TR: Backpacking with kids -- Cirque of the Towers loop
Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2020 4:44 pm
2020 is the third year I backpack with kids (Laura is 7 and Mia is 5, our dog Chopper is 8). The recent fire/smoke situation has resulted in three permits canceled and I finally got some time writing trip reports about backpacking with kids, before daydreaming next trip. This one is about our trip to the Winds last month.
At the beginning of 2020, we had a summer plan: wife and kids going to Malaysia in July and August, me and dog exploring Sierra every weekend. Well, nobody expected the whole world would get stuck in 2020… No more school, wfh, no international trips/flights. Good news is that we have more time for mountain activities. Our august plan is to visit Yellowstone/Grand Teton for a few days, and backpack a loop around Cirque of the Towers: Big Sandy TH -> Marms Lake -> Billys Lake -> Texas Pass -> Lonesome Lake -> Jackass Pass -> Big Sandy Lake -> TH. I had this backpacking plan with kids long time ago, but didn’t expect we would do this with a preschooler...
Anyway, my proposed plan to my ladies, was a 5-day backpacking trip with 5-7 miles each day. But plan always changes. We ended up finishing the same itinerary in 4 days including a zero day at Lonesome (with a side trip to Lizard Head Meadow). Here are some pictures/details of the trip:
Day 1: Big Sandy TH -> Marms Lake. About 7.5mi and 1500’ elevation gain.
We arrived at the TH at 7pm the day before. This is the most crowded TH I have ever seen … packed with vehicles within about 0.7 miles from the actual TH. As we drove a RV we had to park further but that’s not a big deal. It’s a quite/clear night, and happened to be the active time of Perseid meteor shower. Laura and I saw 5 shooting stars before sleep while Limo and Mia got 2.
We started our hiking around 9:15 in the morning, which could be considered “early” for our family trips. Cars packed all the way out of the sight from TH. Laura counted them from our parking spot to the TH, more than 200!:
parking lot: After a flat section of around 0.7mi, we headed to northwest (Fremont trail on the map). Weather was a bit hot for climbing up but kids seemed to be entertained well by picking some wax currants and wild mushrooms. There was another group (two dads and three boys) passing us on the way up and they also planned to get Marms Lake for the day.
potty break at Meeks Lake: After Meeks lake the mountain range started to show up, Laura and Mia took turns to lead the group, and Chopper always followed the very first person.
We had our lunch (dried braised beef with soybean sauce, wrapped with tortilla) at Mirror lake after passing Fish Creek Meadow. It’s almost 1pm, and the cloud started to roll in. Forecast said a 40% chance of thunder storms, and that usually meant 20% chance of hail to me at high altitudes. Our plan was to camp at Dads Lake if we had to seek a shelter and call it a day. Fortunately, the rain/hail didn’t fall until we arrived at Marms Lake at around 3pm.
The troop arrived at Dads Lake before 2pm, Mia helped carry the backpack on downslope: And we set up our tent at Marms Lake a bit after 3pm:
It rained a bit and then hailed for a short period. After that girls enjoyed their pretend play in hammock, and Limo started to cook the main course, a backpacking version of Hong Kong claypot rice bowl (without claypot). I tried to catch some fish for dinner, and succeeded with three brookies somewhere between 10-12”. We grilled the fish over the charcoal, with garlic salt and olive oil. The wind went down at night and it was pleasantly warm, and there’s no bugs. I set the tent door towards the northeast so that we could watched the meteor shower before sleep. We also discussed the itinerary of following days. Since our pace was pretty fast in day 1, all three ladies thought we could be more aggressive and possibly finish the trip in 3 days! Guess who’s the most conservative person in this family. I tried to make a point that Texas Pass might be a bit difficult for little kids and we'd better take our time, but my opinion was outvoted. So, the new plan was to push it all the way to Lonesome lake the next day, which meant more than 7.5mi and 1850 gain for the kids.
Laura with our dinner fish: Hammock is a nice addition to keep kids busy at campground: Day 2: Marms Lake -> Billys Lake -> Lonesome Lake. 7.75mi, 1860 gain/1580 loss.
The day started with a calm morning and hot breakfast (oatmeal with powdered milk for me and Mia, fried flour with honey/nuts/sesame for Limo and Laura, and, well, Kirkland dog food for Chopper…). We managed to depart right after 9:30am.
Chopper’s morning routine at Marms Lake:
Mia helped fetch water in the morning: We met with two groups (2 backpackers each, father and son) heading north to Hailey Pass in the morning, and a large group camping at Shadow lake with a couple of beautiful horse. The horses were very tall and I almost mistook them for moose in the meadow. The view got better as we marched to the east along Washakie creek. The wind picked up in the afternoon with fierce gusts and pushed us forward for the most time, but apparently for the several groups coming down from Texas Pass it’s not much fun. We arrived at Billys Lake at 1:15pm and boiled some water for our freeze-dried food. Limo got a pouch of Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken, I had Beef Stroganoff, kids shared a pouch of Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, and Chopper got a treat and chance to clean up all dishes.
Girls hopping over Washakie creek: Lunch time at Billys Lake:
At the beginning of 2020, we had a summer plan: wife and kids going to Malaysia in July and August, me and dog exploring Sierra every weekend. Well, nobody expected the whole world would get stuck in 2020… No more school, wfh, no international trips/flights. Good news is that we have more time for mountain activities. Our august plan is to visit Yellowstone/Grand Teton for a few days, and backpack a loop around Cirque of the Towers: Big Sandy TH -> Marms Lake -> Billys Lake -> Texas Pass -> Lonesome Lake -> Jackass Pass -> Big Sandy Lake -> TH. I had this backpacking plan with kids long time ago, but didn’t expect we would do this with a preschooler...
Anyway, my proposed plan to my ladies, was a 5-day backpacking trip with 5-7 miles each day. But plan always changes. We ended up finishing the same itinerary in 4 days including a zero day at Lonesome (with a side trip to Lizard Head Meadow). Here are some pictures/details of the trip:
Day 1: Big Sandy TH -> Marms Lake. About 7.5mi and 1500’ elevation gain.
We arrived at the TH at 7pm the day before. This is the most crowded TH I have ever seen … packed with vehicles within about 0.7 miles from the actual TH. As we drove a RV we had to park further but that’s not a big deal. It’s a quite/clear night, and happened to be the active time of Perseid meteor shower. Laura and I saw 5 shooting stars before sleep while Limo and Mia got 2.
We started our hiking around 9:15 in the morning, which could be considered “early” for our family trips. Cars packed all the way out of the sight from TH. Laura counted them from our parking spot to the TH, more than 200!:
parking lot: After a flat section of around 0.7mi, we headed to northwest (Fremont trail on the map). Weather was a bit hot for climbing up but kids seemed to be entertained well by picking some wax currants and wild mushrooms. There was another group (two dads and three boys) passing us on the way up and they also planned to get Marms Lake for the day.
potty break at Meeks Lake: After Meeks lake the mountain range started to show up, Laura and Mia took turns to lead the group, and Chopper always followed the very first person.
We had our lunch (dried braised beef with soybean sauce, wrapped with tortilla) at Mirror lake after passing Fish Creek Meadow. It’s almost 1pm, and the cloud started to roll in. Forecast said a 40% chance of thunder storms, and that usually meant 20% chance of hail to me at high altitudes. Our plan was to camp at Dads Lake if we had to seek a shelter and call it a day. Fortunately, the rain/hail didn’t fall until we arrived at Marms Lake at around 3pm.
The troop arrived at Dads Lake before 2pm, Mia helped carry the backpack on downslope: And we set up our tent at Marms Lake a bit after 3pm:
It rained a bit and then hailed for a short period. After that girls enjoyed their pretend play in hammock, and Limo started to cook the main course, a backpacking version of Hong Kong claypot rice bowl (without claypot). I tried to catch some fish for dinner, and succeeded with three brookies somewhere between 10-12”. We grilled the fish over the charcoal, with garlic salt and olive oil. The wind went down at night and it was pleasantly warm, and there’s no bugs. I set the tent door towards the northeast so that we could watched the meteor shower before sleep. We also discussed the itinerary of following days. Since our pace was pretty fast in day 1, all three ladies thought we could be more aggressive and possibly finish the trip in 3 days! Guess who’s the most conservative person in this family. I tried to make a point that Texas Pass might be a bit difficult for little kids and we'd better take our time, but my opinion was outvoted. So, the new plan was to push it all the way to Lonesome lake the next day, which meant more than 7.5mi and 1850 gain for the kids.
Laura with our dinner fish: Hammock is a nice addition to keep kids busy at campground: Day 2: Marms Lake -> Billys Lake -> Lonesome Lake. 7.75mi, 1860 gain/1580 loss.
The day started with a calm morning and hot breakfast (oatmeal with powdered milk for me and Mia, fried flour with honey/nuts/sesame for Limo and Laura, and, well, Kirkland dog food for Chopper…). We managed to depart right after 9:30am.
Chopper’s morning routine at Marms Lake:
Mia helped fetch water in the morning: We met with two groups (2 backpackers each, father and son) heading north to Hailey Pass in the morning, and a large group camping at Shadow lake with a couple of beautiful horse. The horses were very tall and I almost mistook them for moose in the meadow. The view got better as we marched to the east along Washakie creek. The wind picked up in the afternoon with fierce gusts and pushed us forward for the most time, but apparently for the several groups coming down from Texas Pass it’s not much fun. We arrived at Billys Lake at 1:15pm and boiled some water for our freeze-dried food. Limo got a pouch of Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken, I had Beef Stroganoff, kids shared a pouch of Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, and Chopper got a treat and chance to clean up all dishes.
Girls hopping over Washakie creek: Lunch time at Billys Lake: