I’m don’t know how many times I have apologized for how much time I leave in between posts but here it goes again.
I’m sorry I haven’t written anything in while. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is off to a great 2018. At the end of the last post the Fellowship had assembled in the Mormon capital of Salt Lake City.
On the morning of August 17th, we awoke in Utah not knowing if we were going to make our way to the Wind River Range in Wyoming or the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. When KFisch had started sending emails out organizing Broventure 2017 in January all camp sites and cheap places to stay in the path of Totality had already been snatched up by “Eclipse Nerds”. So he pinpointed our trip to national forests and wilderness areas in these two areas to avoid having to get permits or secure camp sites. The “Pro” to this strategy is that it is cheaper and we can be more flexible with where we go to ensure good weather for the eclipse. The “Con” is that if a lot of people have the same idea then it might be hard to find campsites for six people as they are a basically on a “First Come” basis.
As we all sat around the living room in our AirBnb, a stone’s throw from the Utah State Capital, we waited for KFisch to jump back and forth between weather reports of the Western Wyoming and the Central Idaho trying to decipher what the weather will be like in five day’s time. It’s funny thinking back now how little other’s assisted in the decision making process. Considering the fact that if there was weather or even clouds the whole reason for people flying out and taking vacation would have been ruined as the eclipse would not have been viewable. Finally, KFisch announced he thought we would have better luck in Idaho. Nobody disputed or challenged his advice and we geared up for a trip to the Sawtooth Mountains. After we ate breakfast in the Temple Square where I was reminded that Mormons don’t drink caffeine (I was the ignorant asshole who ordered coffee) we stopped for some last minute supplies and a map of the Sawtooth Wilderness before we started the 6 hour drive North.
I drove Jason in my Subaru while the other four piled into their rental car. While I thought that KFisch had a hiking route picked out to follow in both the Sawtooths and Wind River Range, in fact the four people in the other car spent some of their trip researching trailheads and trails to figure out exactly where we were going hiking. As we entered the totality zone Traffic Warnings started appearing alerting the public of high traffic congestion for the weekend and to take measures to avoid if necessary. As we entered the Sawtooth Wilderness Area there were vast stretches of field quarantined off with red tape and giant signs stating “Eclipse Viewing Area”. Good thing there were directions on where to view the eclipse. Not sure if the average person would know to look “up”. While I’m sure it was important for the authorities to try to control the massive influx of people into these otherwise non-populous areas, it was still comical to see those signs.
We camped out that night near Pettit lake in the Sawtooth Wilderness and experienced the coldest night of the summer. The temperature definitely dropped into the 30s causing us to take a long time to get out of our tents the next morning as we were not prepared for such cold weather. After we finally crawled out of our tents, threw on our warm weather clothes and ate breakfast, we stashed my car near the Pettit Lake Trailhead, crammed all our gear and bodies into the rental car and drove to Redfish Lake. We bought tickets to “ferry” across across the lake to cut off 6 miles of trail and started our trip into the backcountry. The plan was to hike from Redfish Lake to Pettit Lake but we still weren’t sure of our route exactly.
Here is a map of a pretty close representation of where we hiked, slept and witnessed totality.
When we started hiking KFisch and Chris took off speeding ahead (a regular occurrence) with Frank and I pairing up in the middle and Jason and KT slightly behind us. While the pairings varied from time to time, more often than not it was KFisch and Chris way out in front and the rest of us a good distance behind in some order.
The Sawtooth Mountains are aptly named. As we hiked mile after mile, we enjoyed the jagged rock features thrusting out of the ground towering thousands of feet above us. The rock is mostly grey with sharp spindle shaped rock formations covering the horizon resembling, you guessed it, a saw.
An ongoing worry was finding a campsite big enough for three tents, close to water and relatively close to the trail. Because of this we tended to avoid “popular” lakes assuming all the campsites would already be taken. As we approached the first pass to get to Baron Lake, the decision was made to trailblaze over the pass a different direction to cut the distance to Braxon Lake, a less popular lake. A decision that would send us on a steep trek up a gravely surface with no trail to guide us. Only the knowledge that we had to get over the ridge and down the other side. Definitely sketchy at times as we were making our way down the steep downgrade on the backside, walking over snowfields trying not to slip but I enjoyed the off-trailing and the challenge of finding our way down to water.
We camped at a lake above Braxon Lake where we easily found space for three tents with only one other person anywhere close to us. Everyone except Frank took a bath in the lake to wash off our sweat from the day. As most alpine lake baths go, it was freezing and AMAZING. Highly recommended. We took care of our nightly chores: Setup tents, make/eat dinner and stargaze before turning in for the night.
The next morning we broke camp and continued walking down the mountain side to try to meet up with the trail we had abandoned the afternoon before. We walked passed Braxon Lake where KFisch took to his namesake and fly fisched. We were hoping to have some fresh fish for dinner but he didn’t catch anything worth keeping. We found our back to the trail, backtracked a little back over the same pass from the day before (this time we followed the trail) and continued onto Lower Cramer Lake where we camped for the night. Again, because of the fear of not finding a campsite, we stopped at Lower Cramer Lake instead of continuing on to Upper Cramer Lake which was known to be more popular and picturesque.
The third day was decision day. How far do we want to push it and where are we going to witness the Solar Eclipse? The first two days we covered around 10 miles a day. And by early afternoon on the third day we had traveled another 5-7 miles and stopped to discuss our options. Option 1: Hike another 4-5 hours covering another 7ish miles with two more mountain passes. We would get to see more lakes, cover more ground and set us up to climb a peak to see the eclipse early the next day. However, This would put us at risk of not finding a campsite because we would be getting there late and also put us further from the finish line causing a longer final day of hiking. Or Option 2: Hike another hour or two, go over zero mountain passes and setup camp early and relax. This would force us to exit on a different trail the following day not allowing us to see two beautiful lakes but ultimately making day 4 shorter.
Frank and I were probably the only ones intrigued with going the long way. Frank wanted to see Toxaway Lake and Alice Lake while I wanted to climb a peak before seeing the eclipse. But it didn’t take much to convince us that relaxing for the rest of the afternoon before it got dark would be worth it. The group decided to take the short route
Within two hours of deciding to go the short route we had setup camp near Rendezvous Lake. Almost immediately after dropping our gear, everyone (except for Frank) went for a swim. An amazingly warm lake that we were actually able to swim around in (instead of just jumping in and jumping out to clean off). It was a great afternoon of relaxing, swimming and playing camp games. That evening KFisch, Jason and I stayed up to enjoy the stars and watch the Milkyway Galaxy move across the sky. Taking the short route turned out to be the best idea of the trip.
The next day we woke up and broke camp early to get to our viewing spot for The Great American Eclipse…