Wind Rivers Back Packing Trip

 A huge focus of this year was hiking in prep for a 54 mile backpacking trip for Derek and the boys through Wind Rivers in Wyoming.  I got roped in to helping move cars from their starting location to their ending location.  A bunch of the moms/wives of the kids going were invited to move cars.  We decided if we were going to drive all the way out there we were going to get a little back packing in ourselves.  The boys did several overnight backpacking trips/hike in preparation, D and I and sometime the kids too did lots of hiking on our own, and I hiked with all the car moving ladies a bunch as well.  

Here's Hidden Valley with the boys:

Here's a hike all the YW went on up the canyon to a little memorial :

Here's Grove Creek- the boys hiked up in the dark after a baseball game in the heat and Derek almost died when he got to the top and his leg muscle cramped up all night.  The bishop met them a little ways from camp and asked if he could take anyone's pack.  Carter quickly shed his and handed it over.  While guided them to camp and Bishop said to Camden, "You know your Dad really loves you right."  And Camden said, "I know."

Here's the Y one morning with Derek and Carlos:

Here's Cascade Saddle- thank goodness there was snow so they couldn't hike as far as they had originally planned because Derek was done by the time they got to camp.

Here's a hike Derek, Carter and I did up Dry Canyon:

Here's the YM (and Derek) hiking Timp- the boys made it to the saddle.  Derek make it to Emerald Lake and plopped down and ate his lunch and waited for everyone to pick him up on there way down.  

Here's a hike with all my hiking ladies to Battle Creek Overlook:

Here's the craziest training hike my lady hikers did.  We went to Big Springs, planned to hike 8 miles which we did.  But our original plan was to hike up 4 and back.  Instead we hike to the top of peak and then came down the cascade saddle.  We had to call Derek from the top to come pick us up and drive us back to Big Springs to get our car.  Super fun- I brought Kota.  The view at the top of all the mountain peaks in our backyard was breathtaking.

Derek also did a couple longer Unita hikes with the boys.  The first was Lofty Loop Lakes hike with Chase and the boys.  They brought Kota and she loved jumping in and swimming in all the lakes.

The second hike was to Island Lake they did it right before their backpacking trip on Pioneer Day Derek had the day off work, but I had to work.  He made Liv go to, but she got to bring a friend (Emma), Tanner decided to join in too.  He had a foot injury that he was worried would prevent him from doing okay on the backpacking trip, so he decided to use this hike as a test hike.  He did great and it gave him to confidence to go on the Wind Rivers backpacking trip- and he was able to hike the whole week without any trouble.  

The actual wind rivers trip went great, except Derek has been blessed with plantar fasciitis ever since. 

 He felt pretty sick to his stomach the whole week and could hardly eat.  The boys apparently did great.

  They would arrive at their designated camping spot each day and set up the tent and Dad's bed and everything and Derek would just die.  

He said the first day was the worst and he probably wouldn't have have made it if one of the older young men hadn't met him on the trail and asked if he could filter some water for him.  He gave away most of his freeze dried food to starving growing young men.  The boys went fly fishes and caught some trout. 

 They found a natural waterslide and all enjoyed sliding down it.  They had a great testimony meeting.  Ran into some pretty awesome other hikers.

I thought I got the best end of the deal.  Got to go up with a bunch of adults- we had a great time chatting and driving and chatting and hiking.  

We started at the boys starting point and hiked in about 9 miles and set up camp.  A few of us hiked a little further Seneca Lake.  

It was honestly gorgeous I wanted to jump in so bad, but instead waited to jump into the lake closer to our campground that night before dinner.  The next morning, we hiked out, drove the car into town and grabbed lunch at subway- felt so nice to eat fresh food and sit in a chair. 

 We picked up a bunch of ice and filled coolers with ice and soda for the boys when they finished their week long hike.  Then, we hiked in the back side past Green River lakes.  

Green River Lake is at the very end of the boys 54 mile hike and was just gorgeous.  We stopped along Green River Lake at one spot that had a sandy graded beach and I took off my shoes and jumped in and started swimming and then hiked in wet clothes, but the water felt amazing.  

Flat top was seriously the prettiest part of the whole thing. 

We stopped for the night at Upper Green River Lake and camped right above the water in the most beautiful spot.

 The second morning we woke up next to a lake with canoers.  The only way they could have gotten to that lake was to paddle those canoes up river from Green River lakes.  It just felt so serene to watch them on a lake that no cars or people can get to without hiking in or paddling up river to get there.  Then, we hiked ahead until we met up with the boys and all hiked out together. 

 That week long backpacking trip Derek went on with the boys was the longest stretch of time we have spent apart from each other since we have been married and I definitely missed him.  We of course ended the big hiking week with a stop at Dairy Keen in Heber for burgers.  

These last pics are from a hike after the big Wind Rivers Back Packing Trip.  We did several post trip hikes.  This one was up at Big Springs area again.  I really love hiking with these ladies.  Unfortunately Angie Finch ended up really hurting her knee on this one.