Watch the full video for the trip here:
https://youtu.be/mAr9VgoPQXE
This 65 mile light-weight backpacking trip through the Wind River Range of Wyoming started and ended at the Pole Creek trailhead at Elkhart Park, near Pinedale Wyoming. The main focus of the trip was to hike a high route loop in the Fremont Creek and Pole Creek areas of the range, using the range’s most popular trailhead at Elkhart Park. The trip was planned to visit a few new destinations in these areas, plus some favorite spots I’ve visited before. The clockwise lollipop loop included the Pole Creek trail, Seneca Lake trail, Lost Lake trail, Highline trail, Knapsack Col, Titcomb Basin trail, Wall Lake Pass, Cook Lakes, Angel Pass, Fall Creek Pass, Timico Lake, and the Fremont trail.
At least a quarter of the loop was cross-country travel through trailless areas, but the majority of travel was on designated trails. Nearly half of the loop followed a variation of the Wind River High Route, a mostly off-trail route staying close to the spine of the Continental Divide. The segment of the high route in this loop included Knapsack Col, Wall Lake Pass, Angel Pass and Fall Creek Pass.
Below is a link to the CalTopo route map showing the route followed for this trip:
Below is the LighterPack.com gear list (approximately the same gear as my 2022 Central Winds loop):
https://lighterpack.com/r/92a5lz
Trail and Route Conditions
Pole Creek, Seneca Lake, Highline and Fremont Trails
The heavily used trails accessible from the highly popular Elkhart Park were in great condition and recently maintained, as expected. From the trailhead to Peak Lake (with the exception of the Lost Lake trail), and from the Timico Lake trail/Fremont trail junction all the way back to the trailhead were well maintained, with the exception of a few easy fallen trees along the Fremont trail.
Lost Lake Trail
The Lost Lake trail was new to me and it was great to finally explore this lightly traveled area next door to one of the most popular areas in the Winds. The Lost Lake trail was good enough to be fairly efficient, yet rustic enough to provide a mild adventure.
The first half of the trail from Seneca Lake to Lost Lake was in pretty good condition, though it’s steep and hard to follow in a few meadows as it descends to Lost Lake. At Lost Lake, Fremont Creek must be crossed to continue, but the crossing was easier than expected. The large creek is broken up into 4 separate channels just upstream from the inlet to Lost Lake. The first two channels were small, with the hardest part being willow evasion. The last two channels were much wider, but with moderate currents that were never over knee deep.
Past Lost Lake, the second half of the trail is more rustic and less maintained, but still obvious most of the time. There were occasional downed trees over the second half of the trail, a few requiring some mild gymnastics to bypass or crawl under. The trail also disappeared in a few meadow areas, but was easy to find if you pay close attention to your map. After crossing the last channel of Fremont Creek, there are a few different trail options on the far bank – I choose the right most option as that’s where the map showed the trail going, and it worked out fine. After the crossings, the trail climbs steeply for a while, then it bobs up and down and weaves right and left for a few miles until you reach a large meadow. From the meadow, the trail picks up again on the right, climbing steeply to a small saddle, then on to the pond just downstream from the Highline trail junction and Fremont Crossing bridge. The roar of Big Water Slide fills the air as you pass by the pond below Fremont Crossing.
Shannon Pass Trail
The trail between the Highline North of Upper Jean Lake and Peak Lake was high and scenic. After Shannon Pass, the trail descends steeply and becomes rocky and gets lost in the boulders briefly a few times. From the low point of the trail near Peak Lake, I cut cross-country past a small pond to the East and below Cube Rock Pass and picked up the Glacier Trail on the other side of this pond, as it descended to the outlet of Peak Lake. The outlet creek is wide with good flow, but if you follow the shoreline downstream a hundred yards or so you’ll find an easy crossing where a large number of rocks strewn from shore to shore let you easily hop across the wide stream.
Glacier Trail/Knapsack Col
From the North side of Peak Lake’s outlet stream, the trail traverses the North side of Peak Lake, first on talus and then below high vertical cliffs near the water line, passing an improbable looking yet easy section by stepping onto a rock literally sitting in the lake. There are good camp sites in the meadows East of Peak Lake, dotted with Krummholz, granite slabs and large boulders. The trail continues upstream toward Knapsack Col for quite some distance, though it peters out often in meadows. Above 11400’ the trail is pretty much gone, until you get close to Knapsack Col, where it becomes obvious again as different route options converge just below the Col. The East side of Knapsack Col did not require any snow travel, although bypassing the highest snowfield on its North side required descending on steep loose talus and scree. Once on more level ground, I did use the snowfield for travel, as low angle snow is more efficient than travel on talus. Below 11700’, the talus gives way to broken rock and gravel, making for faster travel. And once you descend to 11200’, travel becomes even faster on grass and tundra as you descend to pick up the Titcomb Basin trail on the far side of the main creek.
Titcomb Basin Trail
Fantastically scenic, crowded and a few spots of muddy bog, as usual. The trail becomes more and more obvious as you descend closer to upper Titcomb Lake from the North. Once you get to the lakes, the trail is obvious the whole way to Island Lake.
Wall Lake Pass
This scenic and lightly used trail is obvious and easy to follow until you reach 10700’, where it becomes lost in the meadows. The trail crosses to the South side of the creek around 10700’ before you reach the lake. If you follow the willow-free patches on the right (South) side of the valley, you’ll see bits of the trail, where it’s visible, as you ascend to Wall Lake Pass. From the Pass going East, the easiest route passes right (South) of an obvious dome which straddles the pass, over a small snowfield, then down to a small saddle at 11030’. It’s best to descend due East into the main side valley below Harrower and Elephant Head peaks. At 11030’ and again 10830’ you’ll pass small saddles on your right (South) that appear to descend down to Wall Lake, but it’s best to continue due East until you reach 10600 in the main side valley, then descend to Wall Lake above its Northern most tip. As you reach the valley floor, you’ll find bits of trail, where it’s visible. Up and over a small saddle and the trail will take you to the outlet of lake 10488.
Crossing Pole Creek is a mini adventure, as the flow is great and the stream is wide. The way trail ends at a prominent boulder on the West side of the creek just downstream from lake 10488’s outlet. This large boulder is surrounded by several smaller boulders, offering an adventurous series of step stones working North, East and South around the large boulder, then following more well-spaced boulders East across the remainder of Pole Creek.
From the East side of Pole Creek, it’s reasonably easy travel to the middle of Wall Lake, with some nice camping areas along the way.
Wall Lake to Cook Lakes
This stretch of off-trail country presented the most challenging route finding of the trip, even though I had done this same route in 1994. It really helps to spend some time studying this route on Google Earth and to print out some Google Earth screen shots to take with you. There are likely multiple route variations up and around the steep granite domes that impound the Eastern shore of aptly named Wall Lake. But the route I took on this trip seemed to be fairly efficient, even though I gained a few hundred feet of extra elevation.
The map below shows my approximate route. The map is NOT a gps track, but was drawn using Google Earth as a rough guide for me to use while hiking. The map includes two slightly more efficient variations that I would choose instead next time.
Basically, I ascended a ramp that sits kind of midway up the face East of Wall Lake. At the top of the ramp, there’s a corridor you hike through with steep rock on each side. After the corridor, you can keep going slightly up and right to the top of the traverse, or go slightly right and contour around the top area instead, which appears to be a better option on Google Earth. Once you reach the saddle just East of the obvious rock dome, you follow the drainage down until you find a decent trail on the West side of the lower valley. That trail takes you to a pretty meadow, but the actual trail continues up and East of the meadow, going over a small saddle before finally descending to Cook Lakes.
Cook Lakes to Angel Pass
The route finding crux of the scenic off-trail segment between Cook Lakes and Angel Pass was just above upper Cook Lake (aka lake 10170). The main trail leaves the Southeast side of the lake and goes uphill for a few hundred yards to a small forested saddle, before continuing its mile long descent Southwest to a junction with the Fremont trail. Where the trail reaches its high point at the forested saddle above lake 10170, I cut off-trail uphill to the Southeast, seeking a direct line toward Angel Pass. However, the terrain here is steep and rocky with intermittent dense forest, so I ended up traversing North a few hundred yards to get around the steep rock domes. It would have been easier to cut due East (up and left) from where the trail passes the forested saddle.
Once above 10500, the terrain opens up to grassy meadows with pretty ponds amongst small rolling hills. Once you can see Spider Lake, you can either traverse high or drop lower and closer to Spider Lake to approach Angel Pass’s East side. I stayed high and traversed much of this section, but dropping to the gentler slopes closer to the lake may have been easier.
Angel Pass is very interesting and enjoyable, if you like to scramble. As you ascend to the cliff bands guarding the East side of the pass, the easiest way upward is on the right side, up a small, steep grassy ramp cutting up and right through the first cliff band. From the top of this ramp, you have to scramble over a fin of rock to access the ramps and talus slopes leading up the next cliff bands toward the Pass. After ascending a slope of large blocky talus, the next cliff band has an easy route through it on the far left, in an area of reddish colored rock slabs. After clambering across the reddish slabs, the route sags back to the right, then left again up a series of narrowing ramps to the crux move – an exposed by moderately angled slab providing the easiest route through the next rack band. After the crux move, there are only a few moderate rocky ramps left to reach the top of the pass.
The East side of Angel Pass is very different from the West. From Angel Pass, you traverse East a few hundred yards on large steep talus. But after the talus, the terrain becomes a mix of grassy meadows and easy gravely areas most of the way down to the valley floor and up again to Fall Creek Pass.
Fall Creek Pass to Timico Lake
There are remnants of an old and long unmaintained trail from Fall Creek Pass all the way down to beautiful Timico Lake. This is likely an old CCC trail built back in the 1930’s, abandoned shortly after it was built, with the coming of WWII. It’s fun to try to follow this trail as much as possible as you descend from the pass to Timico Lake. The trail is barely visible at times, only perceived as a faint depression, or a sight excess of gravel compared to the surrounding tundra. I was able to follow this trail all the way down to 10800’, at which point it was finally lost. But even without a trail, travel from Fall Creek Pass to Timico Lake is about as easy as cross-country travel above treeline in the Wind River Range can get.
From the outlet of Timico Lake, it’s a very pretty mile or so of hiking on the Timico Lake trail to the junction with the Fremont trail, which takes you back to the land of maintained trails again.
Water
Water was fairly abundant for most of the trip with no extended dry sections of more than a few miles. If you plan ahead and fill up your water bottle before heading over a pass, you should have no issues staying hydrated.
Bugs
Mosquitos were mild to moderate, depending on location and time of day. By late July, it’s typical to see far fewer bugs in the Wind Rivers than just a few weeks earlier, and this trip held to that general rule. The most mosquitos were encountered around Lost Lake, as it’s lower in elevation, warmer and less breezy than most other areas on this trip. Most lakes near or above treeline had enough breeze in the afternoons to allow for relaxing around camp with minimal mosquito harassment.
People and Wildlife
By far most of the people were along the Pole Creek, Seneca Lake and Titcomb Basin trails. There were lots of day hikers on the Titcomb Basin trail hiking in from camps at or around Island Lake. Nobody was seen on the Lost Lake trail, except for a horse camp at the top of the trail near some ponds, a mile or less from Seneca Lake. The Highline and Fremont trails had moderate traffic with occasional backpackers. A few parties passed by Peak Lake while I camped there, but only one other person was seen between Peak Lake and Titcomb Lakes. There were a few day hikers from Island Lake hiking up to Wall Lake Pass and back. One group was camped at Cook Lakes and a large NOLS group was passed and camped at the far Northern end of Timico Lake.
The most notable wildlife as a bull moose above Spider Lake, below Angel Pass, intent on walking up to the hillside I had just descended. And there was another moose right on the trail, a mile or less from the trailhead, early in the morning on the hike out. Pretty much every day there were multiple grouse unexpectedly flushed into flight as I hiked by. A few deer but no elk were seen, although there was ample elk scat in some areas. No bear or bear scat was seen, although I was not specifically looking for it.
Gear and Equipment
The principles of lightweight backpacking were employed. The base weight for this trip, including all gear minus food and worn/carried items, was 13.2 pounds, which included nearly 4.5 pounds of camera gear. The total pack weight on day one, including all food for the trip minus worn items, was 22.5 pounds. While microspikes were carried for the East side of Knapsack Col, they were never used.
Much of the gear used on this trip is MYOG (Make Your Own Gear), including the backpack, front packs, hiking pants, bug bivy, gaiters and rain jacket/pack cover combo. For more information on the custom ultralight backpack called the Talaria, please see the link below:
The Talaria Backpack https://olympicul.com/product/talaria-backpack/
For camera and video gear, the goal was the achieve very good video quality with the lightest gear possible. For video, a Fuji X-T4 mirrorless camera with 18-55mm lens was used. I also carried a MYOG tripod adapter to turn three trekking poles into a tripod. Also included were four camera batteries, a polarizing filter and a Rode VideoMicro hotshoe microphone for the camera.
Trip Statistics
Note: distances and vertical feet stats are approximate and based on route profiles created in Caltopo. In most cases, Caltopo routes are more smooth and shorter than the real life routes hiked on real trails or routes. I typically multiply mileage values derived from Caltopo profiles by 1.15, to add 15% to more accurately gauge real life mileages hiked. Vertical feet values tend to be less accurate than distance values, with routes drawn in Caltopo introducing many small ups and downs that do not exist in real life. So all vertical feet values derived from Caltopo profiles have been multiplied by 0.7, to subtract 30% to more accurately gauge real life vertical feet hiked.
Route
65 miles
5 nights
+10400 vertical feet
-10400 vertical feet
Day 1: Pole Creek Trailhead to Hobbs Lake
7 miles
+1200 vertical feet
-750 vertical feet
Day 2: Hobbs Lake to Peak Lake
14 miles
+2300 vertical feet
-1700 vertical feet
Day 3: Peak Lake to Wall Lake
13 miles
+2100 vertical feet
-2300 vertical feet
Day 4: Wall Lake to Timico Lake
10 miles
+1800 vertical feet
-1900 vertical feet
Day 5: Timico Lake to Sweeney Creek Trail Junction
16 miles
+2600 vertical feet
-2750 vertical feet
Day 6: Sweeney Creek Trail Junction to Pole Creek Trailhead
5 miles
+400 vertical feet
-1000 vertical feet