A weekend or two ago Cassie's parent's came down from Oregon to visit and go on a backpacking trip with us. It was also perfect timing since we had just gotten engaged. On Thursday night they arrived and spent all day with Cassie on Friday while I was at work. Saturday morning we took off for the High Uintas. This is a pretty unique mountain range since it runs east-west and has elevations above 13,000 ft. There was much research on which backpack would be the most fun and it was decided that a place called Naturalist Basin offered the best opportunities for fun and scenery. Mojo came with us on this trip and had to pack in his own food and gear. It worked well since it slowed him down. I was able to attach a leash to his pack and connect it to my backpack which resulted in what we call "Mojo assisted walking" meaning he is pulling so hard he makes walking less effort or at least that's the idea. It doesn't really pan out so well when he's pulling you over a rocky trail faster th
an you want to go, but then it's still better than leaving the poor guy with friends. The hike in was about 5 miles with 400 ft of total elevation gain at around 10,000ft (though the
trail went up and down a bit and everyone agreed it was hard enough for the day). We arrived at a little known lake called Everman Lake which is off a little hard to find side trail. It was fantastic with a great campspot in a grove of Pine trees. That evening we had beef stroganof and were not suprised that it started getting cold quite fast after the sun set. We climbed into our sleeping bags before 9pm and spent the evening snuggled up in our warm bags.
The next morning we awoke to frost and everyone ran for the little bit of sunlight that poked over the mountains. eventually we ate and got our day packs on for a hike to a bunch of lakes that were at about 11,000 ft. Mojo was super excited about the rivers on this trip since they
have introduced trout in them. The water was so clear he could see them swimming and he spent most of the trip barking,splashing and generally causing a racous in those streams and lakes. The hike was spectacular with over 5 lakes and great vistas of scree mountain peaks. We even saw some goats on a ridge. We ate a leasurly lunch by a lake and goofed off taking pictures before we started following a stream that would us back to camp.
This little stream was no bore as it cascaded down multiple quatzite waterfalls and meandered through grassy fields. We were all in awe that a little stream could be so amazing. That night we
went back to
camp and had a yummy meal of salmon and veggies. Again the cold set in fast and we all ran for the comfort of our sleeping bags. The next morning we broke camp and began the hike back to the car. After three miles Mojo decided that he'd been robbed of his light pack because even though he'd eaten all his food we packed lots of trash into his pack to make ours lighter. Well I took his pack for the last two miles so I guess I carried the weight anyway. (Mojo might be stubborn sometimes but unfortunately he's not a very good mule).
Well we eventually made it back to the car and celebrated being back in civilization with some smoked trout and smoked cheddar. Then, Cassie's parents took us out to a great celebratory dinner at Sundance which was much enjoyed by all. Thanks Leo and Dottie!!!
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