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Well, This is was my first real backpacking trip for quite some time. And it turned out to be a wonderful trip. One word to sum up the trip: Wet. There was mud everywhere on the trail and when there wasn't mud there was snow. My feet were basically wet for 3 days straight (my shoes were my tevas and fivefigners). Luckily during the day it was warm enough not to be an issue.
We got to Christmas meadows around 12:30
Very nice. Awesome that you had it all to yourself too (except Dan in stealth mode). It still just blows me away that the snow situation is so much lighter in Amethyst Basin just over the ridge. Even up at Amethyst Lake at 10,800 there wasn't much snow left. I could have done the entire hike without even stepping in any.
On the dog warmth, I pack a piece of a Thermarest Z-lite pad. It's that accordian style foam pad. I just cut it into two pieces, one that's about 1/3 of a pad and the other 2/3. If I bring one dog, I bring the small piece, 2 dogs, the larger piece and if I bring all 3 dogs I bring the whole pad. It does wonders at keeping them warm and it gives you a nice soft pad to sit on around the fire. If its really cold I'll sometimes bring along dog coats and/or little chunks of fleece blanket for them. Sounds heavy but they pack their share.
I wanna get the Z for myself too actually, been eying it ever since I went up to lake blanche. I never though my prolite plus was a heavy pad until I started weighing stuff lol. On this trip I took an old short foam pad similar to the Z
Very nice trip report! :2thumbs: Sounds like fishing is picking up everywhere. :nod:
I seem to always learn something each trip, and end up getting gear that I need to make it a comfortable trip. Dogs get cold, so putting that layer between the ground and them for sure helps. All my friends pack in pads or blankets for their dogs. We had 5 dogs with us over the weekend. I had a pair of gaiters that I bought in Alaska, but they were shredded, not usable, so I picked up with my dividend from REI the Mountain Hardwear Nutshell gaiters. They worked great out there this weekend. My boots are gore-tex, and with the gaiters, snow, mud, water, did not matter, my feet stayed dry. Just a suggestion on those really heavy snow years, where you have to cross piles and the mud is thick. It is gonna be wet up there until the snow melts out and the trails dry out. I personally prefer to cook my trout whole, and use a fork to pull half the fish from the bones, and then just pull the whole skeleton out with one pull. This makes it so you can eat the meat bone free, and no fileting required. I do not use butter, I use olive oil, slices of lemon, and salt and pepper. The oil keeps your fish so moist, as olive oil does with all meats. Don't forget to eat, especially on those big ones, the cheek meat. Especially on Brookies, good stuff right there. :cool2:
I just figured out how to post my route from my GPS :D
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip....c0ca695fd2afbb
Let me know if there's a better way to do this. I uploaded my file to GPS visualizer then added it to the everytrail website.
I've never actually tried cooking the whole fish before. Granted I don't fish too often and haven't actually gutted a fish in a long time. I'm gonna give that a go...I always stick to just lemon pepper. I'll bring some olive oil with me next time for sure. I've got some gaiters myself...basic cheapos but they work well for winter stuff so they should handle backpacking too. the problem is the shoe ordeal. I have 3 pair of Merrel boots that all rock..but I just can't wear any of them. I have really bad/weird feet. I've gone through every footbed/orthotic in the book and until i discovered the barefoot stuff I could never do more than walk w/out pain in a shoe. Perhaps now that I haven't worn boots for a long time my feet are stronger and maybe they won't have pain anymore. I've thought about that a lot lately...I might break them out of the closet and see one of these days. wow, tangent sorry haha. The teva thing worked out for me well. all I had to do was stand in a stream for a few seconds and my feet were clean and ready to rock and roll. and i could stomp through anything really w/out having to worry about it once i decided i didn't care if my feet were wet hahQuote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Nebz
Normally my friend Collin hikes in his Keens. But on this last trip he did gore tex Vasque trail runners. I have the Vasque Wasatch GTX boots that I backpack in. Really stable with heavy loads, and It took less than one trip, and they were perfect and broke in. I have some cheap sandals that weigh nothing that I pack in for camp shoes. Have you been to a foot specialist before? I bet with some good molded footbeds, boots would not be a problem for you. You just need to know what kind of foot you have, how does it contact the ground, high or low arch, and then you can dial in your fit. I am far more anal retentive about fitting my snowboarding boots, because I spend on average 90+ days a year riding in them. So I usually get footbeds at the same time for my backpacking boots. I have not gotten footbeds for my Vasques. Seems out of the box they have been killer!Quote:
Originally Posted by gloo
yep. I've been to specialists..many...had surgery on one foot even a long time ago. My feet have low arches, overpronation, and had a bone that shouldn't exist removed from one and repaired tendons. I've had super expensive custom molded orthodics down to the cheap superfeets and the generic brands like dr scholls. Strangely enough, my snowboarding boots are the only boots I have right now that I can actually use w/out pain myself - and I do have a pair of superfeets stuck in there. course the amount of walking i do in them is limited lol. I have learned over the years that they (superfeet) will work just as good as anything else I have tried. I now have a forefoot strike on the ground thanks to barefooting..but i definitely used to heel strike. I have been eying some of the inov-8 shoes as they might make a good fit for meQuote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Nebz
Awesome pics! Looks like a fun trip.
Excellent report! :cool2:
Well, you have found my favorite place on this planet, and I have lived in the desert, mountains, an island in the East China Sea, Scandanavia, and both coasts. Ryder just keeps that number one spot no matter where I go. McPheter is close by and certainly worth the small trip over to it.
I have a book the NPS puts out, EXPLORING THE AMERICAN WEST. In it there are some original photos from the 1867 King geological survey and has a photo marked just "peaks of the Uintas" or something like that. But, it is clearly a Ryder lake scene. You are one of the few to have seen that exact scene.