| September 20: Big Sandy Opening Trailhead | |
When I got out of my tent in the pre-dawn hours, I saw a completely clear sky over the towers and absolutely NO wind. Yea, it was chilly, but with no wind I was able to stand outside and eat breakfast while the sun filled the Cirque with light. It was a truly amazing scene to watch as all the towers came to life with the light from the sun.
After a brief dry-out of my gear, I was packed and headed south for Jackass Pass. The problem getting there this morning was one that I was vary familiar with by now – not being able to find the trail. For some reason, the USFS refuses to mark the trails at all, not a single blaze or cairn. Because of this, finding the trail (especially in the snow) proves troublesome at times. But it’s not just me, since many smaller, secondary trails have developed from all the other hikers who are hunting around for the main trail. The result is ugly, with many small trails crisscrossing and being unable to tell if the “trail” that you are on is the REAL trail, or just a well-defined herd path. So you follow the trail you are on, thinking this is the right trail only to have it peter out. Then you pull out the map, figure out your position and where the trail should be and your off to try and find the real trail. This becomes very time consuming and can really give you a headache.
What really makes this terrible is that all these secondary paths scar fragile wilderness areas. This could all be avoided with a few trail markers, or some well placed cairns. As it is, some hikers have built cairns to get you from a false trail area back to the real trails, which is helpful but misleading if you are already ON the trail! This morning, I actually found myself on THREE of these secondary trails before finally taking on of them back to the main trail, and finally up to Jackass Pass.
The climb itself was not bad at all, except for the fact that my legs were completely wasted. After six long days of backpacking with a head load, my uphill gear was broken and I was climbing with the speed and agility of a Duce and a Half. The cool thing about Jackass Pass wasn’t the climb, however, it was the descent. Passing by two mountain lakes, the trail weaved through several different large bolder fields, one of which required some very interesting moves to navigate through. The views were, once again, beyond description as I was staring at a whole new piece of the Continental Divide to the south.
After a long time of scrambling and boldering, I ended up on the shore of Big Sandy Lake, a nice large lake about five miles from the trailhead. The rest of the walk down was a piece of cake, and being in the forest was a nice change from the past few days. Since the terrain was mild, I was making some great time and I hit the trailhead just before noon! But this was only the beginning of the story for today.
You see, the outfitter in Pinedale was scheduled to pick me up right here at 8:00 tomorrow morning, but since it was only noon I didn’t want to spend almost a full day sitting around a trailhead waiting for a ride – I wanted pizza and beer! I also wanted a phone (to talk about the Patriots big win over the Jets) and I wanted a WARM place to sleep for the night. So I did what I always do, improvise. It was a 10-mile walk from the trailhead down this dirt road to the main road that runs into Pinedale. I put on my pack and was surprised to be walking for over an hour before the first car passed by. Fortunately, they were headed almost all the way down to the main road, so they dropped me off at the intersection where I needed to hitch into town.
At this moment, I knew I was in trouble- the main road looked exactly like the little dirt road that lead up to the trailhead. Still, it was early and I was willing to give it a shot. So I sat at that corner for three hours, and not ONE car was heading in the direction of Pinedale for the entire time. Ouch! Based on that, I made the decision to get my butt back to the trailhead rather than be stuck down on the road with no water. I managed to get a couple of rides and I made my way back up to the trailhead. I still had to walk about an hour, but I made it. By the time I got back to the picnic table where I started several hours ago, I was exhausted, dehydrated and emotionally drained. I literally wanted to cry. The wind was now howling, I was COLD and my visions of town comforts were now completely dashed.
I have a motto: “Things always work out on the trail”. This is probably the first time that I have been disappointed like this, I almost always get a ride where I want to go. And had it not been so windy out there on the road, I would probably still be sitting out there waiting for someone heading down into Pinedale. I will say this about my day; EVERYONE that drove past me stopped to see if I needed a ride somewhere, which was really nice to see. Unfortunately, none of them were heading where I wanted to go.
Anyway, so here I sit, exhausted from a long day of nothing. Its not really that cold tonight, but it is extremely windy and my body has had enough of fighting the cold right now. I started a small fire at my campsite for the night, which is very nice, and I am going to cook dinner soon, which should also warm me up a bit. Despite an anti-climatic day today, this trip has been truly amazing, and I am fortunate to be able to experience the Wind River Range.
-Chomp