Cloud Peak Wilderness: The Sequel

Just thought I would follow up my original blog post with more pictures and a little less narrative. So here we go. 

 

Buffalo, Wyoming is in the north central part of the state.  We flew out of Kansas City to Denver around 6 AM and then rented a car from there.  It's about a 5 hour drive.  After getting settled in at our hotel for the evening we decided to drive up to the trailhead to see how far it is so we could time our leaving in the morning.  It was really only about 15 minutes from town. 

 

 

The afternoon clouds were foreshadowing of our week in the woods.  Clouds would roll in by mid-day or just after and would rain everyday.  Sometimes for a short time and sometimes for hours. 

This is a protected wilderness area which means you pack it in, you pack it out; the "leave no trace behind" law.  I like the last bullet  statement: "Hikers with llamas should yield to groups with horses or mules and move well off the trail." 

 

 

Ready - set - GO!

 

 What I am actually thinking is "are we really going to do this?"  And, "what am I forgetting?"

Sherd Lake is beautiful; located about 2 miles into the hike up. 
 

 

Old Crow Lake where we will make our base camp.   

This is the river coming out of Old Crow that flows down to lakes below.  Both the inlet and outlet were too high and could not cross. 

 

 

Al is burying our fresh provisions in the snow.

 

Not sure what I am looking at or thinking here.

A boulder field as far as you can see.  This we had to cross to get to Lame Deer Lake. 

Beautiful Lame Deer Lake.  Wish we had gotten up there earlier.  Those clouds rolling in started turning dark and we had to high tail it out of there.  No sooner than we made it back to camp it started raining.  It rained a lot.  We held up in our tent for a few hours.  You could hear the wind build up as it rolled down the mountain side and then roar and shake out tent as it passed thru.  Afternoon storms are common in the higher altitudes and it being a late Spring and all made them all the more common.  Lame Deer Lake is the highest we went just under 10,000 feet.    Our camp was around 9350 feet. 

 

This is my gear.  My hiking poles and Kelty Coyote 80 liter backpack.  I ended up needing almost every liter of space so I am grateful I upgraded from my other, smaller pack.  The one thing I took too much of was water.  Al tried telling me but I wouldn't listen.  There were so many lakes and streams I did not need to pack two one-liter bottles plus a 3 liter bladder that fits inside the pack.  Ditching the bladder would have saved me 6.6 pounds.  My pack was about 33 pounds total. 

 And here is Al's circa 1971 Eddie Bauer. She has seen a lot of mountain tops and wildernesses over her 40 years or so.  The large green bag tethered to the bottom of the aluminum frame is the tent, his sleeping bag, and pad.  It's all old school but it works!

 

I took these pictures of our gear and myself while Al was still fishing Rainy Lake.  This is on the way back down.  Rainy Lake had large snow drifts blocking our trail that we had to go around and we could not access the lake on our ascent.  With all the rain and warmer weather enough had melted that an opening presented itself.  You can see there is still snow drifts behind me.  This picture is after I fell in the stream about two miles back.  So I took advantage of the sun and extra time to dry out my socks and boots and soak in some warm sun.  It was the best weather we had the whole week.  Figures! 

We survived!! 

Celebratory beverages that were waiting in the vehicle for us.  Not gonna lie; they tasted really good.  But what I was really craving was a Diet Dr. Pepper and I don't know why.  Other things we were craving: garlic parmesan wings at Henry T's, a hot shower, and a real toilet. 

It was unforgettable experience.  Next year I am thinking the mountain ranges and wilderness areas of the great Northwest in Sasquatch's backyard!