On 8/9 I did 6.4 miles to the Green River. On 8/10 I did 23.2 miles to the North Side of Knapsack Col. On 8/11 I did 21.3 miles to Ramboud Lake. On 8/12 I did 25.5 miles to just South of Texas Pass. On 8/13 I did 23.3 miles to a cross roads near Sweat Water River.
I had a relaxing time in Pinedale, WY. I stayed in the basement of a church and was able to get all of my town chores done relatively quickly leaving plenty of time to catch up on sleep, hang out with a few Northbound hikers and sample the local brewery. I almost took a zero and stayed another night in town because it was such a chill place but since the hitch back to trail was a long one to a relatively remote trailhead I figured I would have better luck getting out there on a Friday evening and try and catch someone who is planning to spend the weekend up at Green River Lake. It took 4 hitches but within 2 hours I was walking back along the Green River exactly where I had swam across it the previous day.
I entered the Briger Wilderness and into what is known as the Wind River Range or as most hikers refer to it as the Winds. The Winds have a very lush forest and raging rivers that gives way to jagged mountain peaks and endless views. There are so many "trails" in the Winds you could seriously spend a lifetime exploring them. I put trails in quotes because all of the trails in the forest are will maintained and easy to navigate but once you go onto the higher elevations you need to have navigation skills because there isn't really a trail. The Winds can hold snow for a long time and can be super dangerous so there is really only a few months out of the year you can explore the high routes. The CDT takes the low routes through the Winds because of the snow risks but there are several opportunities to jump up to the high route. If the snow season had been smaller I would have taken the high route all the way through the Winds (probably would have taken 2 weeks to pull it off and a ton of map studying) I really hope one day I can explore the high route as it is one of the most epic hikes in the United States. Since the snow is just starting to melt out completley and I took the Teton alternate, I'm going to stick to the CDT but take two other alternates up to the high route.
The first alternate I'm taking is up to the Knapsack Col. It was a long rock scramble up to Rock Pass that slowed me down to less than 1 mile per hour. I made it through the rock gulley and skirted a beautiful alpine lake before starting my approach to Knapsack Col. I knew I was going go be moving slower in the Winds but didn't realize how slow. I had planned on going over Knapsack on my first day but as the hours passed I decided to not push my luck and camped about 1,000 feet below it. It feels great to be camping at elevation again surrounded by jagged peaks. Knowing I'm going to be moving slower I'm going to be getting up much earlier.
The next day I tried for an alpine start to catch the sunrise while on Knapsack Col. When I was about to deflate my mattress I saw a flash of light. I was hoping it was from a hikers headlamp passing by but a few moments later I heard the thunder clap bounce off all of the mountain walls. It was still pitch black out so I had no idea where the storm was or where it was going but shortly thereafter my tent started to shake violently in the wind and a huge storm rolled in. I had to just wait the storm out. Even though my tent was shaking like a leaf in the wind and the thunder echoed off the canyon walls for what seemed like minutes, I was able to catch another hour of needed sleep. By the time I could tell the storm was dissipating it was already 7am. I quickly packed up and started for the saddle when it started to snow on me (I have now been snowed on in every state on the CDT). I got to Knapsack Col and took in the magnificent views. I was only on the saddle for 10 minutes before I saw some impressively dark clouds coming my way so I made a quick move for the other side of the saddle. There wasn't an obvious way down, it was super steep and glacieated. Instead of taking a rock scramble down I decided to glissiade down the Glacier. Once I lost about 600 feet of elevation in 20 seconds I made a B-line for Titcomb Valley. I got rained on pretty hard as I moved out of the valley. I got some cool views as I was coming down, but the storm definitely obscured my views from the top and pushed me to lower elevations quicker than I wanted. By the time I left the valley the sky became blue without a hint of storms; ohhh well I'll have to catch this section again when I come back someday for the high route.
The next day I had blue bird skies as I rolled through the Winds. It was a chilly morning and I hadn't been this cold since Glacier NP. I moved quickly through this section crossing by a stream or lake every 10 minutes with granite mountains dotting the landscape. My next goal was the Cirque of The Towers on the high route. Having gotten run off Knapsack Col, I wasn't going to pass up the clear skies and made my way for Texas Pass. I cleared Texas Pass by 7pm and found a spot to pitch my tent underneath the impressive towers and watched the sun disappear behind the spires. I was relaxing in my tent and dozed off to sleep but woke up around 830p with the moonlight piercing through my tent. I stuck my head out of the tent and saw the entire valley being illuminated by the moon so I naturally jumped out of my tent and snagged some pictures. I sat for an hour with half my body inside my sleeping bag and the other half outside the tent watching the moon cross the sky. I had to catch some zzzs but I could have stayed up all night watching the sky.
The next morning I got up early to catch the alpine light off of the rock faces. I was not disappointed walking under the giant towers as the morning sun lit them up. I continued up over Jackass pass and took an alternate on the alternate to Deep Lake. On my way up to Deep Lake I walked on a slab of granite for about a mile which was angled at a gentle 30 degrees. As I ascended the gentle slab I came upon a new basin which was surrounding Deep Lake. I took my coffee break in the shade of a boulder as I looked up at the huge rock faces. I pulled out my map to identify the peaks and realized one was the East Temple Peak which I had heard you could climb up the backside of. As I headed back to trail I found a route on my maps that took me up East Temple, so I blew my schedule for the day and went for peak. It was a long climb but once I got to the top I could see almost the entire range Wind River Range from 12,500 feet. I could see at least 15 different ridge lines stacked ontop of each other and a dozen alpine lakes. It was the highlight of the Winds and a showed me how much more I have to explore. As I was coming down East Temple and took a snack break. My food bag was nearly empty and I still had 38 miles to do before my next resupply so I pushed hard out of the Winds, keeping my head down before I found another mountain to climb.
Cirque of the Towers in the alpine light
Catching a Glimpse of the moon coming over the Cirque
Deep Lake. The angled mountain in the back is East Temple
Indian Basin
Coming down Knapsack Col before the storm hit
Fred on Knapsack Col with the storm in then background
View from the top of East Temple Mountain
Heading into the Winds from Green River Campground
Heading up to Jackass Pass
Coming Down Sandy Valley
Entering Titcomb Basin after decending Knapsack Col
Coming down Jackass Pass I found this lake.