2007 Fishing Trip

The 2007 fishing trip to the Wind River Mountains is complete. And what a trip it was! Every year the trip seems to be a little different, and this year was no exception. Three first timers--Kyle, Jay and Ron--and two wiley veterans, Eric and me. For the first time ever, the skies rained on us--EVERYDAY! Adversity? Yes. Challenging? Yes. Fun? Most definitely.

Day 1: The hike in to our camp was the toughest ever. 12 grueling miles. None tougher than "Ball Buster Ridge" itself. We paused for a break at the top of the ridge to catch our breath and take in the breath-taking (figuratively and literally) views. Most of the hike in took place under the protective cover of a layer of clouds, which was much appreciated as it kept the temperature relatively low (70s). But at one point the clouds dropped some genuine pea-sized balls of hail! Who would have thought of hail in August? . . . Well, it happens! In the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming anyway. Speaking of anyway . . . Anyway, about 10 hours after we started our hike in, we arrived at our campsite, nestled adjacent to Lake Hobeecheechee. Almost immediately upon our arrival, the rain began. It only lasted about a half hour, then we were able to start a campfire and cook some dinner. The sustanance was much needed after that bear of a hike in. No pun intended.

Day 2: We awoke fairly stiff but more than ready to start catching some fish. After a quick breakfast, Kyle, Ron, Eric and I were ready to go find some big fish at some nearby, unnamed lakes. Jay decided to stay behind to fish Lake Hobeecheechee and allow time for his wounded heel to heal. After little success at our first two lakes, we stopped for a ten minute nap and some lunch prior to hiking a 600 foot rock wall to another unnamed lake at an elevation of 10,800 feet. While resting Kyle and I checked our resting pulses: mine was 68, Kyle's was 96! With Kyle well rested, we began our ascent to the aforementioned lake. We finally made it to the long sought lake after a brief bout with the rain. While Eric, Ron and I circumnavigated the entire lake catching just one fish, Kyle remained at the outlet. In retrospect, that decision was very wise and energy-conserving. Upon meeting back up with Kyle and with our morale as low as imaginable, the fish suddenly began to bite! First on my line, then shortly thereafter, on everyone's line! At one point, Ron, Kyle and I all had a fish. In fact, while Ron was trying to take a picture of a fish I was catching, Eric helpfully shouted, "Ron, set the hook!" Ron did set the hook and landed the fish. This hour to an hour and a half of fishing was simply spectacular! Many fish were caught. I was fortunate enough to catch the biggest fish that day, a fine birthday gift in my mind. We headed back to camp, satified and excited to exchange stories with Jay. A very slow-starting but great day of fishing.

Day 3: Eric, Ron and I headed to investigate some new lakes again. Jay and Kyle stuck around Lake Hobeecheechee and kept and eye on our camp. At Spider Lake, we found many, many, many spiders on the boulders along the westside of the lake. We also found some fish! The fishing was steady all morning. We caught some good-sized fish, especially Ron. The rain came in around lunch time and we found shelter under a large rock. This gave Eric and I time to contemplate our plan for the afternoon. The rest of the day we spent investigating some other nearby, unnamed lakes with little success fishing. . . until we got to the inlet of the lake just above Lake Hobeecheechee. We were there around 5pm in the evening, and we had some good fun catching some very big fish and trying to catch others we could see, but had trouble hooking. We ambled back to camp fairly exhausted and ready for dinner. We exchanged stories of the day, and thanked Kyle and Jay for keeping our camp as dry as possible during the rains of the day.

Day 4: We decided to pack up camp in the morning, and set out for Raft Lake. About 45 minutes into the hike, we spotted an unmarked trail that we thought was a short cut to Raft Lake. We knew it was a risk, but we took it anyway. And as Robert Frost once said, "I took the road less travelled . . . and that has made all the difference." Yes, the path was less travelled, but it saved us at least 2 hours of hiking! Yippee! We settled in at Movo Lake around 1pm in the afternoon. Kyle, Jay, and I wet our lines in the lake as Ron and Eric fixed lunch. Jay caught a good sized Cutthroat trout and some other smaller ones, but for the most part we had little luck. After lunch, we headed down stream to Raft Lake. Upon arriving at the inlet, we all waded into the water and got our lines wet. We landed some pretty good sized fish, including our first Rainbow trouts, but once again the rain hit. we headed for the trees for shelter and waited about 30 minutes for the rain to pass over. Once again we casted into the inlet and caught some more fish, but another storm on the horizon we climbed back to our camp. However, we were not successful in making it back to camp prior to getting utterly doused by another rain shower. The rest of the evening was spent eating all the food in our packs and playing cribbage in the tent as the rain continued to return.

Day 5: We headed out of camp in the morning, focused on making it to the truck! Ron and Kyle left first, because Ron was not feeling very well. His stomach was upset (a tremendous understatement). It did not take long for Jay, Eric and I to catch up to Ron and Kyle. Seeing how much Ron was hurting, I volunteered, like the Good Samaritan, to hike ahead of the group to get to the top of "Ball Buster Ridge", stow my pack, and then hike back down to carry Ron's pack for him as we hiked back up the mountain. Well, everyone has heard about the "best laid plans". As it turned out, I got lost, hiking about 55 minutes out of the way. Ron, Jay, Kyle and Eric all beat me to the top of the ridge. Eric was minutes from way from going back to search from me when I came into his view. From the top of ridge, we hiked out another 4.5 miles and finally made it to the truck! Something that couldn't come soon enough as far as Kyle was concerned. On the drive out of the mountain Eric spotted a Moose bathing in a tarn. An hour later we were celebrating in the Lander Bar (The LB to Lander locals). The fresh burgers and beer never tasted SO GOOD!

It was a great trip. Not the best fishing we've ever had. Not the best weather we've ever had. But it was very fun, and the difficulty of the hiking and the adversity of the weather gave us all a sense of great accomplishment as we reminisced about the trip over a burger and beer at The LB.