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The Wind River Range: Cirque of the Towers

I packed my pack, thoroughly checking to make sure I wasn't leaving anything behind in the car, for Lil Bit would be heading home. I sent some unneeded items back with her to lighten my load.


We drove to the trailhead, bade Lil Bit farewell, and set off for the ever-nearing mountains: The Wind River Range. Many thruhikers claim this to be their favorite section, and I was eager to see what it was all about. The desert-like environment faded into trees as we climbed up into the hills. The afternoon wore on. A heavy pack and a headache made me drag, and we had only achieved 18 miles by evening. I set up camp under the watchful eye of some cows.


We were approaching grizzly bear country, and needed to be diligent about things that might attract bears to camp. I had already been living among black bears; I had hiked with those on every trail and knew their ways. But grizzly bears were a whole different beast: bigger, stronger, and seemingly more aggressive and defensive. We ate dinner away from camp to keep the smells at bay. I was not looking forward to the fact that I could no longer eat dinner in my tent, for fear of grizzlies coming to check out the lingering smells. If it was buggy or rainy, tough luck. I was just gonna have to eat with the mosquitoes and rain. Thankfully this night there were only a few pesky creatures flying around. I secured my Ursak (a bear-proof food bag) around a tree and climbed into my tent.


 

I continued ascending into the mountains the next day. It was hot, however the trees offered good shade. Trail logs are rare on the CDT, but I found one at a trailhead and counted up hikers. Doing some quick calculations and figuring, I guestimated there were about 300-500 thruhikers heading north on the CDT with me. My former bubble was about two weeks ahead, and a lot of unfamiliar names filled the recent pages.


Up a steep hill and then down. Quite by accident, I ended up on a shortcut. I followed cairns on a faint path. The trail wasn't on my guide app; I was just a floating dot in the middle of nowhere. A few times I got lost and turned around, and I had to backtrack to the nearest point I knew until I could spot another cairn marking the trail. After a while I lost the trail completely and decided to just tromp cross country. A grassy marsh, adventure over fallen trees, and easy stride across slabs of rock brought me to a random unmarked trail. I followed it, and it spit me out on the Cirque of the Towers route, a popular alternate a majority of thruhikers take. I was back on track.


I trudged along, excited for what was to come. The beautiful trail paralleled a river in a valley between mountains. Thick clouds built overhead and thunder rumbled in the distance, but it seemed like the storm was sticking to the other side of the ridge. I got cranky with hunger, and finally found Ranger, joining him for lunch by a creek. We ate as quickly as we could and tried to decide what to do about the threatening storm. According to my GPS it was only supposed to be a 20% chance of rain. The clouds said otherwise. We decided we would pack up lunch quickly, hike as high as we could until tree line, and then wait out the storm. We were behind our miles for the day and wanted to make the most of available time.


Hail

We didn't make it very far until rain drops started to fall. We located a decent enough spot and pitched my tent, making sure everything was pulled tight in preparation for the storm that was about to roll over. We huddled inside as the rain turned a hail and pounded the tent. As the storm started to fade, we packed up and continued on up the hill toward the pass.




Above tree line, it appeared another storm was rolling in on the other side of the pass. Thunder was distant and rumbling from cloud-to-cloud lightning. A large group of hikers fanned out, picking their way up the rocky, trail-less pass. I took off following the others, finding footing among loose rock and boulders on the steepest terrain I had encountered thus far on the CDT. Thankfully it was relatively short and within no time we were at the top, discovering a dark sheet of rain coming towards us.

Heading down the pass

Exposed and still trying to catch my breath, I quickly started to make my way down the other side, throwing on a jacket to shield myself from the nasty bite of the wind. The rain hit and soon turned to hail as a slew of hikers quickly raced down the mountain, careful not to fall on the slippery rocks. I was thankful my knee seemed to be ok as I shuffled under the sting of hail.



Shelter under a rock


At the bottom of the hill I tucked under a big boulder until the rain faded a little bit more. Unsure if we would make it to our original plan of 27 miles, we decided to try to get as far as we could. Afternoon turned into early evening. Continuing downward, we skirted a lake with dozens of tents scattered around in clumps. It was clearly a destination for weekenders and groups.


We climbed one more pass and paused to eat dinner on a big boulder over an alpine lake. We still had time and daylight to go a little further and make miles; we were five miles short of our goal. But it was already 6:45, and in the end we decided to just stay at the lake nestled below us. We set up tents on a large grassy patch next to the deep blue water.



 

The beauty started the moment I woke up. Dew clung to my tent. As I started a climb, I was in awe that something like this could exist. It was cut from the same mold as Yosemite; huge towers of granite guarded the lakes below. The mountains stood proud. Untold beauty. Unashamed beauty. Incredible.



My pace was as a snail because of the hills and the delay of stopping to take endless pictures. I headed down to Lonesome Lake, cradled in the hear of the Cirque. It was overcrowded with people. Supposedly there was no camping allowed within a quarter mile of the lake but people didn't seem to care or know about it. Annoyed, I stepped aside for other folks. I reminded myself that I didn't own the trial just because I thruhiked, and they were out enjoying nature just as I. I circumnavigated the lake and headed up a steep hill, stopping often to take in the views as I caught my breath. I crossed a patch of snow at the top and then started to make my way down. The prior day's hail had gathered in pockets between the rocks, making the descent slippery and steep.




Trail magic fruit

The trail was gorgeous, but the mosquitoes were biting so I didn't stop. The land leveled out and offered nice easy downhill. I was cruising along when a man hiking toward me asked if I was doing the CDT. Upon confirming it, he handed me a pear fruit cup. I was beyond excited and hopped onto the nearest rock to enjoy it. I continued on, passing more weekenders and more lakes until the alternate rejoined the CDT.


Thunder rumbled behind me. The storm rolled over the pass where I had been that morning. I listened to book, feeling good as I climbed a hill. The clouds were building overhead, and it looked like we would get part of the storm. There was no tree cover ahead but I wanted to keep going. The thunder was still safe distance and I was hitting a stride. But my lazy side was happy to use the storm as excuse to stop and watch a movie in the shelter of my tent. After all, once out of the trees I would be exposed to potential lightning. I set up my tent among singing mosquitoes who I promptly silenced. It was clear the storm was delayed so I headed out shortly after. However, soon I had my umbrella up against the rain and hail that poured down. It didn't look like the rain would stop anytime soon, and I was grumpy. I ticked off the miles as my feet got soaked. To my surprise the clouds started to clear out as evening began.



I stopped to make dinner before I got to camp. I found a tree that protected me from the thinning rain and watched a rainbow come and go. I felt better after dinner and hiked the remaining miles to camp. It was 8pm by the time I got there, under newly building clouds.


 


Everything was wet with dew the next morning. I hated packing up wet stuff and I was still sleepy so I was convinced to wait for the sun to peek over the hills and dry my stuff. I lounged about for an hour as the shadows receded ever-so-slowly. It was 8am by the time I gave up. The sun hadn't much time to work until I became impatient and packed up wet.


The trail headed up a hill. I wasn't expecting much elevation gain or loss as I hadn't looked at the map to prepare, but there were three good climbs that waited me for me in the day. Blue skies gave way to clouds. I thought for a moment that another storm would roll in but it never did. I found Ranger by overlook and joined him for lunch.



Soon the CDT met another trail that turned to Pinedale, WY. I wasn't looking forward to a 12 mile side trail to town, but we had decided to do the extra (non CDT) miles in order to avoid a long food carry. I turned amidst beautiful views and started down the trail, passing more and more weekenders as I closed in on the trailhead.



It was late by the time Ranger and I met in the parking lot, so we decided to stealth camp rather than hitch to town that night. We tucked away in the trees and watched straggling hikers and horseback riders finish their trips below thick clouds. Lightning darted nearly a mile away, but rain never fell. I tucked into my sleeping bag, eager to go to town the next day.



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