Our final conditioning trip before our 50 mile backpacking trip into the Wind River Range in Wyoming. We started our day at 8 am and we made it to the High line trail around 11 am.
Entering the High Uinta Wilderness.
After a short time on the trail we encountered Scudder lake, we did not stop, we just charged right by. It appears even a few miles in, dirt bags have to destroy things!
About 2 miles in we ran into the Packard Lake trail junction and by then, we had already stopped for lunch.
The next trail junction was for the Naturalist Basin, no stopping, just charging by.
Six miles in we came to Carolyn Lake's junction, our predetermined second night camping spot.
Shortly after we made it to the Rock Sea pass and Four lakes Basin junction.
Man, that is a long haul. We had to stop for a rest!
We had a volunteer to be the "Nagigator", he was tasked with nagging the boys if we stray off track.
Poor fellas had to stop and wait for Dawnette and I at every trail junction. Some of them didn't like to wait.
We were all a bit tired and this shoot summed it up quite nicely!
Just one more pass!
And more trail!
Finally the Four Lakes Basin, the first lake is Jean and the one behind it is Dean. There is another lake behind Dean named Amy which makes five lakes but who's counting right?
Daynes lake our destination for this trip; a lake we visited nearly a year ago to the day! Wow has time flown by. All though my aching feet were happy to point this out!
This is the view from the end of the trail. Daynes is on the right and Dale is on the left.
Camp was set and dinner was made, Connor hit Dale soon after and caught a few Brook trout and some of the boys hit Daynes. We fished a little until the skies started to darken and we hit the sleeping bags. Once Coltin and I were in safely tucked into our bags, I had no choice but to obey the urge to torment him by snapping a picture.
That night it rained for several hours and made it difficult to sleep. 5 am rolled around slowly so I emerged form the tent to a very wet, but incredibly beautiful view of Dale lake.
Daynes from camp.
Our soggy camp!
Yes, your eyes do not deceive, Coltin's new favorite trail breakfast. I even made eggs for every one, I was able to find that little pan at Wally world and it weighed in at 5oz. However the dozen eggs and carrying case ended up being 2lbs. Not one of my brightest ideas, the eggs were worth it though!
After breakfast the boys hit the water and most everyone caught fish. Conner seemed to catch the most and I didn't take many photos due to how far everyone was spread apart, I did manage one of Bryce.
Fish on! Colt was the only one of the boys to catch one on the fly.
I even caught a few, here was my first with the infamous "Brookie Slayer". Most of the Brook trout caught were between 9 and 10 inches. Not bad for the Uintas.
Here are some of the shots I took while fishing.
A few panoramas.
Cyclone pass! Greg and I has discussed crossing this to hit a lake behind it, but the skies were dark and I was to tired. Besides it gives Greg and I the needed excuse to drag the Chargers back to Four Lakes.
Through out the day we had a visitor to camp, she didn't seem to mind getting close. We assumed we were in her spot and she was just waiting for us to leave.
Soon after our wildlife encounter, we packed up our camp and hit the trail. During our ascent Connor came across a folding camp chair. Being the dedicated leave no trace scouter that he is; he added it to his pack. What an impressive young man!
Back to it.
Views along the way.
Back at the Rock Sea pass junction.
Coltin decided to ham it up and ended up tripping!
After Coltin's tumble we finished our three mile jaunt to Carolyn lake. The Boys fished soon after arrival and the Grayling were hitting almost everything, however they proved extremely difficult to catch. Several were landed and all were tiny. None of the boys had the fish out of the water long enough for photos. I am not sure how many were caught, but I managed four myself and missing at least fifteen. After dinner Noah's flood started and we all dived into our tents; little did we know what was headed our way. The next morning I surveyed the carnage!
To the untrained eye it looks like just tents, however if you look closely you will notice the tent walls are soaked. While waiting for everyone to emerge I took some great pictures.
Unfortunately Dawnette and Russell got the worst of it and they both had wet sleeping bags. Even Coltin's ended up wet at the bottom.
After Breakfast we hit the trail, my watch said it was 9:49 am and we tore up that trail! We crossed streams and countless seas of mud. The views going out were just a spectacular as they were going in. We made it back to the cars at 12:53pm, three hours four minutes to cover six and half miles!
The Four Lakes Basin Hard Chargers!
