Wind River Backpacking Trip 2013

Phenomenal [fi-nom-uh-nl] adjective.
1. Highly extraordinary or prodigious, exceptional.
2. Four days and 36 miles in the Wind River Range.

Seriously, wow. This was (one of) the best backpacking trips we've ever been on. Sheer granite peaks, strings of crystal clear lakes, and only three swats at mosquitoes. What more can you ask for in backpacking? Um, how about peaks over 13,000 feet? Yep, got em. Mystical mountains? Yes, Mordor is actually located here. Golden fish? Yes, in trout variety.

Bill and I loaded up Stewie and met up with our group of die-hards (my brother Josh, sister Niesh, and brother-in-law Leighton) in Idaho Falls. It was a quick trip east along the Hoback River and then on to Pinedale, Wyoming. Accessing the trail head required a one hour drive along an irritatingly persistent, teeth-jarring dirt road; but with every good thing comes a price. (Would not recommend low-clearance sedans making the venture.)

Here is the map of area we traversed, color coded by day. Because this blogging program is such a pain in the butt to work with photos, they are all (aside from the map) attached at the bottom, in semi-chronological order.

Day One: Feeling it Out, 8.7 miles

From Big Sandy Trailhead (9100') we had a late start on the trail at 3PM, but we easily covered our mileage up Freemont Trail, through Fish Creek Park, and past Dad's and Marm's Lakes (this didn't strike me as funny until I just listed them side by side and busted up). Our first camp was just below 10000' in a boulder field.  Bill and I broke a cardinal backpacking rule by packing canned food,  but this is our favorite meal in the wilderness and we didn't have time to dehydrate:

Extra Awesome Burritos: 1 small can corn, 1 can Embasa salsa, 1 can black beans, 1 pack of precooked rice, 1 large can chicken, lots of cheese. Mix, heat, and eat in tortillas. We doubled the batch and had plenty for five people. And, viola, the packs were 5 lbs lighter!

Day Two: Climbing Up, 8.2 miles

A chilly morning greeted us as we navigated our first pass, Washakie, at 11611', which was a rigorous climb up into what felt to be our grand entry into the Wind mountains. The wind whipped up and we dropped off the other side of the pass to rest by the lake below and snack on some gorp and salami, awestruck at the granite cliffs surrounding us.

The rest of the day included a river crossing and a gradual ascent up to Valentine Lake, 10400'. We found some tiny but tasty huckleberries along the way.

Hanging the bear bag proved to be challenging that night, and Leighton suffered a minor mishap when our supporting branch broke off as we tried to hoist the heavy bag up (via pulling the rope and pushing up on the bag from underneath it). The branch snapped, and L got a good sideswipe to the face from the heavy, falling bag. Luckily, no serious harm done.

Day Three: Striding it Out, 11.2 miles and 2 passes

After due consideration we decided we'd rise early enough to let the moonlight guide some of our hike. Up at 4 AM, no one complained much as we rubbed the sleep out of our eyes, swung our packs on, and headed up the second pass, onto Lizard Head Trail. The climb was more gradual than anticipated, and probably less intimidating in the gray dawn hours. As we crested the top, approaching but not quite reaching 12000', we were greeted with a golden sunrise. The ridge hike along the Lizard Head was a bit hilly, with jaw-dropping views of the Continental Divide to the west. The well-delineated trail ultimately dissipated and we resorted to following rock cairns for a few miles. Coming off Lizard Head we spotted our one and only black bear who dashed off several hundred feet below us. It was a fast and steep decent from the ridge into Lizard Head Meadows, back to 10000', where we hunkered down for an afternoon nap.

The Lizard Head Meadows are a gorgeous, lush setting with the meandering Popo River and the Cirque of the Towers beckoning in the background. There was plenty of good fishing to be had, and I added a few trout to our lunch. (Our Grandpa Jack still talks about flying over the Winds in his Cesnna prop plane and looking down to see the lakes a golden hue due to the abundance of golden trout living there.) Once our bellies had been filled and our feet had rested up, we loaded up again, and headed toward the towers.

The Cirque has reportedly drawn trad climbers since the 1940s and has been described as an "alpine climber's Disneyland"...interpret at will. I, for one, was happy to be on the ground gazing up. I was also happy not to be carrying 50 extra pounds of rope and cams. But we passed plenty of people on the trail who were eagerly racing to the base of the peaks to start the ascent up them.

When we reached Lonely Lake, nestled just beneath the Towers, we decided to waylay making camp and head up Jackass Pass before we called it a day. It's a short, steep climb, but at the summit, we were smacked in the face with cold winds and horizontal rain, so we hunkered beneath a conveniently sloped boulder a little higher on the mountain. We waited out the rain for an hour or so, then plunged off the other side of Jackass and onto our next challenge: the boulder garden.

At the base of Jackass Pass sits Arrowhead Lake. This is basically a booby trap for those brave enough to try and reach the Cirque. To navigate the lake requires a scramble over the massive boulder field bordering the western edge of the water. Giant boulders, with no real clear-cut method of passage, make for an adrenaline-spiked scramble, which--for us-- included hoisting the dog up and over several spots. The rain had slicked the surface of the boulders, so that spiced up our passage as well. (Unbeknownst to us until much later, there is a hiker's trail to the east of the lake which is much less technical, and probably way less fun. The path we took is known as the climber's trail.)

Once safely beyond the boulder field, the rain and scrambling had slowed us up and dusk was setting in. We set up camp at the next flat spot and settled into a rousing game of Mormon Bridge, a card game which probably doesn't exist outside of Idaho and Utah, but which should, because it's obviously very fun. (I actually just googled this, and it's also known as "Oh Hell", "Screw Your Neighbor", and "Oh Jerusalem". There you go.)

Day Four: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow, 7.3 miles

More gorgeous lakes and peaks along the gradual decent from Big Sandy Lake to the parking lot. Blistered and bone-tired, we took the packs off and loaded up into the truck for the long, reminiscent drive home. 

Cass, Josh, Leighton, Taniesha,Bill, and Stew-dog

At the top of Washakie Pass.

Payson Peak. 

Approach to Lizard Head Trail.

The last part of the ridge, Lizard Head Trail.

Lizard Head Peak, with the Cirque of the Towers in the background.

Fish for lunch. 

The Cirque, with Pingora Peak on the right.

The Boulder Problem at Arrowhead Lake. 

Last glimpses of Big Sandy Trail.

Stewie, get in the back of the truck. 

Homemade Pesto is the Besto

It's getting exciting around here. The garden is starting to produce in full force, and it's time to put up some food! Tonight, we made pesto with our basil and garlic.

Take these....

Put them in this...

And you get this!

We used this recipe, courtesy of the Food Network. 

Ingredients:
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup pine nuts
3 TBS garlic, chopped
5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups olive oil
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Put nuts and garlic in food processor, blend a bit. Add basil, salt, pepper. Slowly add oil as processor is running. Add cheese, process another minute. Eat, refrigerate or freeze. 

Mmmmm. I quadrupled the batch. 

Water water everywhere!

Woohoo, our new pump is in! That's right, we had to break down and buy a new well pump. Unfortunately the old pump started giving us problems earlier this summer. It started shutting itself down due to "overload" and was getting harder and harder to get started up. The pump was super efficient and designed for off-grid living, but unfortunately I don't think it was installed correctly in the first place. I did a few calculations when we started having problems and it turns out the installers undersized the wiring pretty significantly so the voltage at the pump was probably too low for the pump's entire life. It lasted 7 years this way; not too bad, but less than I would expect from a $3000 pump. The pump is likely salvageable, but it is produced by a German company and getting local service for it is nearly impossible. Also, the thought of spending $500 on appropriately sized wire and needing to dig a trench for the new cable was enough to make me rethink the options.

The choice of submersible pump for the off-grid home owner should not be taken lightly. There are a number of options out there:

• Low Voltage high capacity pumps like our previous Lorentz or the Grundfos SQFlex are designed to run directly off solar panels or batteries.  They tend to very efficient, but the upfront cost for the pump, heavy wiring, and optional solar panels can be significant.  The other downside is that they tend to be more complex, or at least rarer, and finding someone to service them can be a challenge.  Since we only got 7 years out of our last pump, I wasn't willing to go down this road again.  
• Incorporating a cistern is often times a good option for off-gridders.  Cisterns can be filled using solar slow pump or a large gas pump if the water source is close enough to the surface.  We may get a cistern for summertime watering some day, but since we don't already have one -- and we needed water now -- we didn't really consider this as a viable option.  
• The other main option is more traditional 120V and 240V pumps.  There are a variety of models to choose from, they are available locally, and they are relatively cheap.  But, they use more power.  Off-gridders need to consider not only how much the energy it takes to run the pump, but also the amount of energy it takes to start it up.  

In the end, we went with a 240V, 1/2hp 10gpm Franklin pump.  Our well recharge rate is ~10 gpm and our old pump (at 6-7 gpm) was getting worked  pretty hard when irrigating the wind break, so 10gpm pump is a pretty good match. The new pump uses about 1400watts.  I'm not sure what the startup watts are, but our 3500 watt (6000 watt surge) inverter doesn't seem to have any trouble getting it going.  To reduce number of startups, we got a second pressure tank.  We now have two 45 gallon pressure tanks, set at 25-45psi, so we get about 25 gallons of water per pump cycle.  The pump will cycle quite often in the summer when we're irrigating, but only a few times a day in the winter when we don't have much energy to spare.  

So...are we going to regret the decision not to buy a super-efficient solar pump?  I actually don't think we will. We are most likely to regret the decision in the winter since that's when we have the largest energy deficit.  But in the winter we don't really use a lot of water. On a big day, we might use 100 gallons of water/day. Here is how much energy it takes pump to move 100 gallons :

• Lorentz solar pump: 100 gallons @ 7gpm = 0.238 hours of pumping * 500 watts = 119 watt-hours
• Franklin 0.5hp pump: 100 gallons @ 10gpm = 0.167 hours of pumping * 1400 watts = 233 watt-hours

Based on these numbers, the Franklin will use about twice as much energy, but...120watt-hours is really pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. One $300 solar panel would more than make up the difference.  The difference in price between the pumps is on the order of thousands! There was also an additional energy expense associate with the Lorentz pump.  Since we needed a 48v version to match our water needs and our system runs on 24V, we needed to incorporate a 24-48v converter.  This converter consumed 3watts at all times -- ~75watt-hours per day, so the realized difference in energy is actually smaller than the example above. With the new pump, we do need to run a 240V auto tranformer 24 hours a day, but I've been doing that right along anyway for power tools in the shop.   Once we can move the big generator over to the shop, I will likely rewire the transformer to run only during the pump cycles.

To make a long story short...No, I don't think we'll regret the decision.