checked it out. The area was pretty level and quite close to the water. Then we spied a place up the hill (site 3) that seemed worth checking out, so I headed on up. There I found what was to me quite the perfect spot: right by the waterfall, great views of the lake, and with an awesome rock wall! I called for my party, and shortly the arrived. We set up camp slowly and spent the rest of the day fishing and eating. Hank and Peggy made a fire, too.

As you can see in the gallery above, the clouds moved back in as sunset swallowed up the land. I bathed in the trees straight ahead in the second-to-last photo, so that I could walk around nude, and unfortunately it then began to rain. Mom had been worried about our tent’s location, as it was in a little depression, but I told her that it would be fine. There was a scramble to secure all of our items that they not get wet, which we did. We were able to continue cleaning up, which I just did outside. The rain didn’t stop the skeeters, and one day I worry that the winged panoply of perilous prickles might make off with my pickle.

That night, it rained lightly, and we watched lighting crisscrossing the Winds to the north. I slept very well.

Day 2 Totals: 1.84 miles, +786/-758. Elevation min/avg/max 10,536, 10,712, 11,095′.

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⤑Day 3: Day Hike to Upper Stough Creek Basin

Our third day was very easy. I don’t eat breakfast or snack in the morning, as doing so makes me hungry for the rest of the day; I’ve already noted that above, but today it meant that I got to sleep in while the others went about their morning meals.

We made our way uphill from camp and cut through a little low-point between knolls, as I pointed out in a photo above, and then wrapped south, heading toward upper Stough Creek Lakes. The people that we saw yesterday were fishing in some little ponds along the way. As we made our own way uphill (mostly flat), we happened across some crystals. Or rather, Peggy did. There was a pseudoscorpion on the crystals.

In the 5th picture above, you can see the other folks that we shared the basin with just fishing away!

Left: Crystals. Right: Pseudoscorpion.

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An hour after leaving camp, we were at the “lower upper lakes.” We fished in the pools of the outlet, as well as the lake proper. The fish hit numerous types of bait; Hank caught one by the tail. It was pretty there, with nice geology, and not too much wind! We then headed on up to the last, big lake in the basin, though there are two more beyond it in the boulder-strewn hellscape. Those two are mostly glacial melt-ponds, though, and were not worth the effort for us, as the wind came up fiercely. Hank also claims that he’s right clumsy, so keeping him out of dangerous rockfields is important. You can see our route up to the next lake in the last photo below. It’s not much of a climb—about 250 feet or so.

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It was only a very short jaunt up the hill to the lake. On the way up, we looked back and saw what appeared to be a log jam. After zooming in, we found out that it was just a cool rock. Hank and Peggy went off to the southern side, while I stayed on the eastern edge. You can see them in the picture below. I tried fishing, but caught nothing. If you wanted to camp by this lake, there were flat, grassy places, but I don’t think that it’s the best, even with the incredible gendarmes to the south, and the gorgeous color of the water. Why? Because of the insane wind! For that reason alone, we didn’t spend too much time here.

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Looking at our Gaia topos, we decided to visit Lake 10,915, which was above the llama campers I’ve mentioned. We headed back the same way we came, but then wrapped around the base of the cliffs, paying heed for the sound of any falling rocks. Everything seemed thermally stable. While there were some places to hike up Roaring Fork on the way to Lake 10,915, the best place is actually right by it, once you get there, as it’s a gradual ramp.

I tried to keep our path as level as possible, as I didn’t want to go back down to the little lakes only to have to climb back up again. The only impediment was a small snowfield, thought it was stable enough. Keep in mind that Hank is dreadfully clumsy.

We arrived at Lake 10,915 about 3.5 hours after first leaving camp, which was pretty good time. The lake is very beautiful, but insanely windy. While I didn’t see amphipods, I also saw and caught no fish, so we left after 36 minutes. We considered hopping the ridge to Lake 10,967, but it seemed that folks were hungry, so we headed back toward camp. On the way down the hillside, we saw that there were some blue shelters with llamas.

Hank, Peggy, and my mom expressed their belief that we should get llamas for our achin’ backs. My back wasn’t aching, so I didn’t feel the same way, but later on during this trip, I’d agree with them. We avoided the llama packer encampment and went down to the stream, finally finding a place to cross. Hank and Peggy didn’t like our crossing, and so went upstream to find their own.

Rather than go straight back the way we’d ingressed, we followed the creek down to Lake 10,600, fishing along the way. There are some pretty little waterfalls, and it’s just an idyllic setting. I stopped an fished at Lake 10,600, and my mom decided to sit there and wait. Hank and Peggy went on toward camp, which involved going off-trail through little trees.

I got skunked, so we vamoosed and also went over the little hill separating the lakes. It was an arid area with stumpy little trees for the most part. As we crested the hill, we saw Hank and Peggy fishing Lake 10,550; Hank and I debated the types of fish in the lake once we got back together, though for the time being, mom and I went on our way back to camp and started making dinner, though mom lounged a bit on the soft grasses. I had the beef pepper steak, which was just OK; Hank let me sample some of his amazing selections of trail mixes, and I let him and Peggy have some jerky from Tejas. It was much better than the chicken fajita bowl, which was a crime against humanity. The sunset was absolutely amazing from our tent.

Thankfully, my sleep was good again.

Day 3 Totals: 3.87 miles, +/-856′. Elevation min/avg/max 10,536, 10,791, 11,063′.

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⤑Day 4: Stough Creek Lakes to Mountain Sheep Lake

Of all of my days hiking, ever, this one ended up being the most memorable, and perhaps even the best. We arose in the morning and took our time packing, observing the llama gang climbing the nearby saddle en route to Leg Lake. Why in the world were the people wearing full packs if they had llamas?

I asked Mr. Hank for some of his trailmix under the guise of “easing his painfully heavy and burdensome load,” and he obliged, so took a bunch of it. I also took my mother’s small, portable charger. With these days of hiking now ending, my real mileage and climbing would start. Since I planned to GPS map the whole thing, it would be helpful to have her additional charger for my Samsung Note 8.

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At 11:11, we struck out to retrace our camp ingress path from the previous day, going downhill and following the boulderfield along the lake edge, aiming to re-intercept the main Stough Creek Trail. The skies were few to scattered with high clouds, and it was very, very pleasant. As we entered the territory of the boulder field, I led the way.

The boulders are very large, and the footing solid. I hopped ahead a few boulders, and paused to let the others catch up. As I watched, my mother jumped onto a sloped boulder that I hadn’t used…and I watched in horror as she tripped and fell.

It wasn’t a “good” fall. She plummeted off the high rock headfirst into a large hole between boulders, impacting another boulder about 5 feet down with her pelvis, which swung her head first down into a further pit. Her body ended up jammed head down in a crevice, and there was nothing that anyone could do. My mind had terrible thoughts rush through: it was obviously a bad fall, and enough to easily fracture a neck or break other bones—had the intermediate impact helped or made things worse? We both had Guardian Flight subscriptions, so how quickly could I send a text to my SOS SATCOM management and get a helicopter dispatched? Where could it land? All those thoughts rushed through my head as I quickly jumped over rock and grappled down to her, with Hank and Peggy not far behind.

As I covered the 15 feet between us, I could hear her voice—good, she could speak. I told her to hold on and that I’d be there in a second, and I managed to quickly grab and lift her out of the pit. She was bleeding a lot from a number of places. I started a quick physical assessment and threw off my backpack, asking Hank and Peggy to please find all of my medical gear—this was very frustrating, as we couldn’t find some key items, but it turns out that they were in my top pouch, and we just overlooked them in the rush of adrenaline.

Mom seemed more dismayed thank anything else, and kept saying, “Shoot, shoot, shoot, I don’t know how that happened. Wendle is going to kill me.” Her knee was twisted pretty bad, and she had cuts and skin tears in a number of places, along with obvious contusions. We moved her to a safer spot and I cleaned her up as best I could, having removed her pack. She determined that she could walk, but carrying her pack was impossible for her, given how bad off her one leg was.

I told her that it was no problem, and strapped it backward on me. Thankfully, her pack is shorter, and was not so weighty by this time, so in the end, I was carrying under 50 lbs. Her pack provided a nice counterbalance to mine, too. Only seeing over the top of it was an issue.

We made our way north, breaking away from the shore and tromping across the middle land separating the two, large lakes. We did indeed find a nice spot for camping on the north end (check my GPS data and you’ll see the location. 😉 ) and re-emerged near the outlet of Lake 10,600 on a trail, which we presumed was the main path for SCL. On the opposite side of the outlet, we saw a mother, and father, a young man, and a very attractive young lady. The young man and young lady both looked intensely bored; the lady was just sitting in some weeds picking at them. They all just kind of stared at us.

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The crossing appeared to be located here, but none of us felt like wading the shallow waters to the dull, gazing onlookers, so we stayed on the east side and walked down the use path there, moving into the trees when the area alongside the creek became too overgrown. In a few minutes, we were between Lake 10,550 and Pond 10,540, which you’ll have seen in some of my pictures already; it’s the little water body just beyond Lake 10,550. At the base of the rapids there was a place to cross but it was swifter and involved taking off shoes. Mom and I decided not to cross there, though Peggy and Hank went for it. We told them that we’d meet up again down trail. As we parted ways for the time being, the sky condition was becoming broken and threatening.

• 1. Looking back up at our camping location. (You can’t see the lake.)
• 2. Hank and Peggy walk away, having completed the crossing.

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Mom and I moved on down to the pond’s inlet, which we rock walked across. From there we climbed some sloped granite and entered the trees, following my GPS toward another, possible crossing. The walking was easy, with no undergrowth. We emerged from the trees and skirted a marsh, heading toward a crossing between Pond 10,515 and Lake 10,510, which should, according to the map pictures I had and my older topo on my phone, but us back on the main trail. Although we tried our hardest not to have to take off shoes, eventually we had to. Mom offered to try and get her pack across, but I told her that I’d make it just fine.

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Once on the other side, we put our shoes back on, and then Hank and Peggy arrived. Apparently there are a number of little trails on the other side, some of which just go to campsites, but we were now definitely on Stough Creek Lakes Trail 702. A word on the trails: 702 goes down until it connects with Stough Creek Lakes Trail 704; going left on the egress takes you on trail 704, which I call the Stough Creek Lakes Connector, as it has no actual name on the maps. Some signs on the trail list it as Stough Creek Basin Trail. The trail goes downhill for .3 miles, then splits off on Stough Creek Lakes Trail 703, which takes you to Worthen Meadows via Twin Lakes and Sheep Bridge Trail. If you stick on the trail 704, you’ll make you way down to Middle Fork Popo Agie/Tayo Lake Trail 700. On the other hand, if you go right at the creek, you’ll stay on trail 702, climb a pass, and end up at Worthen Meadows via the most direct route. I mention this because my various maps displayed the trails differently, with some not showing certain trails. My conclusion is this: in this area, at least, expect more trails, not less.

By the time we met back up, the sky was entirely covered with dark clouds as far as we could see, and a couple of times I wondered if I felt sprinkles as we walked. The temperature was pleasant, but I wondered if I’d need to break out my little rain poncho. From the crossing, we ambled 1.2 miles covering +65/-385 feet to the Stough Creek Bridge, which is in good shape. The trail down was easy, with mostly dirt and not too much loose gravel or shifty stones.

We arrived at the bridge at 1:28 and say down to get some water. A party of about 8-10 people came up the hill on the Connector Trail 704 en route to Stough Creek Basin, and one of them was the most staggeringly gorgeous young woman that has probably ever existed. Nice to know that attractive people like hiking, too, and it isn’t all just ugly people like me, hiding their grotesque forms in shame from humanity. Anyway, we said hello and chatted a bit, and they continued on their way.

• 1. Approaching the intersection of 702/704.
• 2. Looking downstream at…get this…Roaring Fork Mountain. Everything is Roaring Fork Mountain. So weird.
• 3. Looking upstream. The creek comes from Stough Creek Lakes and also some meadows above, and is very beautiful.
• 4. Intersection of trails 702 and 704. Someone lost their hat.

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After snacking for a bit, mom said that she could carry her pack. I told her that I would simply stash it somewhere safe and grab it on my own egress, when my own pack was lighter, and take whatever food she might have left with me (not much), but that idea made her antsy. Former nuclear naval officer Hank, also known as the Mouth from the South for his booming voice (which has no quieter setting), nobly stepped in and saddled himself with the burden—a great man! I felt bad about that happening, but hey, let people be good. They left me at 1:59PM, headed back to their homes via the pass. I watched them disappear into the forest, heading uphill, and then I was alone. It was very quiet, with just the sound of the rapids nearby. Part of me was intensely sad. I wonder if I’ll always end up alone? For 31 years, I’ve failed to find a close friend to share my passions with. I shook the feeling off for a bit. By nature, I’m not a very likable person, and I know that I often lead people to irritation due to my personality, but I’ve been trying to change that. Anyway, I hate when my soul is disturbed by sadness. Keeping myself busy helps, so I turned left and headed downhill on trail 704.

• 1. Hank carrying two packs.
• 2 & 3. I listened to them disappear uphill, before heading off by myself to spend a few days alone.

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• Above: pictures from the portion of Stough Creek Trail that the rest of my party saw after leaving me.

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I was in a bit of a funk as I descended on the connector trail, which was fairly steep, so I put on a podcast. I’d downloaded a bunch, but for now, I chose to listen to an episode of Judge John Hodgman. As I walked down, I moved aside for a small party heading uphill, but wasn’t in the mood for talking. I made it to the next crossing of Stough Creek in only 6 minutes.

• 1. The steep descent towards trail 703.
• 2. The riparian zone adjacent to Stough Creek.
• 3. A note to Nick, attached to a tree. A dangerous game, given the weather.
• 4. Crossing Stough Creek under distressing skies.

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I sat down on a rock to the east to remove my shoes, and saw a note to some guy named Nick. I wondered if he’d ever get it. Was Nick heading in, or was Nick heading out? Later in the day, I would meet a young man (or rather, pass him) on trail 700, but I had no clue where he was going. Later in the year, my mother and I took another hike and found a note to some guy telling him that they took his vehicle after waiting for “too long.” Ha!

Anyway, I put my sandals on and crossed the river. It wasn’t bad at this time of year. On the other side, I found the branch trail for 703, which simply read “Middle Fork Trail 4.” I have no clue why anyone in their right mind would use this method to access Middle Fork Trail. I have no clue why you’d want to even hit Middle Fork Trail at Three Forks Park, and you encounter another trail, anyway, if you follow 703, which takes you to Middle Fork, so the choice to measure it to there seemed weird. The trail itself was pretty faint, so I think it is not much used. By 2:20, I was walking uphill again.

The crossing occurs at 10,042 feet, and trail 703 follows Stough Creek downhill; it makes its way to the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie sandwiched between the sloping lead-up to Roaring Fork Mountain and a low-lying ridgleline. Trail 704, which I kept left to stay on, climbs just under 100 feet up to 10,147′, summiting the NW entrapping ridge before making its way fairly steeply down to the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie. Although you’ve left Stough Creek behind, the area is hydrologically active, so you’ll cross a few bridges on the way down.

Prior to cresting the ridge, you’ll come across a couple of meadows and get a last view of Roaring Fork Mountain. I took a picture, and continued on my way. Thankfully, my clothes had plenty of permetherine, and no mosquitoes bugged me. Get it?

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The air was incredible still as I came over the top of the ridge, and there were no sounds—no forest creatures, no gentle woooosh of wind through pine. Just silence. The air was a bit warmer now, with the sun’s heat trapped beneath the clouds, and more humidity than I was used to. I sweated a little, even heading downhill. I came to my first bridge at 2:40; there was not much waterflow. Around 9900′ I came to a creek crossing without much creek; if I were to follow that uphill, Lake 10,035 lies 1000 feet off the trail. Sometimes I bag such lakes just to be a completionist, but not today.

I tried listening to Reason’s podcast How Psychedelics Changed the Life of One of America’s Leading Novelists, but it was as dull as his LSD trip must have been interesting, so I scrubbed that. Passing the first meadow, I saw Wind River Peak in view, now looking much closer. She’s a big ol’ gal!

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I covered the 1.4 miles between Stough Creek and the intersection of trails 700 and 704 in just under 40 minutes, having climbed 100 feet and descended 650. It was a pleasant walk, but not exactly gorgeous. Oh No! Ross and Carrie’s investigation of Eckankar had been keeping me entertained for the past month or so, and I listened to a discussion on just how unusual the history of Sri Harold Klemp is. I can’t embed it, so you can just read their description and click the link if you’re interested.

Ross and Carrie visit Professor David Lane, who wrote what is still the most thorough exposé on Eckankar and its origins… back when he was an undergrad student! They discuss his personal interest in Eckankar, the secrets he says he uncovered, and the official Eckankar response to his claims. Plus, hear what Lane is up to now, and how his Eck-zamination all those years ago have informed his work today.

As I neared the intersection of the trails, Bills Park came into view beyond the trees. It was gorgeously green! I’d taken plenty of pictures of my Beartooth Publishing Wind River Range map (they make the best maps, period), and it said that I was about 3.7 miles from the Mountain Sheep Lake area. I could also tack on some extra mileage and make it up to Coon Lake, which was an additional 1.1 miles beyond. I was somewhat worried, as one blog I read (no link, as I don’t remember who it was) talked of hiking to Coon Lake and having a very difficult time getting across the creek due to rapids and waterfalls. My map didn’t make it look like that would be a problem, but it’s hard to say what you’re in for when you’ve never been to a remote location before.

I was also debating how far I could make it, as the clouds were very threatening. I didn’t need to get soaked. A last consideration was the choice of camping location. Mountain Sheep Lake was off-trail, so that would eat into my time if I were going to go on up to Coon. I wanted each lake I was visiting to get more than just a brief glance! The satellite imagery made Coon look like it might only have little scragglebrush to camp by, and I thought that I’d prefer to be down in the trees if a real rager came up. Being on mountain passes during storms tends to blow, which I’ve detailed in other posts. Immediately after leaving the intersection, I came across an old, log fence. Why was is there? Some sort of boundary, but for what?

I walked along the path for half a mile and then found a nice boulder to sit on for a spot of lunch. I tore into my jerky and also my DELICIOUS Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (crunchy), which I love. They heat your mouth up a bit, but nothing too bad, and that crunch is to die for when you’re having mostly rehyrdrated meals. When I continued on, I was very tempted to go fishing in the Popo Agie, but I finally decided that it wasn’t worth the time to catch what would almost certainly just be brook trout. I wish that some of the rivers had less brookies. They’re fun and easy to catch by the boatload, but they’re also small and not as exciting as large, true trout. Soon I was climbing a large, granite buttress, having made my way uphill and over a few bridges. As I crested it, I saw a younger man heading the opposite direction. I stepped aside and said hello. He was by himself…Nick?

• Last: The area just prior to climbing the granite buttress at 3:38PM. Still cloudy. Tempting to go fishing…
• Below: Listening for the sound of the mysterious creature; shortly after I met the opposing-direction man.

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After I passed the young guy, I heard some sort of hideous and creepy sound…I thought. It was gone as soon as I stopped to pay attention. One thousand feet later, I was to the Sweetwater Gap Trail intersection; keeping left there technically results in one staying on trail 700, as going right to Tayo, the trail becomes 706, which itself goes to Ice Lakes. Anyway, .4 miles past this intersection it’s 707 up to Tayo. Rumor has it that there’s a cutoff to Tayo on the Sweetwater Gap trail if you’re coming from the south, but I never saw the ingress point, so I don’t know. As I approached Tayo Park, I realized what the sound was…a very vocal mule!

The crossing was very easy, with pretty views of the ramps of Mount Nystrom. In the future, I hope to explore the alpine lakes hanging on the sides of it, as well as the lake above Mountain Sheep Lake.

While I’ve been calling this area Tayo Park, my map says Tayo Park is uptrail about 20 minutes, but they’re close enough together for me that I refer to them both by that name. I said hello to the mule and his two horse companions upon crossing, as they were by the trail, hitched to a line. There were no outfitters with them. Odd! As I left the area, I came upon a trail divergence…it seemed to be some sort of use trail. Was it a shortcut? There was nothing worth seeing nearby. Why was it there?

I dawdled a bit and then took it, hoping it wasn’t some deceptive garbage meant to get me lost. It wasn’t, and seemed to really just be more direct path, as it reconnected with the main trail quite quickly. Right after reconnecting, I was at the intersection of trail 707 and Ice Lakes Trail, which had an appended sign saying, “No Stock Advised.” In the moment, I was glad not to be climbing it, though I expected that I’d descend it soon enough.

As I continued my walkabout, I listened to the Futility Closet, learning separately about mathematicians Srinivasa Ramanujan and Paul Erdős. The latter was so prolific that the so called “Erdős number” describes the “collaborative distance” between mathematician Paul Erdős and another person, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers. How incredible is that? I also have long held that the hosts of FC don’t know how to say Patreon, as they seemingly say it a different way every time; while listening to Episode 147, “Call of Mount Kenya,” they confirmed that fact 25 minutes into the show. That buoyed my spirits and I took a note of my phone. I still had a few, bad memories of my mom’s fall—what if it had been worse? Man, I was blessed that it wasn’t! On the whole, though, I was feeling pretty good about life!

The trail remains away from the river for almost the entire duration of the walk up to Poison Lake, but it’s easy enough and there are a few creeks splashing down out of lakes and ponds to the north, in case you need to get something to drink. I did need a drink at one point, and as I was getting it, I correctly solved a Futility Closet lateral thinking puzzle about an air traffic controller who was murdered in real life following a mistake he made on the job. The walk seemed to be taking a while, but in reality it wasn’t that bad. I was learning so many new facts that it seemed longer than it was.

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About 1/2 a mile below Poison Lake, some outfitters passed me heading downhill. There were only two of them, both on horses, and they asked me if I’d seen a mule and two horses down by the crossing.

“Sure did.”

“Good, they’re still there. Did the mule talk to you?”

“I’d say that he wouldn’t stop talking to me.”

They both found their loud mule to be amusing, and wished me a good day as we continued on our respective paths. The trail began to open up, and then I was by the river again, and very close to Poison Lake. It was very easy walking, still, though every minute seemed to take forever. I think that I was mainly distressed over the uncertainty of the weather, which was making things seem to take longer.

• 1. I almost fished, again.
• 2-4. Approaching the Poison Lake opening with Mount Nystrom.
• 5. Looking back. The ridgetop popping into view is in fact the ridge I descended earlier right after crossing Stough Creek for the final time.

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Poison Lake appears shallow, with many sandy edges, at least at this time of year. However, that’s not to say that it isn’t gorgeous—it’s amazing. I’ve never seen a lake in the Winds or the Big Horns with so many fantastic camping locations. Many of the areas were well-developed by outfitters, sheltered under huge trees, with trees positioned for sitting on. Some of the campsites were too close to the trail, per the regs, but it often seems that outfitters have some waiver for that. I was SORELY tempted to stay, but it was only 5, so I still had hours of daylight left. I left the trail and meandered along the banks to take some pictures. I swear, I’d love to “live” by each lake in the mountains for at least three days each.

If you closely examine the pictures above, you might spot virga. I spotted it, too. For that reason, I pressed onward, heading toward Mountain Sheep Lake. The trail leaves the meandering shallow river, and heads back into the woods, and so did I, while listening to the Reason Roundtable talk with Justin Amash.

Why John Boehner Was a Better Speaker than Paul Ryan: Justin Amash | Boehner openly despised the libertarian Republican from Michigan but actually allowed him and others to debate and vote freely on spending bills.

Since I was already dawdling, I had time to also listen to the Reason Roundtable folks, and especially Nick Gillespie, talk about how much they dislike Tucker Carlson. Tucker gets plenty wrong, but I don’t think that he rivals the beltway libertarians in that regard. Or at least I’d probably trust him more to watch my child than I would would of them.

As I followed the trail uphill, I saw a few great places to fish and camp down by the river; one tempted me enough that I walked down a little way toward it, before desisting. (On my GPS tracks, you’ll sometimes seem little hoops or horseshoes. You know what they are, now!

Half a mile past Poison Lake, I left the trail to head south toward the river, as I was nearing Mountain Sheep Lake. There was an awesome place near the river that was hidden from view and seemed an unlikely find; I’d not mind staying there at all, as it had a beautiful pool for fishing nearby, was flat, and nestled among tall trees. This close to Mountain Sheep, I wasn’t about to give up, so I went off-trail through the forest and happened upon a park by the river; I followed it until the banks and river got rocky again, hoping to find a spot to cross. I finally did, but I was convinced that I was going to fall in.

I made it across, though I was highly worried that I was going to fall in and destroy my mother’s camera, and also maybe myself. I didn’t, though! Man, how cool am I? I followed the meadowed path of least resistance and approached the lake, which was a mere 700 feet away. The woods were beautiful, as were the meadows, and everything was lust and green. I kept quiet on my approach, hoping to avoid disturbing any other campers. Reaching one larger clearing at 6:05PM, I saw that it had been “civilized” and was soft, flat, and level, with places for sitting. That’s my place! I set down my backpack and made my way to the lake edge, looking around. I thought I heard people, but that ended up being my imagination. It was just me. Cool! Trout were hitting the lake ferociously, so I quickly set up camp. I also collected firewood, bark, etc.

As I made my fire, it began to rain quite a bit. I moved everything into my tent and protected myself as best I could from the rain, and got my DELICIOUS Mountain House Chicken and Dumplings going. I can’t say enough good about these; they’re the highest rated meal that I know of for backpacking, although my dear little friend Beatriz does not like them, as I once found out! I also burned a pair of discarded socks that I found.

I sat in the tent while the rain poured down and my food hydrated, then brought it into the tent to eat. I was glad that I’d made had while the sun was shining, and that I had so much fuel. The fire roared despite the tons of rain.

30 minutes later, the rain was over, and I went out and did some tenkara fishing. Sadly, it was brook trout, but they were hungry. I also found a nice, little spoon that some other fisherman lost! Poor person. I added it to my collection of lures.

With darkness gathering, I took my butt over to my fire and stoked it some more, then got a bath going. It was chilly enough out that the mosquitoes left me alone, and I got a very nice bath in. After taking off my underwear, it started sprinkling, but that was fine, since I was bathing, anyway. I probably ate too many gummy worms, but hey, mom survived, so it was a great day. I’d been dropping SATCOM pins so that everyone would know that I was safe.

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With that all done, I felt fresh, so I climbed into my tent to do some reading and watching videos. My Sea-to-Summit Aeros pillow is the bomb, as you can see in the picture below. The light from my fire flickered through my rainfly as the rain began to pour more heavily, and the temperatures became frigid. I put on my dridown jacket and my buff to keep warm, and fell asleep after having had the best and most memorable hiking day of my life.

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Day 4 Totals: 7.75 miles, +1133/-1488. Elevation min/avg/max 9506, 10,057, 10,601′.

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⤑Day 5: Mountain Sheep Lake to Lake 11088

I arose on my 5th day of hiking feeling pretty chipper! The skies were relatively clear and the day was warming up, so I set about my morning routine and tore down dame, making sure to get a picture of Mountain Sheep Lake in more pleasant conditions. The fish were jumping, but I had no more interest in catching more dumb brook trout. After looking around, I attended to my morning feralications, and secured leukotape to my feet so that I would not get any blisters. I then reclaimed my bear bag and set off toward Coon Lake; at some point during this, I lost my trowel. I’m not sure how, but given how cheap it was, it may have snapped off on a rock. On the way out, I saw a deer; I bet he’d have tasted good. He ran away, so I didn’t get a picture…until I did, because he only ran like 50 feet, and then stopped.

As I walked through the forest, heading towards Coon Lake, I abruptly crossed the trail. Whoooooa! That’s a good place to stop and take a look around, which I did immediately. Right down the hill I saw the river—gah, I could have just crossed there? I walked back down toward it, as I saw a sign. As it turns out, this was the cutoff area to Tayo Lake, apparently. I was going to Coon first on Trail 705, and I’d be darned if I’d go back down to this cutoff, but it was good to note for future reference. (Looking at my own map, I thought that the trail would have been on the eastern side of the creek.)

My spirits were high as I pressed on, learning from the Futility Closet about a professor who was an impostor for his whole life, pretending to be first one Dr., and then the next. I was reminded deeply of my own father.

The ascent up to Coon Lake isn’t bad, and doesn’t have any real switchbacks. In about 1/2 of the distance between the crossing and Coon Lake, you’ll climb over 300 feet and then encounter a wide, brush-laden, marshy area. I lost the trail here in the deep thickets. Behind me I saw Poison Lake; in the picture below, the red indicates the route I took. In the distance, you can see where I descended from the Stough Creek Crossing. (The one with the letter to Nick.)

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I made my way through the brush as best I could, trying not to get my feet wet, but even the solidest looking ground was a complete mess of sinking grasses and drenched moss. My feet were quickly soaked through, which at least freed me of having to try and route find. If you’re going to do this, my recommendation is to get to either “side” and walk the “walls” of the area as soon as possible. The trail crosses the creek, but if you’re going to Coon, you really don’t need to yourself—just get to higher ground and hoof it.

A few hundred feet in, I found out that I wasn’t the only person to attempt this misguided route—I found someone’s trusty Glock. Well, as trusty as a garbage Glock can be. Is any advertising good advertising? Should I charge Glock for this mention? I’m an influencer, right? I stopped to fish in a little stream and caught some golden trout! God blessed me! Whoot! I love these beautiful, little fish.

• Last picture: I love the slab of mountain that is point 11,656 (by my estimates), though it has no official name that I can find.

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Across the marsh, I saw the outfitters heading downhill. They must have made an early morning of things. What were they doing running up and down the mountain? Man I want to be an outfitter. What a life! Since they were over there, that meant that the trail was, too, so I crossed through the brush and fields and marsh and misery and made my way to where I should have properly assigned myself already. I thought those things while learning about Operation Gunnerside, which was a military operation in Norway during WWII, which aimed to prevent Germany from developing an atomic bomb.

A couple of hundred feet before reaching Coon Lake, a group of 8 NOLSers came around the bend—what an awesome thing to be able to afford to do. I stepped out of the way, and as I did, somehow lost my tenkara rod to a short fall. It landed just right and snapped off the tip—and I didn’t have a replacement tip! Boo! I picked it up. The NOLS folks didn’t notice, and were cheery. They said that they were en-route to Mountain Sheep Lake, so they only had a mile to go. What good timing for me! I wondered if the outfitters were supplying them? Since it was only 12:30, they’d be getting in to their camp very early. What does one do if one is at one’s camp at one?

Once they were gone, I tried to decide what to do about my fishing situation. I had my standard rod and reel, but I really wanted to fly fish. What rotten luck! After some deliberating, I decided to tape up the pole as best I could with leukotape. I had wrapped my tape around a disused piece of popsicle stick, which is a good way to carry the stuff without taking up much space. It worked on my pole, but not very well. Still, I was able to catch fish using it in a nearby stream, so I guess that’s a win.

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Once I was convinced that I needn’t be too discouraged by this event, I made my way to the outlet of Coon Lake, where I crossed to the south. As it turns out, Coon might not be the worst place to camp—in fact, there were great spots to camp everywhere. I’d still say that my preference was for Mountain Sheep Lake given the height of the trees, but Coon was still a idyllic area. The south side of the lake was the most direct path to see Little Sandy Lake, which I’ve visited before, so I crossed the outlet started heading that way. My lust for fishing got the better of me, so I stopped and fished first. I think that I got a couple of small hits, but the slimy devils weren’t too interested in what I had to offer, so I moved my pack away from the trail and grabbed my camera, heading uphill to the south toward a smooth, granite knoll. I should have kept to the southeast more, since I wouldn’t have had to climb as far, but hindsight is 20/40 in my case. (I often still am not sure what the best decision would have been!)

• 1. Increasing cloudcover.
• 2. Instead of going down to the grassy area, I went right along the rocky ridge. DUMB LUKE!
• 3. Looking back at Coon before proceeding along the rocky ridge.
• 4. I think that this is still a part of Independent Mountain.

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Following the ridge, I came to the cliff overlooking the Little Sandy drainage. Yikes! It was about an 800-900′ sheer fall. That would be about the worst 7 and a half seconds of your life. I really do think that falling has to be the worst way to die. The thing that I hate most in life are regrets: why didn’t I marry that girl? Why did I choose this career? Why didn’t I—well, you get the picture. Falling to your death is not only terrifying, but it’s the life-to-death embodiment of regret. “Why did I choose to go out on that ledge? What a dumb way to die. Why did I—”

Anyway, I detest the thought of falling to my death. I personally hope that a rock from outer space hits me, because that’s instant, unknowable, and cool, and also some of them are very valuable. Imagine the dishonest coroner looking the aerolite fragment from your carcass and the hilarious scandal that would ensue! What a way to go. And people could say of my untimely death, “We grieve the passing of this fallen star, ironically killed by a falling star, too.”

As I was saying before you got me off on that tangent, I did a lot of looking around and taking pictures. I could see the trail to Temple Basin (Loop Trail, which my Wind River Range map doesn’t list, though google does) running through the forest on the west side of the canyon, but didn’t see any people or tents. The satellite imagery showed tents, so I guess a number of people must use this trail, though I’ve never liked Little Sandy. From my perch far above the creek, I could see Little Sandy Lake, the Killpecker Sand Dunes, Temple Peak, and more.

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I also looked over at the lowlying saddle between Independent Mountain and Temple Peak and saw a trail which I got pictures of. It appeared to be well worn, and from what I know of the area, would lead to the Sedgewick Meadows area, or prior to that, on the road that leads to the Big Sandy trailhead. Who uses it? It’s not on any maps, but then again, it seems that every map you get has different “official” trails listed. Do outfitters utilize it? It looked rather rugged for the task, and appeared to head to the unnamed lake that sits right below the Frozen Lakes. I’m now very curious about the trail and might ingress to Coon Lake from there one day. Speaking of which, if your objective is just to get to Coon Lake, it’s probably fastest to use Little Sandy as your means of ingress, though getting to the trailhead itself is a perilous crapshoot, and the walk in is beyond ugly.

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As I was looking around, I was taking note of the clouds building up. Temple Peak began to be intermittently cloaked in swirling stratus; I was going to be rained on again. Despite that, I couldn’t help but love how well the day was going! Here I was, looking at Mount Nystrom, staring down a thousand feet into a valley, and I could even see the Killpecker Sand Dunes (what a name). The temperatures were cool, probably in the upper 50s or low 60s, and the sky was dramatic. I took some selfies and felt sadness again—31 and still no life companion, to share these things with, which leaves one feeling a bit desperate.

I made my way back toward my backpack, deciding not to climb along the boulder ridge. Instead, I went north to intercept the lake and walk along its shore. There was one section of scree that I climbed down, alongside a little meltpond, and soon I was at the southern use trail. By the lake I saw a flyfisher, but he didn’t see me, being very absorbed in his task. Although I looked around, he, like me, was quite alone.

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Soon I was back to my pack, and got my camera settled back in. I looked at the contour lines and decided to try and follow them as best I could from Coon Lake to Tayo. Once I crossed the outlet of Coon Lake again, this section of off-trail went easily enough for me, beginning with grassy lawns, which led into boulderfields that I was able to mostly just walk over, with no scary shifting buggers. I moved in and out of small stands of trees, and finally came to an overlook. The red in the picture from the overlook is the path I took, while in hindsight, beating through the brush (yellow, gallery below) might have been more worthwhile in the end if one wanted to save elevation gain. On the other hand, my path gives the best views.

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Tracking down along the sides of the marshy area, I avoided getting my feet even wetter, and then climbed up the rocky chute. The view I was rewarded with was spectacular, and just as soon as I reaped my reward, it began to rain. I took out my Canon and got some pictures, and then sealed it back up, making sure that it was safe from the water coming down. The rain was quite cold, and as I carefully navigated the steep, grassy ramps down toward the shore of Tayo Lake, it began to abate. I set down my backpack and began to fish, keeping an eye on the sky. The trip between lakes had taken me about 50 minutes, which wasn’t too bad.

Nothing that I tried interested whatever fish might be in Tayo, but I kept at it for quite a long time, intermittently snacking on my gummies, too. I was the only person at the lake for the 70 minutes that I loitered there. Eventually, the rain began to become more steady, so I packed up and put on my poncho, crossing the outlet, which was entirely hidden beneath boulders. On the other side of the lake, I once again looked at my map. Where could I put my tent? The whole area is quite exposed, and no fish were biting. My map showed a small lake/pond around 11,200 feet on the side of Wind River Peak, and it was only 4:30. Despite the bad weather, it seemed worth my time to press on, so I did; on the way up, I found the official trail, which cuts through some trees in an interesting manner.

Walking through this section of land, at least in this weather, was spectacular: the rain and humidity made everything seem much father away and more vast; the stunted trees did the same. I felt like I was in Middle Earth, though my Fellowship was only me. I ambled across golden grasses in sheets of rain, looking across valleys; to the east, I saw a waterfall cascading down granite. The contour lines show that it’s easiest to simply walk up a wide “ridge” to the pond I was aiming for, but as I made my way along, I saw that such a choice would require me to climb slipper rock ledges intermittently, so I instead headed slightly downhill, heading for the creek that led to the pond.

My hands were frigid in the decreasing temperatures and pelting rain, and my path was crisscrossed a billion times by small streams, wet, marshy grasses, and rampant rivulets. I tried to keep my feet out of them, not so that I wouldn’t get wet, since I was soaked through in my feet, but rather so that my feet wouldn’t get too numb. My toes were intensely cold. I wondered about heading up into the scrubby trees along the spine above me, and perhaps setting up shop there, at least until or if it became warmer. Below me was a creek, which in normal circumstances, I’d have wanted to check out, given its rapids and eddies, and sporadic spits of sand. Perhaps I’d even have wanted to camp there. But in this weather, as I pressed onward, I couldn’t help but think of one of my former teachers, James “Jamie” French, and his elk-hunting habits. This territory would be home to him. For me, it was a beautiful set of inhospitable views.

As I walked, I looked at my map. Across the valley, there was a small lake from which the waterfall I mentioned came. Eventually, I could see the lake. It seemed that it might have some trees, while the pond I was aiming for certainly did not. I scouted the terrain for a way to reach it. Following the contour line’s u-bend would be easiest, but I’d be climbing along a lot of slippery, cold rock, along steep areas of mountain, and having to battle trees and undergrowth. I held off on my decision, and eventually reached the creek.

There I made my choice: I would go check out the lake at 11,250, and if I didn’t like it, I’d split the difference and amble down to Lake 11,100 (ish). I simply didn’t want to clamber over the cold stone, and the creek was roaring and had to cross. I kept to the west side of the stream as I ascended freezing stone, trying not to let my hands both be numb at once. Rain, sleet, and a bit of snow flurry pelted my face, causing the tip of my nose to feel pain from the insult.

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Finally, at 11,125 feet, I found a way across, and made it to the eastern side of the creek without falling in. From there, it was an easy walk up, where I learned that Lake 11,250 wasn’t a lake at all, but rather a small, fennish beginning to the stream, and probably a snowfield during most of the year. I reluctantly headed for Lake 11,100. Up and over the dividing hill I went, and was met with a view of two ponds and a snowbank. I tested the snow out, and it was stable, so I descended it, aiming for boulders when I could. The best place to camp ended up being by the larger of the water bodies, right adjacent to the waterfall between them, which I reached 50 minutes after leaving Tayo Lake.

• 

I stuffed my pack under a boulder as best I could, and set about erecting my tent, which is difficult in pounding rain, at least if you want your tent to be dry, if your tent, like mine, has a separate rainfly. First I set out the rainfly, and then grabbed my footprint, bundling it underneath my poncho so it wouldn’t get soaked. I climbed under the fly and set it up as well as I could. Then came the stakes, followed by a half-erection of the fly, followed by the introduction of the tent itself.

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It wasn’t the quickest process, but I’d been soaked for an hour already, so I wasn’t too bothered. I got my gear stashed away, grabbed some water from the small waterfall nearby, and then got into my tent, drying off and putting on my warm PJs. Since I had nothing to do, I ate the rest of my Cheetos, which was a very satisfying activity, but left me sad that I was out of the delicious bounty of MSG. From 6 until 7:30, I stayed in my tent while the storm outside drove rain with increasing vigor. I was warm and safe. I looked at my foot, which had eggs in it

Just kidding. The foot issue was actually just a callous self-destructing due to being waterlogged, and was nothing that some leukotape couldn’t fix.

Eventually, at 7:35, I was able to get out of my tent under clearing skies and a distant rainbow. An odd duck landed on my little lake—a Gadwall dabbling duck, perhaps? It was noisy for a bit, and by itself. I had no desire to have my clothes inside with me, so I set them on a boulder to dry, got more water, and dined inside my tent. The sunset was incredible; I almost had an infinity pool, looking to the south at Mount Nystrom, which seemed to be the end of the world. There are no fish in this lake, but I didn’t see any amphipods, either. Of course, thanks to the waterfall, I didn’t have to worry about them.

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After brushing my teeth, I got back in my tent, which led to a sneezing fit. The largest discharge of mucus ever occurred, which seems to be secondary to all the facial surgery I received. Prior to this, nothing would ever clear from my head, so it’s actually welcome—I just wish that it hadn’t been so unexpected. Gross! Anyway, it sure left me feeling better than ever.

I was now above the treeline, so my biggest worry regarding my foodbag was some slovenly, thieving marmot getting ideas. For that reason, I kept it inside the tent with me, and tied my bearspray to my wrist. It was a quiet, cold night.

Day 5 Totals: 4.76 miles, +1988/-1076. Elevation min/avg/max 10,140, 10,692, 11,251′.

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⤑Day 6: Lake 11088 to Wind River Peak Camp 11800

This was a very short day as far as activities go, so I have less to type. I got up to discover that my clothes were still wet, and my tent fly soaked. It was cloudless and quite windy, so I tore down what I could and placed things on rocks to dry. (Including almost losing an item to the wind.) Especially important to me were drying my socks, shoes, and soaked underwear. I didn’t have anywhere to be, so it was a very relaxed morning. I was underway by 10:30 and backtracked my way uphill.

As there was less of a reason to get accurate GPS data, I set the polling rate down quite a bit to conserve my phone’s battery. The walk wasn’t “easy,” in that it was quite warm under the blazing sun, but it was mostly just finding my way along patches grass interspersed with easily-navigated boulder patches. Instead of heading straight for the summit, I aimed for a shoulder of the mountain that overlooks Ice Lakes. It’s about 800 feet up and 3/4 of a mile; I reached it within an hour, which included time spent foolishly taking pictures of the area I came from, as if I wouldn’t see it from a better angle in a bit. This point is also just about 1/2 way to the saddle of Wind River Peak adjacent Chimnet Rock, after which the summit becomes more of a rock scramble.

1. A bright and sunny day…to dry my junk!
2. The “lake” that I thought I’d came at the previous day.
3. The red line is the saddle between Leg and Stough Creek Lakes.
4. Ice Lakes. Not as pretty as I’d have hoped.
5. Easy walking if your butt is in shape. 🙂

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I took pictures there, made a phone call, and checked the weather. I was incredibly blessed, and the NWS was calling for blue skies for the rest of my trip. Yay! The climb from there to the saddle was leisurely for me, and I arrived in about 45 minutes; there was only one section where I felt a need to skirt rocks, and it was mostly simple walking with one small snowpatch to cross.

1. The red lines are of course how I walked around.
2. Peak Finder is a blast.
3. Falling to your death has to be the pits.

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The saddle itself, at least at that time of year, had a nice stream running down it, so I filled up my water and drank a bunch. I left my backpack on a rock and only took my coat, a bottle of water, my camera, and my SATCOM, and headed up the mountainside. Someone had posted online that the climb was only rocky the last couple hundred feet, which must have been some form of perverse humor. The 1/2 mile walk from the saddle climbed 690 feet to 13,192, and was all walking over boulders, scrambling around, etc; I stopped a couple of times to look at the spectacular geologic feature known as Surveyor’s Notch. It only took me about 35 minutes to reach the summit from the saddle.

At the very top, the mountain was flat, with a few areas free of boulders that you could even pitch your tent on! It’s worth adding that I was blessed beyond belief, as there was no wind, and the temperature was perfect for going around in just a shirt. I really couldn’t believe the weather. Totally calm. Not a whisper of air movement. I could see a billion miles: to the south, everything from Pilot Butte to Boar’s Tusk. To the east, I could see the mountains by Rawlins; to the west, the Wyoming Range. Looking north, all of the Wind River Range and the Gros Ventre were spread out before me.

1. The view looking north from just below the summit.
2. My feet on the NE edge of Wind River Peak. I was going to climb down and see that little tarn, but ended up saving it for a later date.
3. Carved granite by upper Deep Creek Lake.
4. An infinite expanse of mountains to the northwest.
5. Looking like the wing of a angel, Wolf’s Head abuts Pingora in the Cirque of the Towers.

To summarize the views, these are the best I’ve ever had. They are far better than what one can see from Fremont Peak. I was blown away. To commemorate my enthusiasm, I collected some rocks, as is my wont, to take back with me to my home. I really couldn’t get enough of all that I could see, and I was inspired to think of routes that perhaps I’d not have considered before, such as hopping over the hill between Black Joe and Deep Creek Lakes, which was, from what I could tell, mostly nice walking through gentle grass. I spent far too much time on top—I arrived at 3:17, but wasn’t back at my backpack until 7:17. It was all worth it.

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1. Fish Creek pass and the almost-hidden Blue Lake, which I’ve reviewed. A great day-hike.
2. Frozen Lakes at Temple Pass.
3. Long Lake, which I’d like to visit. (There is another Long Lake which I hate in this range, and I’ve also reviewed it.)
4. Mind the gap at Surveyor’s Notch…but if you could jump it, think of the time you’d save. Black Joe Lake is in view in the top right.
5. Lizard Head!

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1. The plateau by Black Joe Lake. Left to right, it leads you to Deep Creek Lakes. In the distance is Bear Lake near Lizard Head plateau.
2. Dickinson Park. I’ve hiked to Mendarrin and Cathedral out of there, and yes, it’s better than what I found when reviewing this Dickinson.
3. An overview of the north view from my phone. Black Joe is visible.
4. The park beneath Cliff and High Meadow Lake. Straight beyond it would be Dickinson Park; it merges with another river (nor pictured), and from Dickinson, I’ve only taken the north drainage, and not this one. Its proper name is “Sanford Park.”
5. Depth seen in the Mount Chauvenet and Bears Ears mountains. In the canyons on the top left are Cathedral and Mendarrin drainages.

1. I walked to the south side of the mountain, and looked at Mountain Sheep Lake, where I’d stayed a couple of days before.
2. I also found a small flag.
3. Life was still beautifully present.
4. I could see all of Mount Nystrom and also Tayo Lake.
5. A Red Nose (callsign) went over—that’s Norwegian Airlines!

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1. From the south side, I could see many features that I’ve explored thoroughly.
2. Fossil Hill, Frye Lake, and Worthen Reservoir, where I’d have to walk back to.
3. Little Sandy Lake from a different perspective. The hike there sucks.
4. Tayo and Upper Tayo Lake.
5. A southern panorama. Stunning! Brave!

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All good things must end—even you, dear reader! So I made my way back down to my backpack while listening to Reason’s interview with Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful. Will this age VERY poorly? What do you think? Also, can you spot my backpack in the picture below?

Although I could have camped right there, some hours of light remained, so onward I went, following the contour line around the edge of Chimney Rock knoll en route to that massive ramp down to Deep Creek Lakes. I set my GPS accuracy back to low and made my way along. After about 1/2 a mile of tromping through rocks, I realized that I wasn’t hearing the jangle of my bear spray, which I’d belted on to the back of my pack, as bears were no worry and I hate it hanging from my hip or whacking my nips as I walk. Crap! I followed my way back to where I last remembered it being, but couldn’t find it; the buckle had come loose and it had probably fallen deep into a crevice where I couldn’t find it in the increasing shadows. Blast!

1. The rocky traverse.
2. Looking north of Lander.
3. The route I took up the mountain.

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This was a tainted bear spray, anyway, so I didn’t care too much that it was gone. Navigating onward, I reached the edge of the “ramp,” which is about 2 miles long and 1700 vertical feet of traversal. I took a number of pictures and looked for the best way down. While I could make it all the way down to Deep Creek Lakes, part of me wanted to camp on the side of the mountain, as I’d seen done in a picture. The sunrise and sunset could be awesome! Plus I’d be able to see the plains at night. Could I find a spot to camp?

I considered my options. A large snowfield was in my way, but I didn’t want to walk all the way around. I tested it out and it was very stable and grippy, so I walked straight down it. I made my camp at 11,800 feet exactly, 28.2 miles into the hike, on a mostly level area, after my highest average day of hiking so far—12,307′. A few feet to the north of me was a small stream and collecting pool for water, and about 100 feet to the south was a creek. It was a great place to camp.

https://youtu.be/j1E-NuHIdGU

I prepared dinner while taking pictures, and saved bathing for the last thing. It got quite dang cold while I was doing all of this, too, but thankfully there were no mosquitoes, at least. The pictures were spectacular. A crescent moon set over the cliffs near me as the sun did the same. In the far distance were flashings from bolts of lightning over the northern part of the range. I wondered about all the people in the mountains to the north. How were they doing? What was this evening like for them?

And farther north, how was my friend Yue doing? She’s perhaps the most amazing friend I’ve ever had—conversation with her is always engaging. I wished that I had a partner to talk to, sometimes, and to make memories with. Life, and hiking, are much like reading a book, one page and one mile at a time. I’ve been reading such a spectacular book, but I’m the only one who knows of it; the only person who’s read it with. I have no one else with whom I can fondly recall my favorite chapters, or discuss where it might lead. I am alone, inexorably turning pages, filled with incredible details, and yet so bereft of a certain joy—the type of joy that can only be experienced through mellifluous laughter, or felt through the trotting rhythm of vibrant banter over topics of mutual interest.

Because of all that, you’d think that it wouldn’t have taken me 31 years to realize that CS Lewis was right when he wrote in “The Four Loves,”

“Lovers are always talking to one another about their love; Friends hardly ever about their Friendship. Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest….People who bore one another should meet seldom; people who interest one another, often.”

Ah well! I made my dinner and cleaned myself up before going to bed. Getting my bed level wasn’t too hard; I always bring extra ziploc bags to use as leveling pillows and dry bags, and I also had my ultralight drysacks, too. The worst experience I’ve had with that was at Middle Cloud Peak Lake. The wind picked up some, but it wasn’t a bad night.

Day 6 Totals: 3.88 miles, +2439/-1747. Elevation min/avg/max 11,085, 12,307, 13,188′.

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⤑Day 7: Wind River Peak Camp to Worthen Meadows TH

I don’t have terribly more to say about the 7th day than I did about the 6th, since this was my egress day. I woke up at 0517 and took a bunch of pictures of the sunrise, then got warm in my tent before packing up. I also re-taped my foot.

I saw some man by himself trudging up the mountain. He had quite a way to go. Since I was near the middle of the ramp, on my way down (an easy walk), I tramped over to look at the Ice Lakes.

They aren’t the most attractive lakes; I didn’t see a way down, but I didn’t want to descend at the moment, anyway. I texted my family my location with the spotty service and then made my way over to the upper Deep Creek Lake, crossing the biggest of the creeks that flows down the ramp. I managed without getting wet.

• Another Ice Lake. Not so much ice.

Although I was curious about the small lakes on the “top” of the base of the ramp, I had many miles to go, so elected to save them for a return visit. Pictures were called for, as Surveyor’s Notch was incredible, and I also loved the shelfed dome on the far side of the lake. There is a slight “upper” lake, too, with a spit of stone running between them, which features as waterfall. I’d love to camp there, though it’s against the rules and very impolite. I also looked up at a snowfield on the mountain; that’s the area that I’d like to walk over to Black Joe. Since I had a vantage point, I also got a picture of the lower Deep Creek Lake before heading down to the upper one to fish.

• First picture above: the way to Black Joe.
• Last picture: creek to lower Deep Creek Lake (or maybe middle).

There isn’t much in the way of shoreline, and nothing hit any of the offerings that I had, though I tried for quite some time. I also kept thinking that I heard people, though I didn’t see anyone. Eventually, I determined that there were probably a couple of guys heading up the lowest part of the ramp, and they were probably yelling to each other; it was bouncing off the far wall. I reluctantly packed up and made my way up the little hill behind the “shore” and down toward the lake that is nearest the Echo and Baer Lakes connector trail. The orienteering was easy at first, though it got a bit worse the father down I got, as the thickets grew up. In the end, it was easiest to stick closer to the creek and waterfall so that I could butt-slide on boulders. As I did so, I learned about crime-divers. And by that, I mean people diving in the La Brea Tar Pits and in sewers. Yuck! But also cool, since the sun hates my skin.

1. Making one’s way down to the lower/possible middle lake.
2. The banks of said lake.
3. The outlet between lakes.

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The banks of this lake are much more hospitable, and had flat, grassy areas where one could camp. I saw a very large (rainbow-looking) trout cruising the shoreline, hitting the surface, so I followed it and kept trying different flies. It wasn’t interested. Eventually, it saw me…and didn’t even care. Has someone been putting Xanax in the water? What in the world? It’s like Leg Lake all over again. Maybe I shouldn’t have been harshing on the brookies after all? Oh well. I bushwhacked onward toward the outlet between lakes and learned about the mystery of the Carroll A Deering. It’s quite the dadgum mystery, y’all. I suspect foul wretched play!

I reached the stream between lakes and saw a man and his very attractive girlfriend, both wearing clothes that suggested that they stumbled into the mountains expecting to only be going in about a 1/3 of a mile or so, yet ending up very deep in the wilderness. (Ie., I didn’t get their choices for apparel, though I was jealous of their good looks and wished to have nothing to do with them out of selfishness and bitter ambition!)

Anyway, I kept to the south side of the creek (my side), and walked downstream. They quit fishing and started following me on the other side of the bank. What? Weirdos. I saw a bunch of fish presumably spawning in the stream, and tried to video it, but the couple video-bombed me. What was with them? They kept staring at me, too. I’m no looker, I know, which sometimes encourages people to look at me, but this was all very weird, as I’m not a social creature by nature. They started to cross toward me, so I quit filming and made my way downstream with a quickness. (Typically I will stop and be helpful, but these two skeeved me out for some reason.)

As I made my way downhill, my options for crossing degraded, and soon I was looking at the lowest of the Deep Creek Lakes, wondering if I should go around it the long way. It was boulderfields and extra distance, so I said, “Hey, José, no way, ése!” Instead, I dutifully removed my shoes and crossed the frigid inlet area.

On the other side of the lake, I picked up the trail again, but immediately saw another bank-cruising fish, so I tried for it, with the same luck. Languid, good-for-nothing slimeballs! As I packed my bag back up from the failed attempt, a rather attractive, moon-faced, elfin girl with only the smallest daypack came crashing around the corner. Typically, people fail to notice me given how I move about, and this was true. The girl almost hit me, and when she recognized that she was about to smack into a large animal (me), she recoiled in fright with a shriek!

I observed her as she clutched at her chest and said, “Sorry to frighten you!”

She was quite endearing and explained that she was just dayhiking in the area, and didn’t see or hear me, and that I blend in so well, and that oh holy heck she thought that I was a bear and that she was going to be eaten right then and there.

I almost felt bad, but it was very memorable. We parted a ways and I continued along trail 706 (Ice Lakes Trail); it isn’t incredibly well maintained and so goes up and down the hillside to avoid downed timber. There weren’t many places to camp in this area.

Within 15 minutes, I arrived at the 709/706 interchange. Deep Creek Cutoff Trail 709 was hard to distinguish from my vantage point, at least at the interchange, so I was glad to have a well-marked sign.

The day was growing very hot now, and it was almost 1PM, and I’d only covered 2.75 miles with 11.2 left to go if I went down the connector to Pinto Park. On the other hand, if I took Ice Lakes back to Stough and followed my former party’s egress route, it’d be 13.5 miles. On the third hand, which grew spontaneously as I listened the the very good podcast with the creators of the HBO Chernobyl miniseries (WATCH IT!), the shorter route had a potentially aggressive bear, and now I had no bear spray. A 4th hand grew from listening to QuarterToThree’s podcast on the same topic.

I wasn’t too worried about the bear, in reality, as it was a black bear, so I chose the shorter route. I can sum up the remainder of the trip as such: a never-ending, dusty, hot misery-pilgrimage to my Jeep. A Jeep-bound miserage. An unfortunate series of a billion footfalls. Or most succinctly, “UGH.”

But in the spirit of actually detailing what the trails are like, I’ll say more. Deep Creek Cutoff Trail 709 is 2.2 miles long and doesn’t spend much time by the creek, so be ye not deceived. Instead, it descends 800 feet in 2.2 miles and gives you one merely OK view of a deep cut with some waterfalls. In that time, you’ll gain 250 feet.

Starting off, you’ll go by a deeply cut area, and then spend a bunch of time in arid forests on a bouldery, gravelly trail. There aren’t views of much at all. Around 3/4 of a mile down the connector, you’ll cross the creek, which is a good area to get water, though you’ll cross it again shortly after. From there, you’ll see a little lake, but the trail doesn’t approach it too closely, and it’s an ugly lake indeed. Eventually, you’ll climb a little hill, then descend to a final creek; this creek leads to Pinto Park Lake. I stopped there and got water. Pinto Park itself isn’t here, nor is it at Pinto Park Lake—nope, it’s mysteriously at the top of a little pass a mile northwest and over 400 feet higher. Oh, and you won’t see Pinto Park Lake, either, unless you walk through the forest for 600 feet! It’s hidden from the trail, and doesn’t seem to have much in the way of use trails to get to it.

Anyway, I crossed the creek after drinking and headed uphill, reaching the intersection of Pinto Park Trail 708 and Trail 709. I had gotten it in my head (who knows how) that I’d be down following the river the whole way. Wrong! Until you get to the intersection with trail 700, you’ll average 1/3 of a mile from the river, and 300 feet or more above it, and it isn’t in sight during this time. The most I came across was a bog.

About 10 minutes after leaving the stream that I got water from, I came across two older guys, a young boy, and two very beautiful young women in their 20s who could have been twins. They were stupidly gorgeous. I had to avert my gaze lest I be spellbound by these obvious, raven-locked witches!

From there, I traveled another mile and crossed a bridge by a fen-like area, and not shortly thereafter came across a young, surly man who was headed uphill. He had no interest in chatting. 20 minutes behind him I met a group of two, fatter guys, one of whom was leaning against a boulder. They asked me if I’d seen the young man, and I told them that I had. They said that they were heading up to try and summit Wind River Peak, so we conversed about my recent summit of the large lady. I told them that there was no ever-loving way that they’d be able to do it today, and gave them tips on where to camp for their attempt. They both groused about the young man being in better shape and not being highly amenable to slow, plodding travel. Ha! We took our leave of each other’s company and moved on.

After another 40 minutes, I met an old man who was bleeding from the arm—he was quite old indeed, and had by his side an old dog. We stopped and chatted for a bit; he was exceedingly kind. Our discussion turned to the blessing of the outdoors, and he inquired as to the distance left until Pinto Park, which he was hoping to make. I told him that at his walking pace, he’d be there within 3 hours, and to Pinto Lake far sooner, if he chose to stay there. He bid me adieu saying,

Stay safe, and God bless you, young man! I appreciate your attitude.

His kind words really made my day! I kept going and my back began to be irritated; the weight in my pack just wasn’t right, and it was quite hot. It seemed that this travel might not ever end!

Eventually, I was headed down a steeper section of trail, listening to the dubious benefits of medicated lip balm. (And to other medical questions being answered by a physician and her comedian husband.)

• Left: Mount Nystrom

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That only held my attention for so long, and for the rest of the trip, I listened to the FC, mostly dealing with poor wretches on boats or icebergs, and the Defenders Series by Dr. William Craig on the Creation of Life and Biologic Diversity.

Germany’s polar expedition of 1869 took a dramatic turn when 14 men were shipwrecked on an ice floe off the eastern coast of Greenland. As the frozen island carried them slowly toward settlements in the south, it began to break apart beneath them. In this week’s episode of the Futility Closet podcast we’ll follow the crew of the Hansa on their desperate journey toward civilization. We’ll also honor a slime mold and puzzle over a reversing sunset.

The excursus on the creation of life and biologic diversity is 34 parts and about 23 hours in length, so I got some mileage (#dadjoke) out of it! If you’re interested, I’ll link it, too.

Finally I reached the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie, and elected to stop and get water, plus a bite to eat. The river here was wide and shallow, but right below it became filled with rapids. This was the first hike of the season for me, and I wasn’t feeling exhausted, but I was feeling dispirited by just how ugly it had become—wrong choice made in going this route!

Finally I took off downhill, sadly looking at my remaining mileage and wondering how long it could take. A group of outfitters came by heading the opposite direction, and they asked me if I’d seen a dog. Nope! They seemed confused as to how one of their working dogs had vanished.

20 minutes later, I found a companion. He came out of the trees and followed me all the way to Sheep Bridge, passing Trail 711/Hudson Meadows/Shoshone Basin Trail, obviously lost. I wished that there were something I could do for him, but he was a working dog and treated me more like a member of a pack than anything else—respectful, curious, and protective, but not down to be petted or wrangled. He also kept the many snakes at bay for me!

I crossed sheep bridge and had to walk back to the Sheep Bridge Connector Trail—get water at the river, because it’s a very arid, 700 foot climb over the remaining 2 3/4 miles. My USGS topo was old, and the trails in this area aren’t in the same places as they are on it. My old map mentioned Brewer park, and I saw a sign for Upper Brewers, but it wasn’t on either map. As it turned out, this was a mountain-bike trail.

I got back to the parking lot at 6:25PM. After a bit of searching, I found the key to my Jeep (it had fallen down from its hidey hole) and bathed with my little solar shower, which I love. I also like my pop-up shower tent! I hang the shower off the cross-bars of my Jeep and do it that way.

After getting settled in, I headed back home, ordering a Southern Style Chicken Sandwich from McDonald’s. For whatever reason, the restaurant in Lander serves that sandwich, when every other McD’s discontinued it like a decade ago. I don’t get it!

The sunset on the way home was perfect.

Day 7 Totals: 14.0 miles, +1182/-4163. Elevation min/avg/max 8455, 9659, 11,800′.

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➤Conclusion and Rating

During the last day, I wanted to eviscerate this dumb hike in my review! However, after letting the memories digest a little bit, this is likely the hike I’ve taken with the best memories in my life. I feel excruciating regret that I experienced this one alone. The weather, the vistas, the geology, and the people I met all made this a defining experience in my life. My soul longs to return to the days I spent, to battling cold and heat, to dwelling on God in the mountains, and to experiencing the protection of the deep forests. I made some missteps and will change how I tackle it in the future, but this, so far, is my favorite hike I’ve ever taken, and one of 5 hikes that I could re-do endlessly. As you might guess, this hike earns 5 stars out of 5.

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Let me know if you have any questions. I’d love to help you do more with that time of yours, and I’m here to serve you!

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