Happyidiot
Member
- Joined
- May 8, 2019
- Messages
- 13
My daughter and I finally made it to the Winds after 8 months of planning. The plane flight into Denver was uneventful as was our ride to Elkhart Park Trail head. We arrived at the trail head around 10:00 after a late dinner in Pinedale. We slept in the car and we both woke up throughout the night with labored breathing. This elevation was definitely having an affect on our breathing.
Our plan was to follow Pole Crek trail to Cook Lakes and head up the back side of Cook lakes and hit Wall Lake Pass to Island Lake and then proceed up Titcomb basin to Knapsack Col to Peak Lake and back to Elkhart Park. This was very ambitious with the limited experience in the higher elevations in the West and being from the East coast and not hiking much above 5000’.My daughter and I were prepared with the proper gear for the trip but we were both basically “fresh off the Couch” due to our busy lives and not prepared physically. Only having a few short hikes completed in preparation.
We got an early start and left our bear spray behind due to the amount of people in the area and planned on using proper food storage and prep.
The wild flowers were amazing!! The first meadows we came across were beautiful but little did we know what we were in for. Photographers Point to Eklund Lake for lunch.
We felt good at about 8 miles so we decided to come at Cook Lakes Only three more miles. The last 3 miles were quite tough with a some elevation gain and being simply tired. We made the decision that evening after dinner to skip the off trail and head up Lester pass to Island Lake. We got up early to cross Pole Creek and head North on the CDT.
We sure felt better than we did the night before! I can remember the name of the lake on the way up to Lester but it was one of the most beautiful sites I seen on the trip.
We made it to Lester Pass with a few stops to catch our breath along the way. Up until then we seen a relatively Small amount of people but had heard of the crowds at Island lake from passers by. We stopped and had lunch at the lakes just on the other sides of the pass and had a nice break before we climbed up and over to Island lake.
looking North from Lester Pass.
I generally push myself pretty hard when hiking by myself almost to the point of it not being fun so when we stopped at Island Lake to set up camp I really enjoyed hanging out with my daughter and watching the the sunset and storm rolling in.
We headed up to Titcomb Basin early in the morning after we decided it was not in our best interest to try Knapsack Col with the limited experience we had. I told told my wife via text we weren’t going to do it because my daughter could not do it but truth be told I was not ready for the task due to under estimating it along with being out of shape. We enjoyed our hike up to the upper lake in the basin seeing marmots run around their home turf in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
We got back to camp around 1:00, ate lunch and made our way to Hobbs Lake to make camp for the final night. We seeN 2 pikas along the trail but they were too quick to get a picture of them.
We got to the trail head around 10:30 to find our 2 pack of bear spray exploded from the heat in the car. Rookie mistake. Luckily the majority of the contents stayed in the blister pack.
We we not scheduled to fly out for 3 more days so we drove up to Yellowstone to do the tourist thing and had a great time seeing all the wild life along with the crowds.
I learned that my daughter has grown up to be a beautiful human being full of determination and has knack for exposing all my little flaws making me want to be a better person. What a great trip and can’t wait to get back there to do it again.
Our plan was to follow Pole Crek trail to Cook Lakes and head up the back side of Cook lakes and hit Wall Lake Pass to Island Lake and then proceed up Titcomb basin to Knapsack Col to Peak Lake and back to Elkhart Park. This was very ambitious with the limited experience in the higher elevations in the West and being from the East coast and not hiking much above 5000’.My daughter and I were prepared with the proper gear for the trip but we were both basically “fresh off the Couch” due to our busy lives and not prepared physically. Only having a few short hikes completed in preparation.
We got an early start and left our bear spray behind due to the amount of people in the area and planned on using proper food storage and prep.
The wild flowers were amazing!! The first meadows we came across were beautiful but little did we know what we were in for. Photographers Point to Eklund Lake for lunch.
We felt good at about 8 miles so we decided to come at Cook Lakes Only three more miles. The last 3 miles were quite tough with a some elevation gain and being simply tired. We made the decision that evening after dinner to skip the off trail and head up Lester pass to Island Lake. We got up early to cross Pole Creek and head North on the CDT.
We sure felt better than we did the night before! I can remember the name of the lake on the way up to Lester but it was one of the most beautiful sites I seen on the trip.
We made it to Lester Pass with a few stops to catch our breath along the way. Up until then we seen a relatively Small amount of people but had heard of the crowds at Island lake from passers by. We stopped and had lunch at the lakes just on the other sides of the pass and had a nice break before we climbed up and over to Island lake.
looking North from Lester Pass.
I generally push myself pretty hard when hiking by myself almost to the point of it not being fun so when we stopped at Island Lake to set up camp I really enjoyed hanging out with my daughter and watching the the sunset and storm rolling in.
We headed up to Titcomb Basin early in the morning after we decided it was not in our best interest to try Knapsack Col with the limited experience we had. I told told my wife via text we weren’t going to do it because my daughter could not do it but truth be told I was not ready for the task due to under estimating it along with being out of shape. We enjoyed our hike up to the upper lake in the basin seeing marmots run around their home turf in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
We got back to camp around 1:00, ate lunch and made our way to Hobbs Lake to make camp for the final night. We seeN 2 pikas along the trail but they were too quick to get a picture of them.
We got to the trail head around 10:30 to find our 2 pack of bear spray exploded from the heat in the car. Rookie mistake. Luckily the majority of the contents stayed in the blister pack.
We we not scheduled to fly out for 3 more days so we drove up to Yellowstone to do the tourist thing and had a great time seeing all the wild life along with the crowds.
I learned that my daughter has grown up to be a beautiful human being full of determination and has knack for exposing all my little flaws making me want to be a better person. What a great trip and can’t wait to get back there to do it again.
Im grateful to have been there a couple times. Now i need to find a way to go back!
