Trails!

Day 1 of Backpacking the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming with the 14-17 year old scouts.

It started off with a guy (random stranger) having a heart attack? in the grocery store in Pinedale WY.  We were 10 feet away and tried to wake him up until we realized he wasn't breathing and had no pulse.  We were getting ready to start CPR when the police and paramedics arrived (less than 2 mins - very fast).  They tried to revive him unsuccesfully and then carted him off to the hospital.  We weren't sure if he made it or not until Saturday when we asked at the store and found out he died.  Crazy start to the hike.

We hiked in 7 miles to Camp 1 but not before a few more incidents.

- I was not feeling well and caught the flu bug that hit my house last weekend.  It hit me hard at mile 4.5 and I was shaking, freezing, light headed, dizzy, unable to move well, dry heaving, etc.  Basically unable to go on.  I received a blessing and had a quick recovery and was able to make it the 2.5 miles further to our camp location (with some help from the boys with carrying some of my pack weight).  

- About 20 mins after that, a boy decided to check out the scenery at an overlook a little too close and slipped over the edge.  He fell about 20-25 feet and only ended up with a gash in the leg and some bad bruising.  

- Not long after that, we got interrogated by the ranger and was fined $150 for not filling out the proper paperwork we didn't know we needed.  Ignorance is not bliss.  I would later be able to undo the fine (see Friday's entry).

We made camp and called it a day! 

I am counting my backpacking miles as running miles because they were dang hard.  55+ pounds is a lot to carry when sick and you only weigh 135.  

Day 2 of Backpacking the Wind River Range

- Today we took a long breakfast and eventually broke camp to move only 3 miles further inland to Seneca Lake.  I was feeling much better today after puking up dinner.  Ate and drank normal and regained strength.

Base Camp  

Day 3 of Backpacking in Wind River Range - 

Today we took a day hike (15.5 miles from base camp) up to the Continental Divide at Indian Pass (past Island Lake and Indian Basin).  It was a fun 3000' climb day.  It wasn't real hard, but was the highest anyone in the group had ever gone (12,180') except for me and one other leader.  It was pretty fun watching them struggle but still make it to the pass.  Well done!

 - We hiked up to the pass shown just left-center.

Day 4 of Backpacking the Wind Rivers - 

Today everyone crashed from the hike yesterday and took a fishing day.  Not much happened around camp.  Luckily, my strength had returned so I went for a little jog.  I decided to run back to the truck and head into town to get the paperwork resolved to save us the $150 fine.  Really, it was an excuse to go running and explore the mountains.  Happily, I headed off and took the scenic route back to the trailhead.  I took probably 30 pictures of lakes that I passed and only got pics of the bigger ones.  Never mind the 50 small ones I passed.  That place is crazy.  Water everywhere.  It was 17 miles and 3:35 to the trailhead.  I grabbed a burger and a shake while in-town and tried not to barf on the run back to camp (10 miles in 2:30).  It really messed with me.  Won't try eating that again before a run.  Got back to camp and took a dip in the freezing lake.

4000' vert - 27 miles - 6:05 (counting all the photos).

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.