I stumbled on this picture by Wildgene just now, and it took me back. I have plenty of my own pictures of this spot, but I really liked this one. In Sept 2006, I was hanging in the trees down on the far side of this lake shore(Lonesome Lake) in the Wind River Mountains of WY.
I had been to these mountains many times in the past, but this was my 1st place to backpack anywhere, or even sleep anywhere, with a hammock. Not sure, but I think I might have been the first person(far as I know) to use a hammock backpacking these mountains and report it in this forum. If you will look in the upper right hand corner of previous pic, towards the top of the ridge, you will see a tongue of snow/ice in a deep cleft between 2 peaks, this is called Texas Pass. The previous night, I had been too sick with altitude sickness to make it over the pass, and had to camp beside treeless Texas lake, on the ground, so I was real glad I had brought my pads along. As shown in this pic(all following pictures are my own):
But by the next morning I had made it over the pass and dropped down to Lonesome Lake. I still was not good at pitching my HH Super shelter and tarp, I still had a lot to learn, but I sure had a glorious sleep compared to the night before on the ground. This night was in the trees on the far side of the lake in the first picture, as shown in this pic.
Here are some pics taken from about where I had my HH hung previous pic, looking around 360º:
1: Looking back(west) towards Texas Pass(out of sight, up towards the right, north) and where we had come from, with Pingora Peak to the left:
Pingora from my HH hammock:
2: turning left(south) a bit, and looking across Lonesome Lake(I caught some big cut throat trout there!) towards War Bonnet Peak, all of these peaks part of The Cirque of the Towers:
3: Turning left(east) a bit more, across Lonesome Lake, towards Mitchell Peak.
4: I don't have a pic, but if I had turned left a little more, I would have a pic of Lizard Head Peak. This lake is right at 10,000 ft, and all of these peaks rise up about another 1800 to about 3000 ft of sheer cliffs from the lake. Hence, Cirque of the Towers.
BTW, this was approaching Texas Pass from the other side, from where I had to bivouac at Texas Lake the night before:
And this was earlier that day, approaching Texas Lake and Pass, at Shadow Lake. The other side of these peaks is Lonesome Lake and the Cirque of the Towers:
And this was on Texas Pass, looking ahead to War Bonnet Peak middle/rt(south), Mitchell Peak left, Jack A** pass between them, and Lonesome Lake(can't see it) at their foot.
This is the trip that hooked me on hammock camping 13 years ago, and I have never looked back since then. I had a couple of rough nights, first night nearly froze at 22ºF(learning curve/user error), 3rd night had to go to ground, but other than that I had more deep, comfortable sleeps than in the best bed, in the midst of this beautiful country.
Anyway, I have not been back to these mountains in quite a while. Maybe this fall or summer? I hope so.
So what about Y'all? What is the most beautiful place you have hung? Or just your favorite for whatever reason? Or maybe what was your first trip that hooked you on hammock camping?
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks