We had our second annual Uinta Trip this year Aug 25-28th. Only Don and Jacob Wall and I went but it was a great trip!
The hike in seemed a bit quicker than last year, maybe since the weather was a little more cool and I think our packs weren't AS heavy.
We got in around mid day on the 25th and set up camp. While hiking along Betsy Lake to our camping spot, we saw SEVERAL fish swimming the shoreline and feeding throughout most of the lake - a good sign!
Got camp set up and headed to Betsy for fishing. We all caught a few pretty quickly - and good size too, for the Uinta lakes (about 9-10 inches). Took the fish back and fried em up, SOOO good!
Next day we went to one of our favorite lakes for fishing, you're sure to catch a lot, even if they're typically smaller (6-8 inches). We caught quite a few, pretty quick and Wall (Jacob) and I built a small fire right there and cooked em up and ate em. Don came over after a while with a fish of his own and cooked and ate too. Then we moved down the lake a bit and fished some more... it was HOT fishing. EVERY cast I was pulling one in... LITERALLY! It helped that I was using worms. Wall got his dragonfly hook caught about 25ft up a spruce tree and I scurried up to get it out for him... he didn't really want me to or care that he was going to lose it, and after I did, I wish I hadn't bothered... my hands were covered in sap the rest of the day. After a few hours of catch and release fishing, we decided to head back to camp for a nap. We took the long way back (for reasons still beyond my capacity to explain - guess the Walls didn't want to scale the cliff we came down to get to the lake). But eventually, we made it to camp and had a good rest.
The weather was holding out wonderfully!!! We were certain we would be getting stormed on every afternoon and freeze every night, according to the weather reports, but the nights were warm (probably high 40's) and the days were pretty warm (mid 70's at least) and sunny.
That afternoon, Wall and I decided to head out to my favorite like - we've named it "Walter's Hole" - in honor of the 18" trout (Walter) I caught there this year.
I would have probably released him, but we didn't have a camera with us at the time, and knew no one would believe me that I caught him, so I cleaned him and made the long walk back to camp for pictures, and to fry him up and eat him!
Next day, Friday, was much cooler. We started up West Granddaddy Mountain in the morning and made the LONG hike up to the peak. It was a fun hike and at the top, and we complemented the hike with an ongoing (shouting) argument about where Shadow Lake was... even with maps of the area, since it's the only lake you can't see from the top, the three of us all had our own idea about where it was in the valley... Needless to say, it's impossible to convince the three people on the face of the planet that are NEVER wrong, that they're actually wrong. Fortunately, I WASN'T wrong... as always. And even after I proved it indisputably, Don still disputed me. :) I guess next year we'll have to have one person hike to the top and another hike to Shadow with a flare gun and settle it once and for all. :)
At the top we built a monument creating the actual peak of the mountain... there were several other man made peaks up there, but ours was the highest.
On our way down we rolled some rocks cause, boys never grow out of that. We got a few big ones to go - it was great!
The hike down was FAST... for me. I pretty much ran, hopped and skipped down the rocky 60%+ grade face of the mountain. The next half hour or so I watched as Wall and Don slowly made their way - hoping I didn't have to hike back up if one of them got injured. Wall, being as accident prone as he is, did get injured, but it wasn't too bad, just banged up his shins, and he was still able to walk. That night we caught our last fish (Don and I) as the rain and hail started to fall. The clouds kept coming in darker and thicker. By 10pm or so (maybe it was even earlier), we decided nature won, and we turned in for the night, hoping to get some sleep before our hike out in the morning.
This was that afternoon, during the rain and hail:
The night was brutal.
The lightning kept getting closer and closer and the thunder was literally earth shaking as it echoed between the mountains we were camped at the base of. We had some VERY close strikes, but the closest must have been maybe 20-30 ft away, we were in the tent and it blinded Wall and I for probably a minute - I've never seen anything so bright in my life, brighter than staring at a welding arch, or even the noon day sun!!! It was a BIG bolt, and what was worse, it sent three, almost simultaneous, bolts that shattered the night sky and shook the earth around us. It echoed a good minute of the nearby mountains and left us wondering if a tree would be coming down on us, or if another bolt was on its way even closer. Fortunately, although we did have a few more blinding close ones, that was the worst of it. We made it through the night and were able to break camp and hike out without getting rained on.
The hike out was nice. I'm pretty sure our packs were actually lighter going out than coming in this year (unlike last year), and at least we didn't have the fate of two hikers we saw on our way out. There were two guys, looking about as miserable as drowned rats, holding waterlogged socks over a sterno can, maybe 10 feet off the trail. They must have tried hiking in the night before and got caught in the storm - I wonder if they even bothered going through with their trip as planned.
I'm glad we got out of there when we did because the rains kept coming and the clouds seemed like they'd be rolling in for at least the rest of that day.
Favorite quotes of the trip:
"It's just one-hundred, maybe two-hundred, yards up ahead."
"I gave Walter a nice final resting place on the mountain, he can see his home from there."
"I see you brought a luxury item." - "I see you brought one too."
"The clouds are moving that direction, towards Shadow."
Looking forward to next year's trip!!!!!!
