Thomas Rasmuson
Member
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2014
- Messages
- 39
Me and a couple of buddies headed up into the Erickson Basin a couple of weeks ago. It was a 2 night/3 day trip. Our plan was to him in a little ways on Thursday night and set up camp, pack up early Friday and head for North Erickson Lake. I have been to North Erickson Lake before, but only from the south side. This time, we decided to try from the Smith and Morehouse, Ledge Fork trailhead. I did quite a bit of research on the route and was pretty confident I knew how to find the Lake but it ended up being a lot harder than I thought. We ended up not finding the lake at all and when we finally made it to Erickson Basin on Friday afternoon we were all pretty wiped out. There weren't really any great spots to camp at in the basin so we decided to head back down the mountain and try and find a spot to camp along the river. The problem was that the whole hike was so steep there weren't any places along the way either, so we ended up back tracking all the way back down to where we camped the night before. It was a round trip of about 12 miles or so, and for those of you that have done this hike, up to to the basin is pretty much just straight up and with 50 lbs on our backs, it was that much harder. It was an awesome trip though, and some of the prettiest country I have been in up there so all in all it was a successful trip. Here are some pictures to go along with it.
Chance and Oakley (the water was running really fast and they were pretty disappointed with me the whole time for not letting them get in.)
Our Campsite for the night, well actually for both nights because we ended up coming back to this same spot the second night as well. I tried hammock camping for the first time ever and have to say this is the way I will always do it from now on unless my wife comes with or the weather is supposed to be bad. I had the best two nights of sleep in the hammock than I ever have while camping. And it is also fun to sleep outside with the dogs too.
We got up early Friday morning, packed up camp and started on our 12 hour hiking adventure. We saw some pretty amazing country!
About a mile from our camp, I spotted this bear print on the trail. It rained the previous day, and this track looked pretty fresh, so I'm sure it was in the area the day before. Pretty cool to see though. All the time I have spent in the Uintas, I have never seen sign of bears. Probably because I am always up around 10,000 feet, but this was pretty cool to see.
The swift water made everything look so pretty.
This picture probably doesn't look like much, but if you were to slip off those logs, it was about a 20 foot waterfall down. Not straight down, but pretty much. I ended up having to carry both my dogs across because they were a little intimidated by how fast it was moving and how deep it was. I'm grateful they were cautious though, I couldn't imagine losing one of them down the river.
The fork in the trail to head to either Island Lake or Erickson Basin.
Me and one of my buddies from high school.
Me and my bro-in-law.
Finally made it to Erickson Basin and the views were incredible. The only problem is, we couldn't find any of the lakes. We hiked all over up there searching for them and had no luck.
Me, Chance and Oakley.
Well I hope you enjoy. I have a couple more Uintas trips planned this year and will hopefully get another TR up before the summers up.
Chance and Oakley (the water was running really fast and they were pretty disappointed with me the whole time for not letting them get in.)
Our Campsite for the night, well actually for both nights because we ended up coming back to this same spot the second night as well. I tried hammock camping for the first time ever and have to say this is the way I will always do it from now on unless my wife comes with or the weather is supposed to be bad. I had the best two nights of sleep in the hammock than I ever have while camping. And it is also fun to sleep outside with the dogs too.
We got up early Friday morning, packed up camp and started on our 12 hour hiking adventure. We saw some pretty amazing country!
About a mile from our camp, I spotted this bear print on the trail. It rained the previous day, and this track looked pretty fresh, so I'm sure it was in the area the day before. Pretty cool to see though. All the time I have spent in the Uintas, I have never seen sign of bears. Probably because I am always up around 10,000 feet, but this was pretty cool to see.
The swift water made everything look so pretty.
This picture probably doesn't look like much, but if you were to slip off those logs, it was about a 20 foot waterfall down. Not straight down, but pretty much. I ended up having to carry both my dogs across because they were a little intimidated by how fast it was moving and how deep it was. I'm grateful they were cautious though, I couldn't imagine losing one of them down the river.
The fork in the trail to head to either Island Lake or Erickson Basin.
Me and one of my buddies from high school.
Me and my bro-in-law.
Finally made it to Erickson Basin and the views were incredible. The only problem is, we couldn't find any of the lakes. We hiked all over up there searching for them and had no luck.
Me, Chance and Oakley.
Well I hope you enjoy. I have a couple more Uintas trips planned this year and will hopefully get another TR up before the summers up.
