Day 6 ~ August 7, 2006 ~ The hike out to the Big Sandy Trailhead                  

I awoke at 5:30am to start the last day of our trip. I hiked higher up Jackass Pass ridge to see if I could get some sweeping panoramas of the Cirque of the Towers in the morning light. The views from the ridge were outstanding, yet my proximity to Warbonnet and Warrior Peaks excluded the idea of one panoramic composition. Maybe I could take 1 or 2 images and stitch them together afterwards. No, that won't really work either due to the closer peaks looming so largely. I settled on composing Pylon Peak, Watchtower, Overhanging Tower, Shark's Nose, Wolf's Head and Pingora with the high meadow of the cirque below. That's where Jack was, he had headed back down to the tarns this morning. And I could just barely make out his location. I waited for the light, but the clouds over the Eastern horizon did not make the prospects look good. Sure enough, most of the warm morning light was blocked by those clouds. The morning was kind of a dud, and a disappointment. I took a few digital snaps and headed back to camp.

I had some breakfast and was breaking down Camp 3 when Jack arrived. I'd told him that I wanted a little head start on the hike out, since I thought I'd be slower on the uphill climbs around North Lake. He was preparing breakfast when I left Camp 3 at 7:45am. It was a quick jaunt to the Climber's Cutoff trail and "true" Jackass Pass. This time I managed to stay on the trail, which is very steep descending to Arrowhead Lake. Then it was into the boulder field. My patience for boulder fields had run thin. I wanted no more! It took about 30 minutes to cross the boulder field on the West side of Arrowhead Lake and then I was back on trail at the Climber's Cutoff junction. 15 more minutes of steep downhill trail and I arrived at North Lake. I felt better than I thought I would on the climb out of North Lake. And I knew that after I'd made it to the top of that climb, it was mostly downhill all the way back to the trailhead. That was a good feeling. The switchbacks down to Big Sandy Lake went quickly and nice morning views opened up as I approached the lake.

I arrived at Big Sandy Lake just after 9:00am. I shucked my pack, filtered water, washed my face, dumped water over my head, applied some sunscreen and then sat down with a snack to wait for Jack. The sun was warm and there was a light cool breeze. There were only a few people around the lake. Being a Monday, I assume the weekend crowds had long since left. It was beautiful and peaceful as I watched the trout in Big Sandy Lake surface to feed. I reflected a bit on our trip. It had been amazing, and in hind-sight, there was very little that I would do differently. Maybe it was a day too long. I was beat tired and missed my family, but maybe that is just the way I felt at the time. That's how I usually feel at the end of a trip, no matter how long it has been. I think it's just the let down at the completion of a journey. All the excitement and expectations are past. My "nature tank" has been replenished, and all that's left to do, is go home.

Jack arrived and performed similar re-fueling routines as I had. And we hit the Big Sandy trail at 9:45am. I was ready to go home. I put my head down and set my legs on cruise control. We stopped a couple times along the way. And we marveled at the number of "moose" tracks on the trail. I'm embarrassed to say that we eventually caught up with and passed a group of hikers with llamas. I obviously can't tell the difference between moose and llama tracks - not that I've seen many llama tracks before. I snapped a couple digital images along the way, but mostly we kept a quick pace and motored towards the trailhead. We arrived at the trailhead just before noon. 6 miles in 2 hours with 60 lb. packs - Not bad! But we were beat.

We met Rick at his truck, as planned, and we caught up on the past days events since we never saw him in the Cirque of the Towers. Then we packed up the truck and headed home. Rick and I stopped in Rock Springs for a juicy burger. Mmm, did that ever taste good! And the drive back to Denver was uneventful.

Total distance traveled: 8.7 miles, Total vertical: 310 feet, and -1690 feet all the way back down.

Download Route: GPX, Google Earth

Some final random thoughts...

• The Wind River Mountains are an amazing and very special place. This is the kind of landscape that sticks in my mind; the kind of landscape I want to share with others. I'll return someday, hopefully soon, with family and/or other friends.

• Sometimes the best made plans do work out! We had great luck and success in coordinating our plans as a group, splitting up and meeting back together again.

• My camera gear worked well. I used each of my large format lenses that I carried. Although, I took too much film - 85 sheets. I only used 47. I wish I had taken some B&W negative film. The Canon 30D w/ 24-105 f/4 IS performed well, but it is a bit too heavy to carry supported only by the chest strap on my pack (this is how I always carried the Canon Digital Rebel which is much lighter). I may need to devise a more robust way of attaching the Lowepro TLZ to my pack shoulder straps.

• I will always carry my own gear. Splitting up and sharing gear would have caused big problems on this trip. The fact that each of us carried enough gear to be independent made this trip much more pleasurable, for all of us! I'll trade a heavier pack for the freedom to go my own way and pursue my own interests.

• I'm very pleased with my new R.E.I. Mars backpack, Bear Vault 350 Solo food container, and Primus Micro Piezio stove. All were new on this trip and worked very well.

• My new GPS, a Garmin eTrex Vista Cx, also worked great on this trip. And it was quite efficient with batteries - only changed them once. I'd say it worked flawlessly, except for the Jalisco, Mexico incident.

• I'd heard horror stories of how bad the mosquitoes can be in the Wind River Mountains. So I came very prepared with bug spray and even a head net. But we experienced very few bugs and could have easily done without the spray. The head net never left my pack. We conjectured that it was a dry summer and it was possible that the area had experienced a hard freeze just before we arrived. The wildflowers looked like they had been recently freeze-nipped. Lucky us!

• Leaving family, even for a short time, is difficult. I have a wonderful wife and 2 young children. I missed them terribly while I was gone. But something inside of me needs this time in the backcountry. It's part of who I am. It's vital to re-fuel my soul every once and a while. I'm lucky that those around me understand this and make allowances to give me this time. It is a special gift. Thank you, Kim. And thank you, mom, for helping out with the kids while I was away.