Wyoming is Now More Comfortable
I love how all our trips have unique experiences. Our most recent trip was none the different.
We made great time departing KC around 2am and arriving at the Trailhead around 5pm. We set up a our camp at the Boulder Creek Campground and feasted on Ribeyes and foil packet veggies. I walked through an overview of the trek with the group and began helping each person review their gear and begin packing their bags to make it easier and quicker in the morning.
Sunday morning we woke up, had breakfast and began packing up camp. The morning of time is often slower but also crucial as we want to ensure everyone's bags are packed efficiently and cleanly as well as only including the essential items to minimize weight. We hit the trail around 9am and covered about 7.5miles and 1700' elevation gain. Arriving at the first lake, Lake Ethel, we had a member who was dealing with Acute Mountain Sickness (Altitude Sickness). After further evaluation and discussion, and knowing that the only treatment for AMS is time or to drop in elevation; we agreed that we would adjust the map itinerary and rest there for a whole day to allow him time to acclimate.
This is where we began to search out the artist in ourselves. Spending 36hrs at a mountain lake is fun because you can fish, day hike, swim and in our case, make furniture. Knowing we would be there for more than an overnight and with expectation of the amazing starts you see without the city lights, we began the process to make a food prep table (for making trout tacos) and my favorite, the couch. This food prep table was cool and very useful. The couch, was not just any couch. It was an 8' couch perfectly angled up so we could lounge and look at the stars at night! WOW! It was so comfortable and the sky was incredible!
Opportunities like this are awesome because I’m able to teach multiple skills leveraging skillsets with saws, hatches, primitive shelter building and woodworking to create a level of comfort that is generally not available in the backcountry. We talked about types of knots to use, ways to brace logs using other logs and boulders.
We fished for several hours that day, rested, acclimated and by the end of our full day at camp, our patient was feeling much better and we all agreed to embark down the trail the next morning. I pulled the map out and walked through the modified plan. Side Note: In the backcountry, being flexible and having a willingness to reset expectations is a requirement. You never know what is going to happen so you need to be able to pivot.
The next morning, we packed up and embarked on our 7.75mi trek up to North Fork Lake, fishing at several other lakes and climbing to multiple different high points along the way. We made it to North Fork Lake by 4pm, got some water, set up camp jumped in the water to freshen up before the night set in. Unlike the last trip, the fishing was much slower this time as the water levels were different as well as the flow. We made the most of it and had a good evening. We began talking about the multiple different options for the remainder of the trek. Our "patient" had recovered significantly and was now rocking the trail. Our speed had picked up and questions began coming up about how fast we could finish, or previous records on that trek. Side note: one of my other guides, Andy, and I are both somewhat of mileage junkies. When we are by ourselves, we tend to see how many miles we can go and consider that fun. Haha.
Ok back to the story…
The question came back up to see if it was possible to compete with our mileage record. Laughing it off we kept going and the group kept asking. Attempting to joke around, we suggested that since we have 13mi remaining, we could not stop anymore and focus on distance over anything else. To our surprise, the group was very much in on that. This began a 13mi trek down back to the trailhead including 3,300' descent, 900' ascent and TONS of OBSTACLES! However we still had time to do some bouldering, fishing and tape up a lightly sprained ankle. All in all, we made it back, everyone was in good spirits and did well on time.
This is just another example of how you need to be flexible because plans never go accordingly. Knowing what your group is capable of, how to read a map and navigate are all valuable skillsets at anytime but definitely in the backcountry.
With that, another trek down and several more men more equipped and trained to experience the outdoors differently!
Hope to see you on the trail soon,
Drew
