High Sierra Topix

Wind Rivers 2022 (7/14/22 to 8/26/22)
Trip 1: South Loop from Big Sandy TH (7/18-24, 2022)
48 miles, 7 days


Par for the course, I had numerous proposed “trip plans” with the general idea of two trips in the south part of the range and two in the north. I would forgo the Wind River Indian Reservation portion of the range this year since I had been there on several recent trips. Driving though Nevada on I-80 offered plenty of time to think about options. I was not tied down by permits or time deadlines other than limited by how much food I could fit in my bear can! A late game-changer was the outrageous price of gas; I would have to forego driving back to Lander after every trip for a shower, real food and visiting friends. Additionally, becoming realistic about getting old, I would aim for less actual backpacking, leaving afternoons free for more day-hikes and fishing. Nothing quite worked out as planned due to an unusually strong and long lasting “monsoonal” weather pattern. It seemed like every day had to be “adjusted” for conditions.

I drove into the Angel Creek Campground near Wells Nevada, just in time to snatch the last campsite, parked next to a nice couple from Colorado who were returning from a trip to Oregon. This time there was cell coverage so I could call home and chat. Next morning I started early to drive through the Salt Flats before it got too hot. Driving through SLC was stressful, as usual. I-80 between SLC and Rock Springs was treacherous due to the new speed limit of 80 mph and no lower speed limit on big trucks. Twice I nearly got smashed. I really needed that 75-cent ice-cream cone when I reached Little America! I swear this is the last time I will ever drive SLC to Rock Springs on I-80.

At Farson I had to decide if I would drive directly to Big Sandy TH. The thought of a hot shower at my friend’s house and a cool place to store my backpack food for the last two tripss won over the extra gas cost, rationalizing that Wyoming gas was more than a dollar a gallon less the California gas anyway. I arrived in Lander, had my shower wonderful visit with friends. I stayed one more day and bought my ridiculously expensive annual out-of-state Wyoming fishing license.

The first two trips could have been done from either side of the mountains. I finally decided to go back to Big Sandy TH and do a”figure-8” looping back to my car to resupply. This trailhead is remote- a long arduous drive on a terrible dirt road with no services including cell coverage. One glitch in the plan was that I did not think of the fact that I had no way to recharge my camera battery between trips until I was half way there. I would have to be selective about the photos I took. I certainly had plenty of old photos of almost every place I was going.





Day 1. Big Sandy TH to Deep Lake
8 miles, 4.0 hours, 1455 elevation gain (plus 2.5 hour drive)

The well maintained trail to Big Sandy Lake made the 5 miles pass quickly. The wild flowers were amazing; the mosquitoes were annoying. Leaving the main trail, I reached the creek crossing from Black Joe Lake. The log crossing was thin and slippery so I waded; the cool water felt good on my feet.

Another decision point: up to Black Joe and I would do the route clockwise and up to Clear Lake and the trip would go counter-clockwise. It was a fairly easy choice since the latter would offer easier travel while my pack was heavier. I passed a very nice campsite at Clear Lake to continue to Deep Lake. I had fished Clear Lake before and caught some nice brook trout. By the time I got to Deep Lake, the wind was howling. The one sheltered site I found was next to another tent and the occupants made it clear I was not welcome. I found another established site farther from the lake and set up, but it was marginally sheltered but very scenic. Far too windy to fish, later I saw that the guys who would not let me camp at their sheltered spot had left. Jerks. I did not get much sleep being buffeted by wind all night.


Day 2. Deep Lake to Coon Lake
5.6 miles, 5.3 hours, 1330 elevation

Morning dawned with less wind and clear skies. I quickly packed up. I had scouted the evening before and found a good use-trail. Soon I was looking down on beautiful Temple Lake. I had also fished here before with good luck. But now I needed to get over Temple Peak Pass while the weather was good. I tried a different use-trail than I had done before; it was not a good route and took a bit more time. Near the top I met a CDT hiker who was going down. It took some while to find the trail down the south side. It was a bit freaky being very steep and with a few spots of unstable scree.

Once down there was a NOLS course on the other side and a few more CDT hikers; quite a crowd for this less used location. Instead of walking down the old trail adjacent to Little Sandy Creek I climbed up to the bench above the creek on its east side. This beautiful lush bench had wildflowers and stunning cliffs right above. About 2 miles down valley, due to a cliff, I had to drop to the creek before going back up on the bench. There is a well-known but difficult to find use-trail up to Coon Lake Pass. I had done this route several times before, yet missed the route down from the pass to Coon Lake. There are plenty of game trails that also work so no big deal. Mosquitoes were horrible so I camped near the outlet on a windy gap. Unfortunately the wind was absent but I managed to get a quick bath before the little devils found me. I fished with no luck; I had caught some nice golden trout here before.

Day 3. Coon Lake to Upper Tayo Lake
5.4 miles (including back-tracks), 6.1 hours, including fishing, 1600 elevation gain


Next morning it was decision time again! I had planned to go on to Nystrom Lakes via Mountain Sheep Pass. I really wanted to get some good photos because the last time I was there I accidently had the camera set on “small” format for low lighting resulting in dismal photos. On the other hand, I REALLY wanted to camp at Upper Tayo Lake and reach Deep Creek Lakes by going over Wind River Peak. I had never done this route before; it was weather dependent and the weather was good. The latter choice won; no fishing at Nystrom Lakes and good fishing at Tayo Lakes.

The all-trail route to Tayo Lake is not direct- one must drop down, cross a river, and go back up on a different trail. I have directly traversed to Tayo Lake off-trail before. In spite of that I missed the route and got confused in thick timber that added some extra miles and backtracking. Nevertheless, I reached the outlet of lower Tayo Lake quickly and then ascended the 400 feet to the upper lake. After setting up, I then dropped to the inlet of the lower lake and tried to catch a few of the numerous huge golden trout cruising up and down the shoreline. I could not get one fish to bite no matter what I threw at them! Frustrated, I climbed back up to my camp at the upper lake, soon refreshed by the spectacular views. The wildflowers were not as profuse as when I had been here before but the grasses were lush. I even had a campsite next to a little waterfall. I did not see another person all day. Unfortunately, the air was still and muggy and mosquitoes annoying. It felt like the tropics, not a mountain lake at 11,000 feet.




Day 4. Upper Tayo Lake to Middle Deep Creek Lake
6.3 miles, 6.4 hours, 1895 gain

I was up early, leaving at 7:15. I had studied Google Earth and found a route that should work. After a few hundred feet of gain, I was lured west of my intended route due to easy travel. A large snowfield forced me to a “pass” too far west dropping me into the saddle between Wind River Peak and Chimney Rock. I thought I could circle the northwest side of Chimney Rock to access the gentle ramp down to Deep Creek Lakes. Instead I had to go back and descend the snowfield that I had avoided before. That was about an hour and several hundred feet of wasted effort and confusion. The nearly 2000 foot drop in about 2 miles down to Upper Deep Creek Lake was harder than I expected, with its lumpy grass clumps and swamps.

When I arrived, there were several tents and a big group of guys already there. I looked at all of the numerous established campsites (most with too much horse poo) and there were tons of mosquitoes as well as black flies. After nearly an hour I decided to drop to Middle Deep Creek Lake which took about 15 minutes. Surprisingly, there were some mosquitoes but not a black fly. The one established campsite sits above the inlet (stream that flows from Upper Deep Creek Lake). I fished for almost 2 hours and got a few bites but no fish. I could see many; none were biting. I was getting very frustrated; no fish dinner again!





Day 5. Middle Deep Creek Lake to Lizard Head Meadow
8.7 miles, 6.9 hours, 1295 elevation gain


Up early again, it was another crux decision. The “plan” was to go over Black Joe Pass which involved many hours at high altitude. The In-Reach weather forecast was for deteriorating conditions and I was not sure I could make it over before storms. The high plateau was no place to be in lightning. I punted and took the longer but all-trail route via Cirque of the Towers.

First I wanted to go back up above Upper Deep Creek Lake for photographing in early morning light. From there I could drop down to Ridge Lake and find the trail used by Skurka’s High Route down to Lower Deep Creek Lake. I ran into another NOLS group at Ridge Lake and then several families camped at Lower Deep Creek Lake, all huddled in their tents because the mosquitoes were quite bad. Then I ran into another large group crossing the outlet on rocks. This area is popular with scout and church groups.

Once on the Ice Lakes Trail going down to the North Fork of the Popo Agie there were no people. I toyed with the idea of going up to Long Lake and traversing below the impressive cliffs of the North Fork to get to Lizard Head Meadow. That idea quickly faded when I realized that in bad weather that route had its problems too. So I stayed on the trail, waded across the North Fork of Popo Agie and headed up the trail towards the Cirque of the Towers as clouds built up. I reached the Lizard Head trail junction a bit before 2:00 as the skies let loose. I set up the tent quickly in the rain and jumped in for an hour or more of steady hard rain. Once the storm was over I could re-adjust the tent, take a bath and walk around looking at all the established campsites better than the one I landed in. All the shrubs were soaked which dampened my desire to fish; I already had plenty of wet clothes to dry. Dinner was plagued with mosquitoes as I walked circles carrying my meal while eating. I went to bed early.

Day 6. Lizard Head Meadow to Black Joe Lake
6.3 miles, 7 hours including 2 hours fishing, 1890 elevation gain



When I got out of the tent I saw a pack hanging in a tree at the campsite just uphill from me. A father and daughter had come in late at night. They were on an ambitious schedule of many miles per day.

There evidently is a nice detour of the swamp one must cross in Lizard Head Meadow, but the sign was confusing to me, so I just kept on the horse trail. Cirque of the Towers is on my next route, so I did not stop but took some photos and kept on walking up to Jackass Pass. The morning light was perfect for photos. I had not been on this trail for many years and was pleasantly surprised to find it had been extensively worked on and all the “rogue” trails blocked. It used to be quite confusing. There were plenty of people on this very popular trail. I had hit the south-to-north “CDT bubble”. The most interesting were European couples, who were exclaiming how it was like the Alps, while vaping all the way up: what substance, who knows. Whatever it was it did not slow them down a bit.



Rather than walk out, I headed back up to camp at the outlet of Black Joe Lake, which was my intended camp on the planned route. I found a nice established campsite about a third of the way up the north shore. I had hoped to fish the south shore, but was not up for that, so fished the north shore with little luck.

Late afternoon I saw two women with an inflatable raft across the lake, having a great deal of difficulty with their raft. The wind had picked up and they could not get back to their camp. I yelled across the water if they needed help. They declined. They left their raft and walked up over the cliffs on the south side to get back to their camp near mine. I talked to them. I thought they had no shoes which would make getting back from the south shore difficult. They had shoes and the mom and daughter from Berkley were experienced, but still appreciated my concern. They had easily floated to the inlet of the long lake due to the wind, but coming back was another story! We had a good visit. Turns out, the mom is the Vice Principal at one of my grandkid’s school.




Day 7. Black Joe Lake to Big Sandy TH
6.8 miles, 3.5 hours, 55 elevation gain

The walk out was quick. The “plan” was to pick up food and continue a few miles on the second trip. When I got to the car, the cold beers in the cooler were calling and I paid my $3 for one of the five primitive campsites at the trailhead campground. Once I set up my luxurious 3-person car camping tent, I hauled water from Big Sandy Creek to the road in my Bear-Vault (car camping bear can) and washed clothes, my hair and myself being as discrete as possible given conditions! An old well-weathered surveyor on one side invited me to his elk-burger dinner. The father and daughter on the other side declined the invitation since the daughter was not feeling well due to altitude. They were waiting for the son, who was doing the CDT, but who messaged that he would be a week late.

Clouds quickly built into a black mass as I just had the food for my next trip laid out inside the tent on top of my plush 3-inch sleeping pad. Lightning, immediate thunder and then a downpour of pea-sized hail that I feared would rip my tent apart. Hail slide down the walls of the tent building a moat. Then came the heavy rain and everything was flooded. I poked my trekking pole out the door feebly trying to make a drainage ditch. The water seeped through the tent floor, but thankfully, the sleeping pad kept everything dry. When the storm ended I moved gear into the car and moved my tent to a better spot to dry. Sun soon came out and at least the tent somewhat dried. The elk-burgers were abandoned on the stove while the fellow hung out in his truck; his tent too was flooded. Well, the elk burgers were awful but I dutifully ate one and thanked the fellow before taking the “dinner” into my car to finish. A bit did end up in the garbage.

Boy, am I glad I did not continue up the trail! The beer saved me.

What I love about your reports, Daisy, is not only the wonderful photos and the amazing tales....but the fact that you only hike 5-7 miles per day, and still manage to have fabulous adventures. As an aging hiker myself, it's good to see someone else doing that!

Unfortunately, the adventure was a bust for fishing. Not sure why but other fishermen out also noted less success. The lakes were quite windy. Those stream fishing had better success. I really should have spent some time fishing on Big Sandy Creek when I was walking out. Day fishermen were doing quite well. Afternoons planned for fishing often ended up inside the tent counting mosquitoes on the netting. I am contemplating taking some books on tape for those occasions. This year peak mosquito season was long and extended past what is usual. Perhaps the fish had so much natural feed that they were not interested in the fake stuff. It was also unusually warm and humid- not sure if that was a factor too. At this point the score was $130 fishing license; 0 fish.

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 7:00 am Unfortunately, the adventure was a bust for fishing. ... At this point the score was $130 fishing license; 0 fish.

Ouch!

Great report.. beautiful shots..
Sorry about the fishing.. and I would add, I just got my fishing license, and it wasn't $130...it was only $127!
Hope to be in a similar area later this week..
I will give my report out when I get back..
I am a little bit sad about the amount of traffic you seem to have encountered in this area..
And I would add, my style is the same as yours and balzaccom...try to hike 5 -7 miles, and take off the backpack by noon..so there are more of us out there..

Very nice photos and report. I have to learn to hike less, and also go to the Winds occasionally...

Thanks for sharing your Wind River trip reports and photos. I always enjoy reading them. I need to get back to the Winds next year.

As arkheel writes;

Thanks for sharing your Wind River trip reports and photos. I always enjoy reading them. I need to get back to the Winds next year.

x2!
Nice Daisy, what brilliant country. Strange about the fishing? On to your next trip, where I'll bet you catch all the fish.