The Winds were Epic: A Journey Back in Time -2

By the time our break was over, I was so stiff and sore that I couldn't climb into the saddle. I ended up leading the horse to a large rock, getting on top of the rock and stepping into the stirrups.  The rest of the trip was beautiful but uneventful as we continued on our way.  As we approached our destination later that afternoon, we reached an area where we were literally busting snowdrifts as high as the horses bellies-this on a sunny July day.

Upon reaching the campsite, we unsaddled our horses, pulled the panniers from the pack horse and made sure that the horses were securely tied to trees, then fed and watered. The camp site was exquisite. We were surrounded by the remains of glaciers from another time.  A small lake was near by, surrounded by towering spruce trees and lots of snow.  Perishable foods were buried in snowdrifts to keep fresh. We built makeshift lean-to's out of found tree limbs, canvas tarps and pine boughs. Our beds were made of horse blankets and our sleeping bags.  Best of all, we were within a few feet of a small bubbling creek that ran to the lake.

After a dinner cooked over the campfire, we went to sleep with the sounds of complete silence; except the relaxing sound of the small bubbling stream.  When morning came, there was hot coffee and breakfast as only breakfast can taste when cooked over an open fire in the outdoors.  Breakfast done, it was time to fish.

We hiked a couple of miles to another unnamed lake.  This one,  indescribably beautiful; with water so clear that you could literally see detail on the lake bottom.  More unbelievably, you could see immense trout that would easily go 30 inches cruising lazily back and forth. I won't lie and say we caught any of the monsters, but we caught our share of large trout, mostly rainbows in the 16-18 inch range if memory serves me.  As an aside, I was told that many years before, Wyoming Game and Fish would stock these out of the way lakes by helicopter or pack horses and they were at that time reproducing naturally.

This was our routine for three days. Uninterrupted silence except the sounds of nature's own. We fished lures, flies and bare hooks.  I would be remiss to not mention that we did make several valiant efforts to catch one of the monsters.  A member of the party, while sitting on an outcropping of rocks that jutted out into the lake, while eating a cheese sandwich decided to dangled a treble hook into the water. A very large (but not monster) trout hit the bare treble hook and was landed.  It was the largest fish caught that trip.

After three days, it was time to head home. We had lived a true wilderness experience, sleeping under lean-to's, cooking over an open fire with no modern conveniences and without the sounds of civilization; certainly an experience that not many get to live...truly epic.