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Post by Mio Muddler on Jun 26, 2016 15:44:46 GMT -8
Planning a trip to the Winds in mid August. My original idea was to hike out of Big Sandy TH over Hailey Pass and circle south to the Cirque and then back to the Big Sandy TH. I'm now thinking about switching things up and heading up to Titcomb Basin out of Elkhart TH and then circling back over Lester Pass and the Pole Creek Trail. I probably can't go wrong with either trip but I'm interested in any pros/cons of each the planned itineraries. Planning on spending 5 nights out. Would really like a chance at catching some golden trout and relative solitude is a bonus as well. Would one of these loops be more strenuous than the other? Better scenery? Other things I should know? Any information anyone could provide will be greatly appreciated.....thanks in advance.
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Post by swimswithtrout on Jun 26, 2016 16:39:45 GMT -8
They're both great loops but the Island Lake loop has better scenery and fishing. There's no place to find your Golden Grail down south.
An even better option would be the Jean Lk/ Peak Lk/ Knapsack Col/ Island lk route, the most scenic "short loop" in the Winds.
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Post by larrys on Jun 27, 2016 5:16:06 GMT -8
If you don't mind letting the Great Outdoor Shop in Pinedale shuttle your car a great trip we have done is drive your car to Green River Lake Trailhead and hike past Squaretop and take the trail up to Peak Lake. If Knapsack Col is not iced in then do as Dave said and drop down into the back of Titcomb Basin. If you prefer not doing that then just hike down to Jean Lakes (fish near outlets) and over to Island Lake. Set up camp in the first area you come to at Island Lake then dayhike up into Titcomb Basin. From Island Lake you can hike back to Elkhart Trailhead in 5-7 hours where the Great Outdoor Shop will have shuttled your car to.
Peak Lake is very scenic if you are a photographer and Island Lake is just spectacular. You should be able to do the trip above in five nights
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Post by Mio Muddler on Jun 27, 2016 6:13:11 GMT -8
How difficult would you rate the climb over Knapsack Col? My daughter and I have hiked in the Beartooth's and other mountain areas, but have little experience with off trail hiking. Is the route over Knapsack fairly obvious? Any idea of the snowpack on the east side? I like SWT's suggestion and have read some trail reports of that particular itinerary but they vary a great deal in their descriptions of the difficulty. Do you think it would be too hard to do the loop mentioned in the first post (Elkhart to Titcomb and then back over Lester Pass) in the time given? Thanks again for your advice.
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panatomicx
Trail Wise!
Less noise and more green
Posts: 496 
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Post by panatomicx on Jun 27, 2016 9:04:27 GMT -8
We did an Elkhart-Mary Lake-Tommy Lake-Lester Pass-Jean Lake-Peak Lake-Knapsack Col-Titcomb-Island Lake loop in August 2012, on the advice of SWT. A really special hike. It was our first off-trail hike in the Rockies, and we did OK. The route over Knapsack is fairly obvious, and we made it over without any problem. (We had no previous technical mountaineering experience). You can see in a couple of the photos the route up, and the scramble down the other side. The area to the right of the cornice was free of snow.
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Post by Mio Muddler on Jun 27, 2016 9:45:01 GMT -8
As always thanks for the information...really think I'm going to do this loop if I can convince my daughter. She's not fond of talus and boulder hopping. Could you try the link again.....it wasn't active and I got an error message. Thanks!
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panatomicx
Trail Wise!
Less noise and more green
Posts: 496
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Post by panatomicx on Jun 27, 2016 15:15:13 GMT -8
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Post by larrys on Jun 28, 2016 6:02:23 GMT -8
See our trip report in the Tetons/Wind River 2011 gallery. We started at Green River Lakes and our hardest section was the chute of boulders leading up to Peak Lake. We just started rock hopping and did not notice that there is a use trail over to the far left until we were about half way up. Made the going much, much better after we found it. Since you will have your daughter with you, you will have to assess your ability and hers to handle off-trail, but for me going off-trail really opened up my backpacking world. If you are careful with your footing it is really just hopping from one rock to the next, but finding the use trail will make things easier. staggsl.zenfolio.com/ |
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Westy
Trail Wise!
Diagnosed w/Post-Trail Transition Syndrome
Posts: 1,960
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Post by Westy on Jun 28, 2016 8:38:54 GMT -8
Planning a trip to the Winds in mid August. If visiting Pinedale please do not patronize the Rock Rabbit Café. They lionize terrorists as heroes by hanging a full color framed enlarged photo of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness as pall bearers for the Shankill Bomber. I was so enraged I simply walked out and handed their meal back. |
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Post by Mio Muddler on Jun 28, 2016 15:58:50 GMT -8
Great pictures...what a scenic hike. Looks manageable....did some rock hopping and talus scrambles in the Beartooths so we do have some experience with that. I'll keep it in mind to avoid the Rock Rabbit...with a brewpub in town probably wouldn't have had a need to step foot in there anyway. Thanks
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