Trip Report Wind River Range 9-2-9-9
Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 4:48 pm
My friend Mike and I made our second annual trip to the Wind River Range. Last year, we hit the popular Titcomb Basin in September and got snowed upon, but it was quite beautiful. This year, we wanted to focus on fishing, after consulting with a couple of people, including Wandering Daisy, we decided to hit the Indian Reservation Side of the range. For anyone who follows my posts, you know I am an avid Golden Trout fisherman, and the reservation side is more known for Cuts...but we decided to try it. We set our sites for the St. Lawrence Basin trailhead for a one week trip.
There are 800 or so lakes in the Winds. We sampled like 4-5 last year, with mixed results. In trying to decide where to go this year, the challenge in a one week trip was how to prioritize where to go with the starting point of St Lawrence in mind? We kept on getting one answer when we asked around from friends and associates... "They are all good". So..with no more specific guidance, we set off..just vowing to try and explore and hope the results were good.
We got to Lander the night before and got our permits for the reservation without incident. The drive to the trailhead was uneventful. We saw several antelope on the drive up. The directions in Wandering Daisy's good were perfect and we wound up starting by noon. We headed up toward
Entigo Pass and crossed without any issues. We felt good. The one challenge we had was that fires in the area, (specifically Montana) made the air smokey and the visibility was poor. This never got any better during the week as you will see from some pictures. This was disappointing. Then problems started. We turned left at the sign for Raft lake and proceeded on a trail that is not on the topo map. (Afterword, we re-read Wandering Daisy's book and there was a warning here. ). We got somewhat lost before figuring out what happened. We wound up camping at Movo Lake the first night, pretty exhausted. There were a couple of huge packer type campsites there. We saw some decent trout in the lake but caught nothing in an hour or so of fishing next day.
The next day we set off up the canyon from Movo Lake. The area is quite beautiful and there are several large lakes in the area. This is one of the unnamed lakes above Movo. The rest of the day was exhausting. There were tons of downed trees which made travel difficult. In addition, the trail was very hard to follow. We got off the trail several times and even when we were off the "correct" trail, there were always a lot of ducks to "help". In the dense forest, we guessed that we did 300 or so tree crossings. There were tons of mushrooms all around. It almost felt like a rain forest. I had a new pain at the end of the day that I have not experienced backpacking. The muscles on the front of my hips were sore from lifting over all the downed
trees. Again, re-reading Wandering Daisy's book, she talks about the downed trees. In retrospect, we probably would not have done this lower root from the trailhead. We eventually made it to Sonnicant Lake, which is a beautiful lake. And now it is time to mention something else....BUGS!!! In the sierras, I usually don't take insect repellent in September. I knew that this was a big snow year in the Winds, so we brought some, but I would say that this was the most insect intensive September I have ever experienced. Mosquitoes were bad....but nothing compared to the black flies. I usually don't have problems with mosquitoes---they are dumb. But these black flies---got under my pants around the socks and under an open shirt and got my lower back. I was eaten alive and the welts were bad...and itchy. I am still itching as write this. Sonnicant was beautiful though. Another view from where we camped. We sat on this rock and had cocktails and watched in the sun set. (Albeit in the smoke). With the amount of snow, there were wildflowers everywhere. It definitely had the feeling of July not September. As for people we met on the trip. We saw no one the first two days, and then met several groups at Sonnicant Lake. Several were thru hikers coming from Kavegah Pass. We met a guy with a dog whose dog had a large number of welts from the black flies. The last four days we saw no one, which surprised us.
We met a guy named Greg from Truckee, hiking solo. It turns out he is a golden trout fisherman from California. He asked for my input on places to go in the Sierras. I gave him a couple of ideas and he was happy and he proceeded to tell us about the best lakes to fish in the area. This is the first person who gave us any specific guidance. There are about 40-50 lakes in the area and were just going to target a couple a couple, almost at random. Based upon Greg's guidance
we changed our plans somewhat.
Here is a nice one we got. An 18 incher. I ate this one and one other. All the rest released. Most of the trout were indeed cutthroats. Here is a typical one. Here is a view of Mike playing an 18 inch cut. Another fine big lake in the area. Heebeecheeche. Another view of Mike playing a fish. What could be better than this? Snow in the background, a waterfall on the right (not in the picture), beautiful mountain day, playing a large trout? (Although note the smoke in the background). And last .. my biggest trout.. me with a 22 inch golden or hybrid. I didn't expect to see this in the area.
There was only one car in the parking lot when we got to the trailhead. Perhaps the smoke caused people not to come.
We had great weather though the whole time. No rain, no bears. We saw tons of elk and deer sign, and heard elk bellowing, but never saw one.
We saw perhaps 100 antelope driving out. We learned a lot with our second trip to the Winds. Next time we will read Wandering Daisy's book a little more closely on the trails. But had a great time. And if anyone wants any advice on which lakes to fish, just remember .. they are all good!
There are 800 or so lakes in the Winds. We sampled like 4-5 last year, with mixed results. In trying to decide where to go this year, the challenge in a one week trip was how to prioritize where to go with the starting point of St Lawrence in mind? We kept on getting one answer when we asked around from friends and associates... "They are all good". So..with no more specific guidance, we set off..just vowing to try and explore and hope the results were good.
We got to Lander the night before and got our permits for the reservation without incident. The drive to the trailhead was uneventful. We saw several antelope on the drive up. The directions in Wandering Daisy's good were perfect and we wound up starting by noon. We headed up toward
Entigo Pass and crossed without any issues. We felt good. The one challenge we had was that fires in the area, (specifically Montana) made the air smokey and the visibility was poor. This never got any better during the week as you will see from some pictures. This was disappointing. Then problems started. We turned left at the sign for Raft lake and proceeded on a trail that is not on the topo map. (Afterword, we re-read Wandering Daisy's book and there was a warning here. ). We got somewhat lost before figuring out what happened. We wound up camping at Movo Lake the first night, pretty exhausted. There were a couple of huge packer type campsites there. We saw some decent trout in the lake but caught nothing in an hour or so of fishing next day.
The next day we set off up the canyon from Movo Lake. The area is quite beautiful and there are several large lakes in the area. This is one of the unnamed lakes above Movo. The rest of the day was exhausting. There were tons of downed trees which made travel difficult. In addition, the trail was very hard to follow. We got off the trail several times and even when we were off the "correct" trail, there were always a lot of ducks to "help". In the dense forest, we guessed that we did 300 or so tree crossings. There were tons of mushrooms all around. It almost felt like a rain forest. I had a new pain at the end of the day that I have not experienced backpacking. The muscles on the front of my hips were sore from lifting over all the downed
trees. Again, re-reading Wandering Daisy's book, she talks about the downed trees. In retrospect, we probably would not have done this lower root from the trailhead. We eventually made it to Sonnicant Lake, which is a beautiful lake. And now it is time to mention something else....BUGS!!! In the sierras, I usually don't take insect repellent in September. I knew that this was a big snow year in the Winds, so we brought some, but I would say that this was the most insect intensive September I have ever experienced. Mosquitoes were bad....but nothing compared to the black flies. I usually don't have problems with mosquitoes---they are dumb. But these black flies---got under my pants around the socks and under an open shirt and got my lower back. I was eaten alive and the welts were bad...and itchy. I am still itching as write this. Sonnicant was beautiful though. Another view from where we camped. We sat on this rock and had cocktails and watched in the sun set. (Albeit in the smoke). With the amount of snow, there were wildflowers everywhere. It definitely had the feeling of July not September. As for people we met on the trip. We saw no one the first two days, and then met several groups at Sonnicant Lake. Several were thru hikers coming from Kavegah Pass. We met a guy with a dog whose dog had a large number of welts from the black flies. The last four days we saw no one, which surprised us.
We met a guy named Greg from Truckee, hiking solo. It turns out he is a golden trout fisherman from California. He asked for my input on places to go in the Sierras. I gave him a couple of ideas and he was happy and he proceeded to tell us about the best lakes to fish in the area. This is the first person who gave us any specific guidance. There are about 40-50 lakes in the area and were just going to target a couple a couple, almost at random. Based upon Greg's guidance
we changed our plans somewhat.
Here is a nice one we got. An 18 incher. I ate this one and one other. All the rest released. Most of the trout were indeed cutthroats. Here is a typical one. Here is a view of Mike playing an 18 inch cut. Another fine big lake in the area. Heebeecheeche. Another view of Mike playing a fish. What could be better than this? Snow in the background, a waterfall on the right (not in the picture), beautiful mountain day, playing a large trout? (Although note the smoke in the background). And last .. my biggest trout.. me with a 22 inch golden or hybrid. I didn't expect to see this in the area.
There was only one car in the parking lot when we got to the trailhead. Perhaps the smoke caused people not to come.
We had great weather though the whole time. No rain, no bears. We saw tons of elk and deer sign, and heard elk bellowing, but never saw one.
We saw perhaps 100 antelope driving out. We learned a lot with our second trip to the Winds. Next time we will read Wandering Daisy's book a little more closely on the trails. But had a great time. And if anyone wants any advice on which lakes to fish, just remember .. they are all good!