Wind River Mountains

Wyoming - USA

September 2006

Day 5 - Monday, September 4, 2006 - Indian Basin

We got up at 8:45, had breakfast and broke up camp.  We then headed down the Titcomb Basin, over to Pothole Lake, where we took the fork up to Indian Basin.  The trail along Indian Lake was quite obscure in places and we kept on losing it.  However we sooner or later got back on it again if we just headed in the general direction we wanted to go.  In all it took us an hour and 25 minutes to get to the base of Jackson Peak where we wanted to camp.

The view of Ellingwood Peak from our tent at Indian Basin

It then took us almost an hour to actually find a spot flat enough to pitch our tent on.  This is not a good valley for camping as there are almost no flat spots.  We did however find a nice enough spot on a bit of a ledge which gave us a great view out of the tent door.  After setting up camp, filtering some water and getting settled in we lazed around, enjoying the sights and planning our trip for the next day.  As this valley is not as deep as Titcomb Basin the sun went behind the peaks quite a bit later so we had dinner in the sun, overlooking Indian Lake.

Day 6 - Tuesday, September 5, 2006 - Hike up Fremont Peak

The sun got to our campsite at 8:30am, which is when we ventured out of the tent.  After a breakfast of cereal and powder milk we got our day pack ready with snacks and 3 liters of water, seeing as there appeared not to be any water where we were going.  We headed out at 9:05am and soon caught up to 4 other guys who were camped lower down on Indian Lake.  One of the 4 was having a bad time with the altitude so we easily passed them.  We got to the saddle at 12,000 ft an hour after leaving camp.  After a short break we headed the final 1,500 ft to the summit which we did in 1hr and 10mins from the saddle.  There was high cloud, which made the air a bit chilly, and a light breeze.  However, we could see a long way off and what a spectacular view it was.  Fremont Glacier was huge.  The whole back side of Fremont Peak was covered by the glacier with a bergsrund running the full length of it.  We also got a great view of Gannett Peak from there.  Robert and I walked along the ridge as far as we could go and got a good view of Titcomb Basin from up there.

We found an aluminum cylinder on one of the peaks with a book and pen, which we signed, but there was no altitude marker.

After having lunch and chatting with the three guys who made it to the summit (1 guy didn't) we started down.  We had spent 2 hours up there, just enjoying the views.  It took us 45 minutes down to the saddle and another 40 minutes to camp.  It was by then totally cloudy and starting to get cold.  We spent the rest of the afternoon in the tent, just staying out of the wind.  We were going to have a bath but with it being so cool we decided against it.

Grumpy, Treasure, Ruffus and Festus on the cairn at the top of Elephant Head - Fremont can be seen just to the right of Grumpy's head with Jackson to the far right.

Day 7 - Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - Hike up Elephant Head

The sun once again broke over the top of the peaks around 8:30am, which was when we got up.  We chatted to an Australian hiker for some time, had breakfast and then headed for Elephant Head.  It was quite steep towards the top with large boulders and slippery gravel between them.  In all, from our camp, it took us 1 1/2 hours to the cairn at the summit of Elephant Head.  The view was hazy from smoke somewhere to the west.

Robert halfway down Elephant Head, heading down to the saddle then up the low mound beyond.

After lunch of burrito shells, string cheese and salty roasted almonds we headed down to the lower peak to the north east of Elephant Head.  It was a quick 25 minute hop over there, though the going was slippery in places.  While we were hanging out, with our backs to Elephant Head, we heard a loud thunder clap just the other side of the peak we were on.  While we had been sitting there a dark cloud had formed, so we quickly started making our way down to the valley.  After a few minutes it started to snow on us.  In all we walked in the snow for about 40 minutes.  It took us 1 hr 10 minutes to get back to the tent.  We quickly bundled ourselves into the tent, took off our wet clothes and spent the rest of the afternoon reading.

A view of Elephant Head from the trail leading out of Indian Basin

The snow eventually turned to rain, which stopped around 4:30pm.  I got out and made some hot tea to warm us up a bit.  We then went over to our new neighbors, who had pitched camp just downhill from us.  There 3 guys were from New England.  They were the only other tent in the valley with us.  They had gone up Fremont that day and were lucky enough to get to their tent again before any of the precipitation started.  After chatting for some time I broke away to make dinner, lentil soup with fruit & nut bars for desert.  After dinner the sun momentarily came out from between the clouds.  We had planned on having a bath but it was so cold and windy we decided to live with the smell and clean up when it warmed up.

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