For a short background on this series, see my first post.
July 2014 – Cloud Peak – Big Horn Mountains, WY
This was the first true backpacking trip for my brother and I. Two main lessons came from this trip.
First, mosquitoes can be downright awful in the mountains. I had grown up with mosquitoes in Wyoming, but never had I been swarmed by as many as we were on this trip. I remember being in our tent and we could hear the hum of all the mosquitoes outside. I can’t remember if we brought bug spray or not, but this trip definitely moved bug spray to the essential list of items to take on future backpacking trips.
Second, it is very easy to get lost. From what I had read prior to the trip, the hike from Mistymoon Lake was pretty straightforward, and my brother and I made it to the peak without any problems. The approximate route we took is reflected by the blue line in the image above. However, on the way down, we somehow managed to take a slightly different route. I believe it was something like the red line the screenshot above, although I’m not sure where we actually got off our original route. We were following cairns on the way down since most of the route was boulder/rock hopping without any trail, and the cairns we followed took us a different route on the way down. We had no idea we were going a different way until we eventually realized we were somewhere we hadn’t been on our way up. That was not a good feeling. Based on our map, I was pretty sure we were headed in the same general direction, so we kept going and thankfully we met back up with our original route, but it could have been pretty bad if that different route had taken us in a different direction. So don’t think just because you made it to your destination that the trip back will be no problem and you can let your guard down.
Brent Umphlett Photography Blog 