Last Day in the Wind Rivers 2021

 

The last we were supposed to go on another hike to Silver Lake, but Leo's knees were not up to it and Megan and Jared wanted to get home sooner.  So instead, Megan, Kayli and I hiked around (in circles pretty much) till we were sure we would hit 50 miles by the time we had hiked out.  50 miles in 4 days has a nice ring to it, so I'm glad we hit it.

Leo and I left before everyone, as Leo was hiking slow due to his knees but Kayli and Brett didn't take long too catch up.  Brett was nice and took a bunch of stuff off my backpack and carried it the rest of the way for us.  I had been carrying the bulk of our gear because of Leo's knees.

Its crazy though, the first day, I felt exhausted and my feet hurt and my hip flexor was going crazy (I have early onset arthritis and a hip impingement in one of my hips) and I felt dead carrying around that pack.  By the last day, even carrying the extra weight, I felt great.  I wish we could have hiked to Silver Lake, but that's the breaks.  Kayli and Brett almost stayed but Brett was tired of sleeping on the ground. 

Dad's Lake

I think this is the Big Sandy River. 

And we made back to the very busy trailhead.  Kayli and Brett and Leo and I had carpooled together from Kemmerer.  Leo and I had left our car there in the church parking lot.  

And immediately outside of the mountains you hit the rest of Wyoming that I know and love so much!!!  I love how bleak and barren it is almost as much as the mountains.  Well, not that I'd go hiking for four days through that, but driving through is relaxing.  And we passed a lot of sheep but sadly no pictures.

And I think we had a picture but I'm not sure where it went but we did convince Kayli and Brett to stop and get Arctic Circle with us.  Ice cream is the best treat after all.