Hike for a Hospital

The second stretch of the Wind River Range was even more rugged and beautiful than the first. We chose a higher alternate route that gave us more scenery than the official route, and encountered a lot of mountain lakes. We made the most of it with a record breaking 6 swims in 6 different lakes. The water was cold and refreshing which made the couple of cliff jumps we found all the more extreme. We didn't make our allotted miles for the day but it ended up being my favorite day ever hiking. The view at sunset was spectacular as we walked from island lake to titcombe lake up a huge glacier carved basin. We camped on glacially polished rock slope with a commanding panoramic view of Titcombe Basin up the Valley.

The following day we climbed over Knapsack Col and made the long descent into the Green River Valley. The accent over was mostly on ice and boulders, up the remnants of a glacier which has almost completely melted to nothing in the last few decades. Parts of the descent on the north side were on steep scree, but it was mostly a case of following rock cairns back down to the official trail.

We split up into two groups for the last 2.5 days. Tourist and Nicotine took the high route over glaciers and we look the low route down a valley and over some rolling hills.

There was a detour due to fire but it didn't take much longer than if we had been able to walk the real trail. Cactus, Virgo and I did a bit of night hiking on the end of the section and got to see a bear charging through a meadow in the middle of the night - my first bear sighting of the trail.

The rest of the walk to the highway was uneventful apart from our encounters with southbound CDT hikers. We were lucky enough to cross paths with 4 pairs of our Pacific Crest Trail friends, and even had a little impromptu Whiskey and Mojito party in the middle of a disused dirt road with Man party and Lush. It was great to spin some yarns with friends and definitely capped off one of my favorite sections of the trail so far.

Dubois WY. Mile 1680