Wind river range - 7 day trip

[Hang Williams]

Sounds like a great adventure..

My son has been on me about going, but Ive spoiled myself glamping and not really looking forward to meeting the most comfortable root or pointed rock to sleep on.. You like your hammock over a tent in the winds?

Also wondered about surviving out there if you stayed put.. I wish I knew which lakes were good, because Finis Mitchell didn't stock them all.

There were plenty of places to hang a hammock in the southern part of the range since I'm pretty comfortable with this setup as I've been using it for a few years. The hardest part was finding areas sheltered enough from the stronger gusts. Up near Titcomb basin it looks pretty sparse from satellite imagery and I'm not sure how that would work out with a hammock. Also, I was willing to camp low (generally my camps ended up being <10,500') and hike up to the higher spots during the day, so you need to factor that in.

Regarding which lakes were good, it really depends what you're looking for in terms of quantity vs quality. The Bridger wilderness fishing guide covers what species are in which lakes. I couldn't reliably find any info that really betrayed the size classes in any given lake aside from putting in time researching trip reports of people going to individual lakes. It seems like it would be hard to have BAD fishing there unless youre strictly focusing on trophy or golden trout. After doing the math after getting home, I only had about 10 hrs of dedicated fishing time and caught over 100 fish with many being decent size to large, which I think is quite good. I definitely want less backpacking, more fishing on my next trip though.

[sideshowraheem]

Wow looks like an amazing trip. Really makes me want to make it out west again for a big multi day trip.

Did you ever have to dip down in elevation at the end of the day just to find trees? And did you ever figure out what type of fish that was?

[Hang Williams]

Wow looks like an amazing trip. Really makes me want to make it out west again for a big multi day trip.

Did you ever have to dip down in elevation at the end of the day just to find trees? And did you ever figure out what type of fish that was?

I'd planned my camps out to dip down in elevation for tree line at the end of each day. Night 4 was probably the hardest decision, since I'd actually found 2 trees that were well spaced, but it was in a stand of about the only 10 trees anywhere in the cirque and seeing as the extremely sheltered site 500' lower was battered enough to cost me some sleep, I'm sure that was the right call as hard as it was to move on from a beautiful spot.

Regarding the fish, as best I can tell it was a snake river fine spotted cutthroat. The fact that the whole body was the same red color as the throat slash (including the inside of its mouth being pink) is still confusing, but best guess I've heard is that it's a coloration from a scud heavy diet.

[Adventurous_Angler]

Hang - Looks like a trip planned out right, all that homework paid off big!

The scenery seemed breathtakingly beautiful out there in big sky country and the fishing looked incredible. I think the golden was my favorite, but the 16" cuttie and big brookie were nice too

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,
A.A.

[FLTurtle]

Very nice! I've been wanting to do a fishing trip like this. The winds...is it normally this windy there?

[Hang Williams]

Hang - Looks like a trip planned out right, all that homework paid off big!

The scenery seemed breathtakingly beautiful out there in big sky country and the fishing looked incredible. I think the golden was my favorite, but the 16" cuttie and big brookie were nice too

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,
A.A.

Thank you! I still feel a bit silly about leaving a spot where I could see tons of golden trout because they were all small, but my scouting said the lake below had trophy brook trout and I've caught plenty of goldens in the past. The lower lake only had small brook trout, but I wasn't regaining a few hundred feet of vertical at that point in the day. Luckily the larger brook trout lake panned out later in the trip.

Very nice! I've been wanting to do a fishing trip like this. The winds...is it normally this windy there?

Yes, I get the impression that the wind river range is appropriately named. I don't think I got anything super extraordinary for that area, I just lack that skillset in my fly fishing repertoire and one can only hook the back of their shirt so many times before it's time to call it a day.

If you're comfortable dealing with windy conditions for your tarp, it is easy hanging. The soil was perfect for holding stakes.

[WanderingKansas]

Wow! Thanks for sharing this. I'm just now getting started on research for a Winds trip. I came to the forum, of course, to see what experience others had when hammocking.

I'd love to pick your brain for more details, if you're willing. I'd like to make a trip much like what you've described as your "next time". I'm looking for great views, lots of fishing, and to not push myself as long and hard as I tend to when I go backpacking.

[Hang Williams]

Wow! Thanks for sharing this. I'm just now getting started on research for a Winds trip. I came to the forum, of course, to see what experience others had when hammocking.

I'd love to pick your brain for more details, if you're willing. I'd like to make a trip much like what you've described as your "next time". I'm looking for great views, lots of fishing, and to not push myself as long and hard as I tend to when I go backpacking.

Yeah sure, shoot me a PM and we can discuss specifics. My word of caution: videos online are just a snapshot in time and guidebooks are much the same. There's one lake I visited that a guidebook and online fisheries information says has golden trout, there was a video online which showed guys catching 15"+ brook trout out of it.... it was loaded with 8" brook trout when I visited it and I dedicated a whole day to that drainage for that ****. I've done a ton of research and have dozens of trips I'll likely never do laid out based on intel that may or may not be accurate and I'll have no way of knowing until I go.