- Opening Image - Titcomb Basin
(1) SATURDAY, SEPT 2: ELKHART PARK TO SACRED RIM – 3.5 miles / +575 ft / -575 ft
One major consideration to backpacking the Wind River Range is altitude. The trailhead at Elkhart Park is 9,400 ft above sea level, and our journey would spend most of its time well above 10,000 feet. Altitude sickness is common, especially for sea level folks like us. It was important for us to do a short conditioning hike at altitude before setting off for the main event the next day.
We departed Idaho Falls (where we spent Night 0) and did the 2.5 hour drive to Pinedale, Wyoming, then made the 20 minute drive from Pinedale up to the Elkhart Park Trailhead. The Labor Day crowds had overflowed the main trailhead (at least 100 vehicles) so we parked at a secondary trailhead nearby. We donned our full packs for practice, heavy with nine days of food and supplies, and headed up the trail.
It was quick going to Sacred Rim… a series of three short climbs and two short drops each direction of the 1.75 mile trail, leading to a fantastic viewpoint on the south rim of a canyon overlooking the northern expanses of the Bridger Wilderness. Granite peaks dominated the skyline with tree-lined slopes and shimmering lakes below. The sky was dark overcast, a harbinger of the less-than-favorable weather we knew was approaching. We returned to the car and headed back to Pinedale, grabbing food and beers at Wind River Brewing before settling into our last real beds for awhile.
- Sacred Rim - Looking North into Bridger Wilderness
We arrived at the trailhead just after 10:00 AM, a rather late start but it was important to eat a real breakfast. The first four miles of the trail, to another location on the canyon rim called Photographer’s Point, hiked like a highway. We probably passed over 100 day hikers and backpackers on their way out of the wilderness. The constant repeats of ‘hello’ and ‘good morning’ were more exhausting than the moderate climb. We made good time racing the weather, which called for thunderstorms after noon.
From Photographer’s Point, the trail was a little less used but still popular with people returning from the most popular location in the Bridger Wilderness… Titcomb Basin. Soon after, at the western shore of Elklund Lake, the trails diverged and we headed southeast toward Pole Creek Lakes and the Highline Trail. We crested the high point of the day as the rains began, donning our shells and descending a few miles toward our first known wet crossing at Pole Creek. Thunder rumbled overhead and the rain fluctuated between drizzle and downpour. My friend and I spaced apart when crossing meadows so if lightning struck, it only got one of us. We continued, knowing we needed to get as far as possible because this was only the very beginning of the weather onslaught coming our way.
We pressed on a few miles past the Pole Creek crossing, heading south on the Highline Trail. The trail became more and more faint, and we realized that we now hadn’t seen anybody in the past four miles… quite a change from just a couple hours before. Along the shores of lakes, the trail would disappear into muddy bogs and underbrush which slowed our progress to a crawl. It quickly became apparent that there was no way to keep even waterproof boots dry in these conditions.
We reached the southern end of the Chain Lakes around 4:30 PM and set up tents on a small crest campsite right as a downpour began. We spent the rest of the evening fleeing to the tents during downpours but enjoying the gorgeous scenery nonetheless.
- Meadows along Highline Trail
The night brought with it little rest. A thunderstorm just after sunset with decent sized hail. Another thunderstorm around midnight with multiple lightning strikes less than a quarter mile away. Another thunderstorm before sunrise… thunder snow with the cold front passing through. And moderate to heavy rain that persisted non-stop until 5 PM the following day. We broke the cardinal rule in grizzly country of eating in our tents… it was simply too wet to prepare food outside. Looking back, nearly 4” of rain fell on our location in 24 hours. My tent, for the first time ever, started legitimately leaking after 24 hours of bombardment. And even on a high point I had to dig trenches around my tent to direct the water away. My friends back home were out having brunch today, and here I am confined to a tent in Wyoming trying to stay warm and dry. But would I really trade this experience in for brunch?
The rain was heavy but scattered in the evening, then became lighter overnight. Now we were a day behind schedule but at least tomorrow’s forecast was overcast and dry… maybe there was a way to make up the time we lost confined to our tent prisons during the Labor Day rainpocalypse.
- Upper Chain Lake
- Flooded user trails around Upper Chain Lake
Finally, silence. No rolling thunder. No raindrops on nylon. It was time to roll up the soggy prison, stuff it in a sack, and hit the trail.
The first four miles of the day descended south on the Highline Trail past Barnes Lake to Horseshoe Lake. And while the rain had abated, the wetness was still prevalent. Normally dry meadows were squishy, the trail treads deep with standing water. It was not hiking, it was a mixture of waddling and hopping between high spots. Stream crossings that should have been simple rock-hops were running shin deep and fast. The brush overhanging the trail was laden with water just begging to soak our semi-dry hiking pants. The temperature was steady in the low 40s and then it began again… the rain. Not a heavy rain this time… just a substantial drizzle. A drizzle which continued for many more miles as we passed Lake George and turned east on the Highline Trail and climbed through a burned area back toward higher elevations. As we gained a ridge east of Lake George we could see out west toward the flatlands around Pinedale… a good time to check for cell service. As we watched a herd of elk in the meadow below, I sent a couple check-in and update texts to people, letting them know that we survived the weather and were on the move.
Our original plan had us spending night 3 at North Fork Lake along the CDT, night 4 at Rainbow Lake on the southern extents of the loop, and night 5 at Valley Lake, which was only 1.5 miles away from North Fork Lake. We figured that we could still do the whole southern loop if we spent both nights 4 and 5 at Valley Lake and did the 21 mile southern loop between them as a dayhike to catch back up to plan. So to Valley Lake it was.
We followed the Highline Trail east and then changed to the Victor Lake Trail for the half mile connection around North Fork Lake to the CDT, which we then followed southbound. Soon it was time to cross North Fork Boulder Creek, one of the larger wet stream crossings of the trip. It was running knee deep and fast, we were both already soaked from the knees down, and we were only 1.5 miles from our planned camp, so we just went for it. Probably not the wisest decision, but hindsight and whatever. The CDT climbed southbound a few hundred feet from this crossing into a long stretch of high meadows and lakes, Valley Lake being in the northernmost of these meadows. We trudged up the hill in squishy boots and then crossed the meadows marked by cairns to the eastern shore of Valley Lake and a gorgeous campsite with 360-degree views. The drizzle had abated but the overcast was still thick… there was no way that we would get our boots dried out by sunrise tomorrow morning to tackle the entire southern loop.
But we were here, the plans were changing, and we just had to do the best we could with the weather that we were dealt.
- Wet meadows above Horseshoe Lake
- Rocky meadows around Valley Lake
Is that, really? Is that sun shining on the tent? I donned two Ziploc bags over my socks and stepped outside. My friend was already out, socks and pants hanging from the pine trees, steaming in the morning sun. Our solar charger was slowly recharging the battery packs we had fully drained over the last three days. I quickly assembled my horde of damp items and spread them out across the granite slabs and tree branches around camp. I just sat for over an hour, drinking an instant coffee, then another, soaking up every ray of sun that I could.
It was 11:00 AM before our boots were dry, and some simple math meant that even at a good pace we couldn’t do the 21-mile southern loop without arriving back well after sunset. Fully one third of this southern loop was going to be off-trail alpine travel, and we knew that even with just day packs we couldn’t hike it at trail speed. We made the tough decision to curtail the southern portion of the loop and just head up into the nearby alpine areas instead to see what kind of adventures we could have.
We departed east on the Europe Canyon Trail, which heads up and over the Continental Divide and into the east side of the Wind River Range. But after a little while we cut southeast, off trail, and climbed into the alpine area around Lake 10806. As we rounded the east flank of Medina Mountain, the summit looked more and more approachable, so we gave it a shot. And before we knew it, several hundred feet and a couple minor scrambles later, we were on the summit (11,522’) with panoramic views in every direction. We spent a long time on the summit, grabbing a FaceTime with our partners, checking the latest weather forecast (which looked really good), and taking in the view of ‘the route that could have been’. We could see nearly the entirety of the southern loop from the summit of Medina… the off-trail portion southeast to Halls Lake and then around Pipe Organ to Middle Fork Lake, then the ridge climb to Rainbow Lake hidden behind, then the return back to Valley Lake along the ‘altiplano’ and the CDT. Seeing it from up top was almost as good as hiking it, and my moderate amount of remorse for missing that section slowly faded.
We returned to camp in a roundabout way, staying up in the alpine awhile before following game trails back to Europe Canyon and then back to Valley Lake, where we had a relaxing evening on the lakeshore.
- View from Medina Mountain - Looking West
- View from Medina Mountain - Looking North
- View from Medina Mountain - Looking South
We woke up Thursday morning with two options: 1) return to the CDT and follow it northbound all day or 2) take a slightly shorter route with slightly less elevation gain for the first half of the day (via Timico Lake) but with multiple miles on unofficial/user trails in the alpine. We opted for Option 2, proceeding north on the Hay Pass trail from Valley Lake, descending to the northeast tip of Lake Victor and then climbing along the North Fork Boulder Creek drainage.
After a couple of miles of gentle climbing, the valley splits in two… the valley on the right climbing to Hay Pass at the Continental Divide and the valley on the left climbing to a saddle above the south shore of Timico Lake. We left the main trail and went cross-country to gain the left valley, crossing North Fork Boulder Creek on a logjam before joining up with a faint user trail up the steep east side of the valley. Until now the weather had been clear, but clouds were building to the west as we entered the alpine. We descended to the shore of Timico Lake, rock-hopped the outlet stream right at the lakeshore, and then hunkered down and ate lunch as a rain shower passed overhead. As quickly as it began, it was over.
Another mile west and we rejoined the CDT, turning north over a quick succession of three individual passes. Although no more than 400’ climb and loss each, with the miles already on our feet for the day the gain quickly added up. We descended into Bald Mountain Basin around 5:00 PM… we intended to go another mile or so to Lower Cook Lake but the late afternoon scenery at the basin beckoned us to make camp early. We settled in around some granite outcroppings above a lake for a clear and calm night, only interrupted by the occasional elk bugle and duck call.
- Meadow looking toward Timico Saddle
- Timico Saddle
- Bald Mountain Basin
- Sunset at Bald Mountain Basin
- Dusk at Bald Mountain Basin
