Wind River Crest

[Mike Schasch]

Hike/Route info: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/37344
We did this route without the trip to Bonneville Basin. This was my first trip to the area and I was not disappointed. Similar to the Sierra but certainly with its own flavor. Temps were very warm and most nights we left our bags unzipped. We saw no bears, but did see just about everything else. The weather was incredible, only got sprinkled on once. No mosquitoes either.

Day 1 was about 19 miles to up above Peak Lake. Pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/107561442771983387605/WindRiverCrestDay1

Day 2 was up and over a couple cross-country passes and we camped at Baldy Basin. The night previous, some Pika's stole all of my gummy bears, jerky, and half a bag of cookies. They are good climbers or jumpers or both, as they were able to foil my food hanging techniques. We witnessed an amazing sunset. Pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/107561442771983387605/WindRiverCrestDay2

Day 3 was spent on the CDT, which was much more rugged than you might expect. We cruised a good 22 miles or so before making camp. We saw some horse packers and a sheep herder in the far distance, but otherwise ran into nobody. We decided to cut out the next cross-country portion due to Pika food attack a couple nights previous. Pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/107561442771983387605/WindRiverCrestDay3

Day 4 we got lost for a little while following more of the CDT than we wanted. Finally making our way to the amazing Shadow Lake. We hiked up and over a pass to the amazing Cirque of the Towers. We started to see more people and many thought we were dayhiking due to our very small packs which were now far less than 20 pounds each. Pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/107561442771983387605/WindRiverCrestDay4

Day 5 we awoke to the greatest sun rise in the history of earth and took many pictures to prove it. Our shortest mileage day had us done by noon and we were very hungry for the amazing burgers at the Pinedale Brewery. Better than Oscar's, seriously (near Zion where I live). Fishing and eating in Jackson was next, but we both agreed we belonged back in the Winds. Pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/107561442771983387605/WindRiverCrestDay5

[David Adair]

Nice!

[Luke Schmidt]

Nice thanks for posting. That is definitely an area I need to get into soon.

[Ike Jutkowitz]

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing them.

[David Noll]

Great pictures. I've got to agree with you that the burgers at Pinedale Brewery are about the best post hike burgers I have ever had. Since I usually hike with my wife we would be interested in seeing your gear list if possible.

[Mike Schasch]

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

My girlfriend and I only really split the tent weight (double rainbow). She takes the stakes/poles/and tyvec. If there is something more specific you were looking for about gear let me know.

[David Noll]

I was curious about total weight per person and what type of cook gear did you use? Is she a cold sleeper and what type of bag did she have? Do you cook meals or just add hot water? Thanks.

[Mike Schasch]

I think our total starting weights with 6 days worth of food was about 23 pounds each. We did the simple MSR pocket rocket stove and ti-kettle combo. We just boiled water for our repackaged mountain house or custom made dry dinners (we put them in ziplock mircrowavable bags). She is a cold sleeper and was using a kelty cosmic down bag (not the womens version). She also used a small neoair. Temps were perfectly fine for her and she usually didn't zip it up until early morning, sometimes not at all. That said, we got pretty lucky with the weather and we often tried to avoid camp spots that were in deep valleys with big lakes (gets more cold down there for some reason). Hope this helps.

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