Here we are the first night at a little place called "Goldbug"--a hot springs ofcourse! No trip with Maddog is complete unless it involves a hot springs. And this hot springs is one of the Gem State's true gems. It's secluded and not that easy to get to so that there weren't too many flat-landers to spoil it. Also, the view was fantastic. See below.
These are some scary old men. Wouldn't want to see these guys in the wilderness. Especially with their shirts off. Yikes!
Here's the motley crew ready to take down the Big Horn Crags in the Wilderness of No Return. Some of us almost didn't, in fact.
Taking in the beauty of the crags.
This place was called The End of the World. It kind of felt that way considering how long it took to hike down to it. It was pretty sketchy with all of the slick rock that we had to slide down. We took it pretty slow so we wouldn't go careening off the cliff that was just behind me. The view was well worth the risk!
Here are some more pictures of the crags. Fantastic!
This lake was our fist camping spot. It was called Wilson Lake. It was here that Maddog showed us how true mountain lakes are swam in (wink, wink). He was the first to jump in. After that, the fish really stopped biting.
More views of Wilson Lake and I forget the name of the one behind it.
Here's Ken and I with a shot of Airplane lake behind us. Ken took a pretty hard tumble on the way out the next day. Fortunately, he's pretty spritely for an old fellow so it didn't slow him down too much.
Another view of airplane lake.
Airplane lake up close. Got a few mosquito bites here.
Here's D-Mo photobombing my selfie.
The view behind me is the slick rock we came down on the way to the End of the World. You can see how steep it was. Wouldn't want to walk down it wet.
More End of the World shots. There was a nice waterfall here.
More crags.
At long last the trip was over. It was successful by all accounts since we all returned with minimal injuries. A few in the party got lost (cough, cough Devin) and one poor guy almost needed resuscitation from exhaustion. Luckily, he made it out on his own steam the next day. We had a delicious burger at this hole-in-the-wall restaurant just before heading back home. It capped off an awesome backpacking trip which hopefully won't be the last!
4 comments:
Sounds like a great time! Glad you got to go and were no worse for the wear.
Great man post J-man. I learned things I hadn't heard before ;-) I'm so glad you were able to go! I love that last picture of you 3 handsome guys after a successful backpacking trip!
Now we are actually getting somewhere on this blog! I'm still dreaming of Goldbug, the Crags, and that best-I've-ever-eaten cheese burger with bacon there in Challis after eating backpacking food for days. Thanks for not mentioning our first night camp location . . . it's a little embarrassing to us mountain "mans".
Nothing says Boy Scouts like camping in a parking lot. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about this tough guy trip on the first night. Thankfully, the rest of the trip was completely epic and worthy of Bear Grylls himself. Swimming in high mountain lakes, taking shelter from massive hail storms underneath trees, performing CPR on Rick Hurst. What more could you ask?
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