Don't Get the Hash Browns. Yuck!!

So, I decided to join in on a big adventure this year and test out my endurance and physical strength in the Wind Rivers of Wyoming.  I was very surprised at all the different things I would need to endure, including long, strenuous hikes, millions of mosquitoes, ice cold nights, and gross food.  But, the trip was 100% worth it.  Just look at the beauty that constantly surrounded us.

We started the trip on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011.  The plan was to hike to Glimpse Lake the first day, then to Trapper Lake and on to Borum Lake on Thursday.  Borum Lake was our final destination and where we set up base camp. Then, for Friday and Saturday we'd take a few shorter day hikes around Borum, then hike all the way back home on Sunday.

Unfortunately, nothing went as planned.

We drove to the trail head on Wednesday.  The other half of our group, consisting of Luke, Holly, and Logan Smith, came a day early.  The first time I hoisted my large backpack, I felt my spine compact.  Even though I had the lightest pack, it was still a good 20 to 25 lbs.

The picture didn't turn out so well.  This is the group I hiked in with.  Landon Smith, Devin Hepner, and Pat Smith.  Oh, and don't forget Abby, our "watch dog".  The reason I say "watch dog" is because that is the reason Pat gave for bringing her in the first place.  I loved that Abby was there. But to give her the title of "watch dog" may be giving her too much credit.  For example, one evening we were all at the camp and sitting around the fire.  Abby was sleeping off to the side.  A smallish deer came walking into our camp (this deer hung around a lot) and sniffed around.  Abby never stirred.  In fact, Abby only noticed the deer once.  It was the next morning and Abby was fully awake and happened to catch site of it out of the corner of her eye.  She bounded after it and came back all proud that she chased away our "intruder".

So, day one, we took the wrong trail.  We had a map, but it didn't show any of the trails from this trail head.  We ended up hiking to Trapper Lake on our first day which was apx. 8 miles.  And it wasn't 8 easy miles by any means.  The majority of the hike was up hill and a lot of that was steep.  And, I must say, the down  hills were worse.  I've learned that I would much rather hike up hill than down.  Needless to say, my feet, knees, and especially hips were extremely sore by the time we reached Trapper Lake.

But the scenery on the way to Trapper was breath taking.  This is a picture of a burnt forest.  The contrast between the blackened tree trunks and the beautiful purple flowers covering the forest floor was awesome (not "cool" awesome but "leaving me in awe and wonder" awesome).

A lot of my pictures are slanted a bit because I'm standing on a hillside and my pack would make me stand lopsided, if that makes any sense.

The next day's hike was quite a bit shorter.  But the last ridge into Borum Lake would have killed me if Luke and Logan hadn't come looking for us and took my pack to camp for me.  I was VERY grateful that they did that.

This is a picture of one of the many lakes we passed on our way to Borum Lake on our second day.

Since we were half a day ahead of schedule when we made it to base camp, we all watched Logan fish.  He was the only one who brought up a fishing pole.  I was probably the most anxious for him to catch a fish so when he did finally catch one, I was all sorts of excited.

Unfortunately, he only caught one.  They allowed me to cook it on a stick over the fire, something I'd wanted to do practically my whole life, and we all shared it with a little soy sauce.  Gotta love fresh fish.

The food that we lugged in was...less than pleasing.  We ate freeze dried and dehydrated food from various makers.  Some of the food was tolerable for the most part but the Beef Stew and Hash Browns were, well, gross.  Very gross.  If there is a next time, I may try to survive off of powdered milk and dry cereal.

On day three (Friday), we decided to hike a peak called Glover.  I was like, "which peak?"  And they were like, "that peak" and I was all "THAT PEAK???"  Yes, THAT peak.

So, we started hiking to "that" peak.  The hike to the base of the peak was cake.  Once we got to the base, however, we all had to decide on a game plan.

The plan was, we go for it.  If we break off into groups, just make sure we gather right back here at the base. There was a pretty lake at the base called Summit Lake.  That was the meeting point.
So, we all set off for this seemingly impossible hike.  Of course, I only made it like 2/3 of the way up.  Logan called it bouldering and I don't boulder very well.  There was a smallish glacial lake where I finally stopped and ate lunch.  Landon went up to the next glacial lake then came back to keep me company.  Luke and Holly made it up a little further before turning around.  Pat, Logan, and Devin made it all the way to the peak.

This is a small waterfall we encountered on the way back down to Summit Lake.

Here, we're cooling off our feet at the "beach" at Summit Lake.

On Saturday, Luke, Holly, Logan, Pat, and Abby headed back home in the morning.  Landon, Devin and I had decided to go on a day hike up to the waterfall and bridge by Twin Lakes.  Then, we planned to hike down to Glimpse Lake and camp there and then home on Sunday.

The waterfall was GORGEOUS!!

We had lunch here, took tons of pictures, then hiked back to base camp.  We then packed up all our gear and started our trek down to Glimpse Lake.

One of the things we did several times a day was pump water through a water purifying device to fill up our water bottles.  The water actually tasted okay and even though we brought things to flavor the water with (like Crystal Light and such) we didn't really need it and we didn't used them very often.  I actually used mugicha on the last day. It was glorious.

So, after we made it to Trapper Lake, we realized it wasn't all that late in the day.  My feet and knees were killing me but the idea of having to go dig holes to go to the bathroom in or spend another ice cold night was not very uplifting.  After conversing for a bit, we decided to hike all the way out that night.

The scenery, of course was amazing.

These are some lily pads in a creek just past Trapper Lake.

I had the privilege of hiking through this beautiful wild flower meadow TWICE.  I could have happily spent the whole trip in this meadow.

We finally made it out of the mountains pretty late that night.

This sign was posted a good 6 miles before we made it out. Ha ha ha!  The stinkers got my hopes up.
It was dark by the time we made it to the trail head.  Landon and I ended up hiking about 18 miles total that day.  Devin, who ran ahead to get the truck to pick us up, hiked around 21 miles.

Though it was a tough, strenuous adventure, I would have to say it was completely worth it.  I have a new respect for nature and also for those who do this often.  I found out what my physical limitations are and I think I need to be more in shape if I were to try something like this again.