Hiking Dude Blog

A short, brisk hike down the mountain and we were back in civilization, taking showers in Buffalo, WY. We had the afternoon to explore the small town that just happened to be holding its 'Crazy Days' event - basically a sidewalk sale. My highlight was meeting this real, live, Wyoming cowboy selling lemonade with his little brother!
It was a super week with great weather having storms only at night, fun people, plenty of wildlife, and majestic views.

We spent the morning fishing after another night of intense lightning and rain. The fish were off and we caught very few but the scenery was terrific. We packed up in the afternoon and hiked out to Soldier Park for our last night in the wild. It was a nice hike since it was almost all downhill. We left the official wilderness after our water crossing and then camped at a very overused spot. It was a strong contrast with the more beautiful wilderness settings.

Our intrepid crew hiked from Elk Lake over a 10600 foot saddle behind Ant Hill then across a creek and up a hillside to the Seven Brothers area. This was our longest hiking day with the most elevation. On the trail, we passed both of our other groups going the other direction. Our new home is a VERY impacted site since this area gets heavy use. We had horrendous lightning last night.

It managed to drop below freezing last night and get frost again. We're camping at the same spot tonight so there was no required hiking. One group hiked up a ridge for the views and I hiked to another valley for some fishing.
We hiked 1.5 miles to a mountain reservoir full of trout. We lost count of the fish we caught on flies and spinners over the 6 hours we fished. Mostly brook trout, but a few rainbows and cutthroat, too.
The group decided on an early dinner since storm clouds were building and rolling past. We never did get any rain, but it was nice to eat early.
Tonight, the mosquitos were pretty bad. We saw a fisher exploring our camp and a moose across the lake.

Our second day was great. I saw a couple elk near our campsite when I woke up. But before that I enjoyed a wonderful view of the big dipper over the mountains when I had to get up at 1:30am.
We got on the trail at 9:30 and had a few miles of pretty tough uphill to a beautiful lunch spot on the top of a pass. From there, it was a rocky but easy walk down to Elk Lake where we eventually found a decent spot to camp.
We saw moose in the lake and a herd of elk run by. The rocky mountains make for a wonderful backdrop across the lake.
Mac and cheese for dinner, but the chili ramen was spicy.
There was frost on the grass this morning but tonight seems much warmer even though we are 1000 feet higher at 9800 feet.

Our first day of hiking and camping was a great opportunity to get a rhythm going. We only covered about 3.5 miles from Hunter trailhead to Triangle Park, but we had a couple water crossings, tough trail, and dust. The crew found a very nice campsite secluded just in the trees with a nice view across the meadow. It's really hard to see that we are here.
Our first dinner and clean up could have gone better but it tasted great and Mrs. Dude and I did the dishes. That's Mrs. Dude crossing the stream, too.
Just a gorgeous day with a few puffy clouds, nice breeze, no humidity, and few mosquitoes this evening. A couple guys fished in a tiny creek. One guy helped fix my fly pole. :-)
Didn't see any animals except horse.
Early to bed and the temp is dropping so we should sleep well.