Wind River 12 days 7-3-23 to 7-14-23
Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2023 6:18 am
Well.. like many folks on HST, I watched the winter of 2023 with mixed feelings. On the good side..the sierras needed the snow.
On the bad side of course, the heavy winter and cold spring dashed any hopes for an early backpack in the sierras.
I have done a Wind River trip once per year for the last several years ( with one exception). In each case, I have done a Sierra trip first and done a
Wind trip later in the year....either August or September. The winds this year have had an average amount of snow...so for the first time I decided to reverse the order. Do the wind river trip first and then hit the sierras later. The challenges in early season in the winds are similar to the sierras...
snow, stream crossing, and bugs. Actually early season bugs is what people warned me about the most.
My friends Mike and I had a tough trip to the Winds last year. ( posted in HST). It rained. It rained more. It rained a lot more. We bailed.
We decided this year to make it more of just a fishing trip. And we decided to hit some lakes where we were successful before for cutthroats.
Our attempts at goldens in the winds has produced mixed results. At times very good..and at times nothing. So after last year, we wanted a sure thing.
So we planned 12 days, broken up into two pieces. An 8 day trip on the Wind River Indian Reservation (east side)with a focus on cutthroat fishing and then a 4 day revisit to some lakes from the prior year( further south) with a focus on goldens.
We did the same thing we do for early season fishing in the sierras...monitor ice out via Sentinel Hub..and pick a date.
It became apparent that our target lakes were going to begin ice out around July 1st, we set our plans.
So here goes. My friend Gary and I drove from California and met our New Mexico friend Mike in Lander and had dinner 7/2 before we started backpacking on 7/3. We bought our Indian Reservation fishing permits. It was pretty evident that not much backpacking activity had started yet.
We were warned about mosquitoes.
We saw exactly 0 people for the next 7 days. It is kind of cool to have an entire backcountry to yourselves. ( We saw a lot of people hiking in when we hiked out on day 8).
Getting ready for the hike. A place called The Meadows Over the first pass..Entigo Pass The first major stream crossing..Wilson Creek. It went without incident. The rope was there already. The next stream crossing Glacier Creek was actually much more difficult but we made it without incident. We knew we had some weather the first couple of days. We planned a lot of this trip to be a "base camp and day hike" trip.
So.. Mike brought a light weight tarp. It proved very handy during the almost daily thunderstorms on the first part of the trip.
Some were pretty intense. Tarp and hail. Elk signs everywhere..Here is one posing for us. It was early season of course. It wasn't just the snow.. It was the mud..soggy hiking.
Our first camp ( and basecamp) was in snow..but we found some dry space.
A couple of shots of Lake Heebeecheechee And looking down on the lake from above End of part 1...multiple parts to follow.
On the bad side of course, the heavy winter and cold spring dashed any hopes for an early backpack in the sierras.
I have done a Wind River trip once per year for the last several years ( with one exception). In each case, I have done a Sierra trip first and done a
Wind trip later in the year....either August or September. The winds this year have had an average amount of snow...so for the first time I decided to reverse the order. Do the wind river trip first and then hit the sierras later. The challenges in early season in the winds are similar to the sierras...
snow, stream crossing, and bugs. Actually early season bugs is what people warned me about the most.
My friends Mike and I had a tough trip to the Winds last year. ( posted in HST). It rained. It rained more. It rained a lot more. We bailed.
We decided this year to make it more of just a fishing trip. And we decided to hit some lakes where we were successful before for cutthroats.
Our attempts at goldens in the winds has produced mixed results. At times very good..and at times nothing. So after last year, we wanted a sure thing.
So we planned 12 days, broken up into two pieces. An 8 day trip on the Wind River Indian Reservation (east side)with a focus on cutthroat fishing and then a 4 day revisit to some lakes from the prior year( further south) with a focus on goldens.
We did the same thing we do for early season fishing in the sierras...monitor ice out via Sentinel Hub..and pick a date.
It became apparent that our target lakes were going to begin ice out around July 1st, we set our plans.
So here goes. My friend Gary and I drove from California and met our New Mexico friend Mike in Lander and had dinner 7/2 before we started backpacking on 7/3. We bought our Indian Reservation fishing permits. It was pretty evident that not much backpacking activity had started yet.
We were warned about mosquitoes.
We saw exactly 0 people for the next 7 days. It is kind of cool to have an entire backcountry to yourselves. ( We saw a lot of people hiking in when we hiked out on day 8).
Getting ready for the hike. A place called The Meadows Over the first pass..Entigo Pass The first major stream crossing..Wilson Creek. It went without incident. The rope was there already. The next stream crossing Glacier Creek was actually much more difficult but we made it without incident. We knew we had some weather the first couple of days. We planned a lot of this trip to be a "base camp and day hike" trip.
So.. Mike brought a light weight tarp. It proved very handy during the almost daily thunderstorms on the first part of the trip.
Some were pretty intense. Tarp and hail. Elk signs everywhere..Here is one posing for us. It was early season of course. It wasn't just the snow.. It was the mud..soggy hiking.
Our first camp ( and basecamp) was in snow..but we found some dry space.
A couple of shots of Lake Heebeecheechee And looking down on the lake from above End of part 1...multiple parts to follow.