Part Fifty Two

     September 11th - 13th             Wind Rivers, WY                       (Go to Pt 1)
 
September 11
Sunrise over Raid Peak the following morning was gradual, gaining strength as it reached the crest of the eastern ridge before spilling warmly out across the lake.  It was calm and peaceful by the water’s edge and I sat down by the lakeshore for a while before collecting water, just absorbing the serenity.

I’d woken-up in the morning feeling already done with the Wind River range, I don’t know why, we still had several more days before reaching Lander but I was starting to feel the itch for a hot shower, clean clothes and something to eat not out of a can or pulverized into powder.

From Dream Lake the trail began a long, gradual descent across easy, meandering terrain, trailing the high peaks behind us as we shifted mental gear to the prolonged march out of the mountains that lay ahead.

(Click on the map for a larger image)

By late afternoon, under clear, warm skies we had reached Fish Creek Park, a large expanse of meadow where we dumped our packs and rested for a while.  Then, after that while was over, we decided to fish around in our packs for something to eat.  We had hoped to make it further down valley before making camp but, at this point, spending the night in Fish Creek Park was already happening.

September 12 
The following day we made our way down the final stretch of the Highline Trail, coming out at Big Sandy Meadows.  We dropped our packs and pulled from the map case what quadrants we were carrying for this final stretch of the Winds, and did not find the maps we needed to get from where we were across the mountains and out to Lander.  

If we had come down along the eastern side of the mountains, as was originally planned, we would practically be into Lander by now, but our being forced down to the Highline Trail on the western side now put us on the wrong side of the mountains with a particularly wild section of the Continental Divide standing between us and Lander. The maps we did have showed steep, dead-end canyons and soaring, nearly-impenetrable peaks thousands of feet above the valley.

With at least a couple of false hopes that the maps would show us a path across the Divide to Lander, Jackass Pass and Stillwater Gap both offering a way to get over the mountains, we spent more time than we could afford trying to piece together our maps for a complete route out to Lander that came up at least one quadrant short every which way we tried. And again, the maps we did have showed a lot of steep, complicated terrain that did not bode well for a blind crossing.

This was our 16th day in the Wind Rivers and we had packed 16 days’ worth of supplies; we had one meal left, some extra rice, a couple of packets of instant soup and oatmeal and very little fuel left for the stove. Even if we did end up putting a route together that got us across the mountains, we were at least two, and maybe even three days from hiking the nearly 50 miles that lay between Big Sandy and Lander.  
​
We had not intended to come out at Big Sandy and now we were out of supplies and route options, we were going to have to walk out to Hwy 187 and hitch-hike around the southern toe of the range and then back up to Lander on the eastern side.  We ended up camping a ways down from Big Sandy Meadows, mentally and physically wiped-out.

It was dead silent that evening, no wind, no birds and not a sound coming from the lazy river rolling by.  Craig and I were two bodies sitting around a camp stove a million miles apart, like the other wasn’t even there, and not intentionally, just a blankness of mind that came from prolonged adventure.  When we’d finished cooking our meal I shut off the stove and the quiet became so silent I could hear the inside of my ears.

September 13th
​The following day we made the long, dusty march out of the mountains down to Hwy 187, arriving late in the day, beat-down tired.  I don’t recall much about the hitch-hike to Lander, only that we got into town after dark.

---

Go to Part 53

---

The CDTC was founded in 2012 by volunteers and recreationists hoping to provide a unified voice for the CDT. Working hand-in-hand with the U.S. Forest Service and other federal land management agencies, the CDTC is a non-profit partner supporting stewardship of the CDT. The mission of the CDTC is to complete, promote and protect the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, a world-class national resource. For more information, please visit continentaldividetrail.org.

---