July 8th:
Lander is really a wonderful town. Backing up a bit, the night before we left to hike into the mountains, we spent the evening at the 104th annual rodeo. And this is a real rodeo, with real cowboys, an announcer brought in from South Dakota, and incredibly angry bulls. People here really appreciate the outdoors, and enjoy it every aspect. They have a real respect for it as well. They hunt and fish, but also protect their resource. The diverse mixture of Native American, Caucasian and Hispanic makes for an interesting cultural atmosphere.
The rodeo we saw was special because it was fell during "Cowboy Christmas". During this 4 day holiday weekend time, a competitor can participate is as many as 5-9 rodeos, possibly collecting a lot of prize money - hence the "Chrtistmas" . A professional can hop on a plane and hit 9 rodeos in 4 days and clean up. They start them young here. Riding miniture bulls (49" tall) there was a 7-8 year old bull riding category. They wear helmuts and padding. Then 9-14 years olds are on slightly larger bulls. I'm pretty sure I would not feel comfortable throwing Jacob or Sam on a bull at their age. They weren't eager either.
Back to the hike. We did it! We left Sunday (July4)around 11:30. It took awhile to drive to the trail head and get situated. I was very nervous about the hike and rightly so. I was prepared for 4 miles, but in reality it was 5. And it was all uphill (except for the part where we had to cross an ice cold stream!) with a 25lb pack. We walked from 6000 ft to 10,500 ft. (That's 1 1/2 Monte Sano's for those of you counting) The views were spectacular (I'll add pictures later) but the climb was brutal. I really didn't think I'd make it. Jacob gave up twice, but he's a real trooper and once he got it in his head he wasn't allowed to give up, he really gave it his all. The mosquitos were swarming midway up the mountain and this got to us all.
Mr. F had to carry my pack twice, once for about 1/8 of a mile and once for about 1/4 of a mile. I had real problems catching my breath due to the altitude. I fell once and the pack knocked the wind out of me and I had to sit and concentrate on breathing for a long time. Charles helped me focus through this all. But, in the end it was well worth it. We made camp by 6:00pm. Charles and I had a two man tent, and the three kids shared a 3 man tent.
We set up camp at the top of a pass between mountains (the Wind River Range, part of the Rockies). There were snow banks nearby for wash water and a fresh water stream for drinking water about 15 minutes away. We soon had a fire going and our dinner of noodle soup, instant mashed potatoes and lipton rice. The only unfortunate thing for me was that I developed a mild case of altitude sickness..headache, nausea, general ickiness. So I crawled in my sleeping bag early. It got very cold that night, and my zipper on my bag broke, so I was feeling a bit discouraged.
The next day I felt loads better. When I got up, Charles and Mrs. F had started a fire and got water boiling for oatmeal and tea. The plan was to move two more miles in to a series of lakes, so we would be closer to drinking water and fishing (Turkey Jerkey as a lunch meal gets old quickly). The problem with moving camp, was that even though we would be walking down into a valley, that meant we would eventually have to walk UP again. I was totally opposed to ever walking up anything ever again. So, it was decided that the F's would pack up and hike two more miles in, and we would leave our camp where it was, but would accompany them to their camp for the day and to fish. For some reason it took us two hours to hike two miles. I was still a little woozy. Jacob was not into the hike at all. But when we reached the spot, it was idyllic. A series of lakes led to a roaring stream and you could actually see the brown trout swimming around the bottom. All the kids caught fish. I remain the only fisherperson on our trip NOT to have caught one! The skies were clear, and the sun was warm. It probably reached 65 degrees. Around 4:00 Charles and I decided to head back to our camp, anticipating the trip to take about 3 hours, sinice it was uphill. In realilty it only took us an 1 1/2. The only really scary part was that we lost the trail abd were lost for about 45 mintues. I had images of us huddled together while search planes flew overhead. Us eating berries and roots, the children rasied by bears. But in the end, we found the trail and were home in time for dinner. We ate - instant mashed potatoes, noodle soup and lipton rice. Melted snow served as dish washing water. Once again I headed to bed early, not feeling great after another high altitude hike uphill. I fixed the zipper on my sleeping bag and was actually warm all night long!
Lander is really a wonderful town. Backing up a bit, the night before we left to hike into the mountains, we spent the evening at the 104th annual rodeo. And this is a real rodeo, with real cowboys, an announcer brought in from South Dakota, and incredibly angry bulls. People here really appreciate the outdoors, and enjoy it every aspect. They have a real respect for it as well. They hunt and fish, but also protect their resource. The diverse mixture of Native American, Caucasian and Hispanic makes for an interesting cultural atmosphere.
The rodeo we saw was special because it was fell during "Cowboy Christmas". During this 4 day holiday weekend time, a competitor can participate is as many as 5-9 rodeos, possibly collecting a lot of prize money - hence the "Chrtistmas" . A professional can hop on a plane and hit 9 rodeos in 4 days and clean up. They start them young here. Riding miniture bulls (49" tall) there was a 7-8 year old bull riding category. They wear helmuts and padding. Then 9-14 years olds are on slightly larger bulls. I'm pretty sure I would not feel comfortable throwing Jacob or Sam on a bull at their age. They weren't eager either.
Back to the hike. We did it! We left Sunday (July4)around 11:30. It took awhile to drive to the trail head and get situated. I was very nervous about the hike and rightly so. I was prepared for 4 miles, but in reality it was 5. And it was all uphill (except for the part where we had to cross an ice cold stream!) with a 25lb pack. We walked from 6000 ft to 10,500 ft. (That's 1 1/2 Monte Sano's for those of you counting) The views were spectacular (I'll add pictures later) but the climb was brutal. I really didn't think I'd make it. Jacob gave up twice, but he's a real trooper and once he got it in his head he wasn't allowed to give up, he really gave it his all. The mosquitos were swarming midway up the mountain and this got to us all.
Mr. F had to carry my pack twice, once for about 1/8 of a mile and once for about 1/4 of a mile. I had real problems catching my breath due to the altitude. I fell once and the pack knocked the wind out of me and I had to sit and concentrate on breathing for a long time. Charles helped me focus through this all. But, in the end it was well worth it. We made camp by 6:00pm. Charles and I had a two man tent, and the three kids shared a 3 man tent.
We set up camp at the top of a pass between mountains (the Wind River Range, part of the Rockies). There were snow banks nearby for wash water and a fresh water stream for drinking water about 15 minutes away. We soon had a fire going and our dinner of noodle soup, instant mashed potatoes and lipton rice. The only unfortunate thing for me was that I developed a mild case of altitude sickness..headache, nausea, general ickiness. So I crawled in my sleeping bag early. It got very cold that night, and my zipper on my bag broke, so I was feeling a bit discouraged.
The next day I felt loads better. When I got up, Charles and Mrs. F had started a fire and got water boiling for oatmeal and tea. The plan was to move two more miles in to a series of lakes, so we would be closer to drinking water and fishing (Turkey Jerkey as a lunch meal gets old quickly). The problem with moving camp, was that even though we would be walking down into a valley, that meant we would eventually have to walk UP again. I was totally opposed to ever walking up anything ever again. So, it was decided that the F's would pack up and hike two more miles in, and we would leave our camp where it was, but would accompany them to their camp for the day and to fish. For some reason it took us two hours to hike two miles. I was still a little woozy. Jacob was not into the hike at all. But when we reached the spot, it was idyllic. A series of lakes led to a roaring stream and you could actually see the brown trout swimming around the bottom. All the kids caught fish. I remain the only fisherperson on our trip NOT to have caught one! The skies were clear, and the sun was warm. It probably reached 65 degrees. Around 4:00 Charles and I decided to head back to our camp, anticipating the trip to take about 3 hours, sinice it was uphill. In realilty it only took us an 1 1/2. The only really scary part was that we lost the trail abd were lost for about 45 mintues. I had images of us huddled together while search planes flew overhead. Us eating berries and roots, the children rasied by bears. But in the end, we found the trail and were home in time for dinner. We ate - instant mashed potatoes, noodle soup and lipton rice. Melted snow served as dish washing water. Once again I headed to bed early, not feeling great after another high altitude hike uphill. I fixed the zipper on my sleeping bag and was actually warm all night long!
Sure sounds like a good time. I am sure none of you will ever forget this trip. Are you e-mailing you blog postings to your Aunt Peg? I am not sure if she can read them otherwise.
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