Grandson

My oldest son and his wife gave birth to a baby boy yesterday! 8 lbs 14 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. It is SO cool to have a grandbaby! I never realized that it would be this exciting! Gives me the motivation to stay in top physical shape for the next thirty years! So we can go hiking and fishing together!

Winds Trip 2009, Part 2

This picture is on the trail towards Edmund Lake. We had leveled out at 10,000 ft elevation and were working ourselves out of the burn area. Amazing how destructive these forest fires are.

Festus and Buford were taking a well deserved break!

Here's the lake with lots of nice brookies. North of Edmund and off trail a ways up there.

East end of the lake

Snow on the mountain tops higher up towards the Continental Divide

Nice Brookies that I caught one afternoon

Here's a video clip of the brookies in this lake

Clay frying up some of the brookies that we caught

A close up look of another batch

My raft which weighs about 20 oz.

Picture of me, age 52 yrs old

Buford in the morning

Outside view of my Nallo 2, Festus was always there when I was inside the tent

Same view when I camped under the tarp

75 lbs worth of gear, glad that I didn't have to carry it all!

Tarp camping, no bugs in site

Buford when we were at Lake Ethel

Comical video of Clay and Cooper his goat!

Josh with his evening catch

Lake Ethel in the morning, prior to taking off for the Trailhead

Boulder Creek, the trail went right by it

Winds Trip 2009

We decided to head up to the Wind River Range in the middle of August and stay for 7 days. We originally were headed for the Dickinson Park TH on the East side of the Winds, but after looking at the weather report for the 15th, they were predicting a 90% chance of snow, we decided that we'd go in on the west side and have milder weather.

We left Deweyville at 4:30 am, picked up Clay at 6:00 am, and headed for the Boulder Creek TH. I think that I only got about 3 hours of sleep due to packing and also due to the anxiety of the trip. Anyway, we arrived at the TH about 11:30am, and loaded up the goats and hit the trail. The skies were overcast - I was wondering what we were in for as far as weather, but we were very fortunate as the temps stayed in the 40's, and we only had a skiff of sleet every now ad then.

Photo above is of Boulder Lake. Clay is in the photo. We were around 1000' higher than the TH at this point.

Here is a picture of the two goats that I took

along, Buford and Festus, my 2 1/2 year old

wethers. They carried 65 lbs of gear between

the 2 of them, which I thought was really cool. They were both real troopers on this trip. they stayed right behind me on the trail and never gave up. It made it so I only had to carry 10 to 15 lbs on MY back. Stuff like rain gear, insulating layer, water, etc.

Darn't if we didn't see a rock chuck along the way, prior to hitting Blueberry Lake. Thoughts crossed my mind to blow him off of the rock, but I resisted. I know what they do to backpacks and food containers, that explains why I wanted to get rid of him.

You don't see horses doing this! This was a close up of my 2 1/2 year old wether named Buford. He is going to be a BIG boy, he is already 216 lbs. He carried 40 lbs on this trip. This was by out campsite between Cross and Coyote lakes. Nice campsite by the way.

Here is a shot of the mountain peaks East of Lake Victor, with the snow on them. The storm moved through a day or two before this...I am glad that we waited and came in later! Pays to get on the NOAA site before heading out!

Chillin' just below Washakie Pass, Winds

We spent 7 days in the Winds, this photo was at 11,000 feet, just below Washakie Pass on the East Side.  We had a terrific time over in the Popo Agie Wilderness area!

Blowin' in the wind....

Don't try this!

It did not seem THAT windy, and I thought I'd clean the dirt out of the tent, plus un-do the velcro straps that held the poles.

Due to the I.D. MK1XL's superb ability to handle wind (on the ground), I had grossly underestimated how strong the winds were actually blowing!

Next time I'll shake out the tent AT HOME!!!!

For Alpine style backpacking, where the ground is really rocky, I really like either the Integral Designs MK1 XL with two doors, or the Hilleberg Allak.  Both are free standing, and both really withstand some fierce winds.

Here's a photo of me and my packgoat, Rufus, on the summit of Chocolate Peak in the Wellsville Mountain Range in Northern Utah.

The new Hilleberg Allak

The Hilleberg Allak

I really like tents with two doors - because they have plenty of ventilation.  The Allak is a true, honest-to-goodness all season shelter.  

I don't care if you live in the humid Southeast, the rainy Northwest, the hot and dry Southwest, or the Rockies, this tent will handle it!

It can open up as shown to get an incredible amount of ventilation, or it can be zipped closed tight when Mother Nature is unleashing her wrath...

It will handle snow loading as well as high winds mixed with rain and snow.

What a great all-round tent!