Kermsuh and Ryder Lake, Uintas

[bigred72]

My son and I went up to the Uintas Friday afternoon. Last year we went up to the Red Castle Lakes and I decided to try somewhere else this year. We arrived at the Christmas Meadows trailhead around 5:30pm and made our way up to Kermsuh Lake just after it became dark. We set up camp, did some star gazing and called it a night.

In the middle of the night I started feeling real queasy and after a while jumped out of my hammock and began blowing chunks. If there were animals around, I am sure I scared them off. In the morning I checked out the art work I left on the ground and let's just say I now think I have food poisoning from the McD's in Evanston...."would you like fries with that"). During the hike up I started getting blisters on the back of my heels, not sure why... same shoes I have worn on several hikes with no problem...starting out to be a great trip.

Woke up Saturday morning and was amazed at the scenery, took several shots and started walking around the lake. Jeremy met up with me about a third of the way around, we sat around for a little bit, then walked the rest of the way around the lake back to our camp site. We packed up and headed out to Ryder Lake.

We stopped at the fork and saw another small group who said they were also headed up to Ryder Lake and then Kermsuh the next night. As we made our way up there were a group of four horses in the meadow. We arrived at Ryder Lake and I was blown away at the scenery. We set up camp. The weather had been completely clear, but we started getting some strong winds for several hours from all sides. My blisters by this time were blisters three times over.

We chilled out the rest of the night, luckily the winds stopped after the sun went down (as I expected). We woke up Sunday morning and found out there were at least four other groups of campers around us. We packed up, took some pictures and headed out.

As far as scenery is concerned, Ryder Lake rivals that of Red Castle Lake. The trail on the other hand was not the most enjoyable hiking I've ever done (sure the blisters didn't help). Overall, I enjoyed myself and was glad we took the trip.

Now where to go next year?

[asdf]

looks awesome
thanks for posting

[bigred72]

...oh and no sheep either. Didn't want to start any controversies

[ibenick]

...oh and no sheep either. Didn't want to start any controversies

Glad someone could learn from my mistake!

Nice TR, that's a pretty ambitious itinerary hitting both basins one day after another. I'm all about getting to one spot and being lazy.