|
The Wind River Range Day 3~Oh Baby, It's Cold Out Here!
A quick peek out of the vestibule window indicated that the ground was covered with frost. Br-r-r-r! The hot, humid 90's that we left behind just 3 days ago were such a distant memory. Trails: Pinto Park Trail to Deep Creek Cutoff Trail to Ice Lakes Trail 2nd Night Campsite: Deep Creek Lakes Friday, August 29, 2003 Temperature, 7:00 am 31°
I woke about 6:30 am, a habit I would continue during the duration of this trip. Snug as a bug in my Feathered Friends 10° sleeping bag, I could feel a chill in the air as I stirred. A quick peek out the vestibule window indicated that the ground was covered with frost. Br-r-r-r! The hot, humid 90's that we left behind just 3 days ago were such a distant memory. John continued to sleep and I journaled until Will announced that he was awake. My Timex read 7:00 am as the camp began to come to life.
The icy mountain air felt like a slap in the face as we forced ourselves out from under the warmth of our sleeping bags. Someone had stirred last night's coals and we made a mad dash to the heat of the fire. Time for hot coffee and a hot breakfast! As we warmed our hands over our first cup of coffee, John Finger joined us fireside and started joking about not having any clean clothes to wear. According to his story, he had to put them all on last night just to keep warm. John F. is a highly experienced backpacker and we could only figure that his vision had been steamed over by Knoxville's recent heat and humidity when he selected his 40° sleeping bag over one of his colder weather bags. A 40° bag will provide comfort to 45-50°, 40° if you wear everything you own. John F. would be spending every night dressed in all of his clothes and would still be bitterly cold (yes, we did offer up some of our fleece). The situation was not funny and was potentially life threatening ...but, well...just the way he told the story, we laughed until we cried!!
We were catching our breath and wiping away the tears when Will returned to the fire making a big stink about loosing a sock in his tent. "Tents are like clothes dryers", he explained, "they eat everything inserted." We had a real hee-haw when he discovered that his missing sock was on the same foot as his other sock, one on top of the other. Don't even ask how he didn't figure that out immediately. We blamed it on the fact that Will had recently become a "gramps" and as we told him, the mind definitely goes first. In the spirit of the morning, John lost and found his watch and John F. lost and found his trekking pole.
Resting at the Ice Lakes trail junction
We hit the trail about 9:30 am hiking rapidly uphill from Three Forks to Pinto Park Trail. Right out of camp we faced a 573' climb, from 9027' to 9600'. Since bonking yesterday at 3-miles, I made an conscious effort to eat and drink regularly. Rocks, trees, rocks, trees...up, up and away. I wish I could tell you more about the trail but I was completely focused on the effort and, except for the occasional vista, really didn't notice much of the surroundings. A rest stop beckoned to us after about an hour. At this point we had hiked only 1.5-miles yet it felt like 5. How many more miles to go?? A short 20 minute breather and we were back on the trail. We hiked for another hour and 10 minutes covering less than 2-miles. Slightly up, slightly down, slightly flat...hiking this part of the trail was mind numbing yet we were passing though a boulder forest and the rocky scenery was fascinating. We stopped at the Ice Lakes Cutoff Trail junction for another rest and lunch. John and I shared a lunch of edam cheese and dehydrated tomatoes topped on a Ritz Cracker. Just like pizza!
Overcast skies! Rain is just an hour away
For the past several hours we had been hiking on the Deep Creek Cutoff Trail. Cairns marked our path as we snaked our way toward the Ice Lakes Trail junction and our campsite. We were very grateful for the cairns as the rain and light fog reduced our visibility. We reached camp at 4:15 pm, 6 hours and 45 minutes to hike 5-miles! At 10,500', shrouded in clouds and pelted with rain, Duane, John, John F. and Will scouted the shores of the Ice Lakes for campsites while Barbara and I waited under the pine trees. The campsite selected was rocky, slanted and not a choice sight. Dang that rain! The Glacier Group had arrived before us and selected the prime site. They were feeling quite smug as they relayed to us that they had set up before the rain started. Unfortunately for the Glacier Group, they were not as well prepared for the weather as we were. It's not good to be too smug in the forest, Mother Nature is quite an equalizer.
Our camp included a kitchen-eating area constructed with 2 overlapping tarps to protect us from the weather. Didn't take us long to set up our tents and dive under the tarps to prepare dinner. Guess we don't need to say that a bath and shampoo were out of the question! John and I ate one of our favorite meals, Knorr's Pesto Pasta. After dinner we shared our hot chai with Duane who shared his Famous Amos cookies with us. By time John headed to the lake to get water for after dinner cleanup, the rain had slacked off. The temperature registered 58° but the air felt so much colder.
Our second day of hiking had been really long. We turned in about 8:15 pm, another early night. Everyone was tired, chilled and ready for sleep. John Finger had broken his trekking pole during the day which would make the rest of his trip more difficult. This morning John took our dinner bag from my pack to lighten my load. The bag weighed 9 pounds and I was really struggling under the weight. I felt guilty exchanging the food for a few pieces of his fleece. I know he is trying to make things easier for me but this will make hiking harder for him and he is still not feeling well.
Under our tent fly, I covered my boots with my camp chair. Logic told me this was unnecessary, the tent fly didn't leak but my boots were so dry inside and I was obsessed with keeping them that way. I couldn't wait to crawl in my sleeping bag and lay my head down. Sleep, blessed sleep. We quickly drifted away, lulled to sleep by the drip, drip of water falling from the branches above our tent and the barely audible sounds of Duane humming as he nested in his tent.
Day 4~Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow Wind Rivers Photo Gallery
Copyright© 2004-2005 ~ outandback.org ~ All rights reserved
|
Today was planned as a short hiking day and we were
looking forward to the opportunity to rest, explore and adjust to the altitude.
At breakfast we laughed
about getting into camp early, maybe as early as 3:00 pm. Not out of the question was an early bath and hair washing. Ha! At 1:30 pm overcast skies concerned us, by
2:30 pm
the rain drops started to fall. We quickly realized that this was not a
passing shower and stopped to don pack covers and rain jackets. Duane, John and
I, hiking together, picked up our pace hoping to get into camp before a possible
deluge, well, John and Duane picked up their pace anyway. The skies opened
up around 3:30 pm and a piercing, icy rain began to fall. Oh baby, it's cold up
here! Scrambling under the cover of a stand of pines, we stopped and put
on full rain gear. Where was the sunshine from this morning??