Another awesome Wind River adventure run! I really wanted to go back and repeat a loop I had done last year and thought rather than go solo again, it might be fun to throw an invite out to a bunch a people and see who showed up. All told I think there ended up being 9 of us out there and the best part was no one but Phil had been in the area before, and he went for the first time on the Monday prior, liked it s much he came back for our Saturday run, bringing his 16 year old son. We
We took off bright and early from Big Sandy trail head bright and early to a cold clear sky. We had a bit of a staggered start, with those who were moving slower leaving a bit earlier than the rest of us. Worked out pretty well, as we all grouped back up for a bit on the climb up to Texas Pass, with Phil and Russ climbing under a big boulder looking for Phil's "walkman" he had dropped, yes he called it a "walkman" for those who are to young, they used to play cassette tapes and had big foam ear buds. It was continually playing Star Wars theme music and was kinda funny to hear the Empire theme wafing out from under a boulder in middle of nowhere.
The split up pretty fast from there, with BJ and Jon taking off at a good clip as they had to be home early and the others moving ahead slowly. I hung back waiting for Shane and Cody to catch up from their photo taking binge.
Shane, Cody and I topped out on Texas Pass, took some pics and I pulled out the map and dropped a little impromptu route change on Shane if he was up for it.
Shane and I ended up climbing off trail through another unnamed pass across a high plateau at close to 12,000 feet and down a death loose/steep scree slope. Dropping down to the shores of Washakie Lake and climbing up on more off trail terrain. Eventually meeting up with the trail and climbing over another big pass before descending back down to meet up with the original route. This was a tough detour and made for a long day. Looking at the map, it didn't look as tough as it ended up being. I think I will petition to Forest Service to name the first pass we climbed through on the route extension, Dumbass pass.
I think we all decided that the combination of beauty, route, length, and difficulty made it one of the best adventure runs we had done.
Here's the run in pictures:
Early in the moring, early in the run. Big Sandy Lake, mile 5 or so.
Me treading lighly around the edge of Arrowhead Lake. Lots more boulder hoping to come.
Next two are as good as it gets. Trail into the Cirque of the Towers. BJ and I in trail runner heaven.
Looking at Pingora from part way up the climb to Texas Pass. Shane visiable in white, lower right.
Looking back down on Lonesome lake from about the same spot as the previous pic.
Looking down the other side from the top of Texas Pass. Dumbass pass is the low spot in the skyline just left of center, across the valley.
Shane filling bottles full of fresh mountain water about half way up Dumbass Pass lookng back at Texas Pass which is the low spot between the two peaks right of center. Very pretty spot.
From the top of the pass looking down on Pass Lake. Washakie Pass is the saddle at the top/center of the pic, between the two peaks. Our route dropped us down to the lake, then back up over the pass. Starting to ask Shane if this is what Hardrock is like.
Pic below is view to the East from the same spot.
This is looking back at the spot the last two pics were taken from. It was taken about half way up Washakie pass. Our route took us down the nasty scree slopes that come off the end of the plateau. Shane said that was a little beyond Hardrock.
Looking West from the top of Washakie pass. Just a big descent and a bunch of miles back to the car. My bonk was coming soon. Glad Shane nursed me along back to the car.
All in all a great adventure with good friends. Shane is an animal and desrves the "goat" nic-name he has. The guy just powers over everything. Had a great soak in the creek at the end and a very bonky drive back to Rock Springs WY, where the 5 of us in my truck pretty much ordered everything on the menu and a side of bacon at a really good little burger place.
27.5 miles, 6000 vert or so. | 