Wind Rivers 2009

Our hike out. Check out the background! Gorgeous.

Dad, Darren and Ethan hiking around the lake we camped at. Me, I'm napping on a rock (covered in netting, of course) across the lake behind them.

Set up some shelter from the hail. Notice: no netting! Hail to the hail!

A deer came to our camp and peed.

Took a day hike to Seneca lake the 2nd day. We found that if we got right on the edge of the lake, the breeze was stronger there and kept the mosquitos away. However, we kept our netting close for when the breeze died.

Another gorgeous view point. So beautiful. This is our first day and about 5.5 miles in. We had only begun to realize the horrors of the skeeters.

So, our trip to the Wind Rivers. It was supposed to be a 4 day backpacking trip, just me, Darren and my Dad. Well, small change of plans. Ethan threw such a tantrum when we left that we decided to just take him. He thought, because we had packed all this food, that we weren't coming back. Well, I've never seen him go at it the way he did. So, we turned the car around, got him, threw a few of his clothes and his sleeping bag into my backpack, grabbed his school backpack and threw some extra hot cocoa into his backpack and off we went. Ethan did amazingly well. We hiked in 6 miles the first day. We were supposed to do 10 to Seneca Lake, but Ethan was pretty spent (cough, cough, me too). The next day we hiked up to another lake and back and that was 8 miles, then 11 miles the next day when we hiked out. Ethan's quite the trooper. So, why did we only go 3 days? What could possibly have made the most beautiful place on earth so horrible? What could have made us all desperate to leave a most relaxing, tranquil place? One word: Mosquitos! Aaahhh! It's been a very wet year in the Wind Rivers and the mosquitos were in full force. When we first started out, we didn't notice them. Well, we were moving. The minute we stopped for our first rest, they swarmed. Uh-oh. This isn't good. It was awful. We were covering ourselves from head to toe. Netting all the time. In our tents the minute dinner was over. Bug spray wasn't enough. Going to the bathroom was torture. Slapping your butt while peeing is not fun. Occasionally we would have small bouts of reprieve from these torturers. The temperatures dropped to about 30 degrees when the wind blew. That chased the buggers away. We were prepared for the low temps so it was a blessing. It hailed a couple times. Still not a problem. We've got that covered. Kept the mosquitos away when it hailed. But they kept coming back and swarming! Ahhhh. Finally we decided to hike out the night before we were to leave. Enough was enough. And we'd run out of bug spray. Poor Ethan was scratching scratching scratching. We stopped in Pinedale on the way home and bought some calamine lotion. I stripped Ethan down to his undies and doused him in calamine lotion. He was covered in pink little speckles. Everywhere. Especially the neck, ankles, bum (ahem) and hands. Poor guy.

Otherwise it was a fantastic vacation.