Last Day of Backpacking Wind River Range (actually only a very small piece of it). Today, we packed up and hiked the 10 miles out. Packs were a bit lighter without the food and fuel. I felt a million times better than on Tuesday. I also had gotten used to the 10,300 foot elevation of base camp. Still heavy breathing on the hills, but no longer all the time. We made good time except for one incident. A scout got ahead of the group and then took a wrong turn. We thought he was in-front of us until we made it to the trailhead and discovered him missing. We guessed where he went wrong and sent out the search party (me) to find him. I had a 12 mile route planned to check and we figured we would find him within that route. I ended up finding him just 2.5 miles or so up the trail. He had indeed taken a wrong turn and hiked an extra 4 miles. He was tired and thirsty, but well. I gave him water and then headed back to the trailhead to call off the (professional) search party. I did get 5 miles of good trail running in though as a bonus (always thinking of the positive). The boys killing time waiting for the lost scout. |