A very very long Epic Journey

The High Line Trail

Well, it starts off with Matt getting a crazy idea, which is how most of our trips go. He was deciding between rafting for 10 days over 100 miles down some river, going back to Canada and doing a back packing trip there, or doing the high line trail. The river trip didn't happen because we don't have rafts and we didn't think there would be enough water this year. The Canada trip didn't happen because I was scared of the bears and wolves and I didn't want to drive there again. So thus of course we decided we could do a 80 mile hike across basically the whole Unitas.  

We decided to invite our brothers along for the fun too. So it was me, Matt, Kyle, Cameron, and Peter. The adventure began on a Monday with Matt's Dad driving us to hacking lake (near vernal-ish), which was about a 5 hour drive. We grabbed burgers and fries along the way for our last 'good' meal for the week. 

And now the Adventure truly begins . . .

Day 1

This is Peter - my little brother for those that don't know. I guess I should say younger brother. He's a bit taller than me. I'm really glad he came! 

Day 2

This is Me - I'm super excited for my Mountain house. 

This was a pretty sweet camp right by a lake. Matt caught a few fish here. There were also lots of deer around and they were kind of weird. They got really close and circled our camp through out the night. When it got dark we would shine a flash light around and you could see eyes all around us. Kind of creepy!

Day 3

This is Matt - my lovely husband and the photographer of this adventure. This is 1 of 2 photos of him on this whole trip. Oops! 

By the way Day 3 was a horrible day. We hiked a huge mountain pass and we just seemed to go on and on. I had a break down moment near the end of this day. I'm such a girl. 

This is Cameron - Matt's youngest brother. He was quite the hiker. It was fun having our younger brothers join us on our adventure! 

Day 4

It decided to rain. I know i'm smiling in this picture, but oh how I hated the rain. In most cases I love the rain, but not while hiking. 

At this point me and Peter decided we would probably hike to Kings Peek and then bail out afterwards. Peter had strained a muscle in his leg and I had a horrible cough. 

We were supposed to go over Anderson Pass and Summit Kings Peek this day, but it was too stormy.  I was really gunning it this day too. I knew I was getting close to the end and I just wanted to be done. I don't mean to sound like a party pooper, but after 4 days I was done. I don't sleep well while camping for one thing, then coughing most the night didn't help either. I also began to lose appreciation for the beauty around us. If you have to hike everyday all day. . . it's hard to enjoy what's around you. 

We had to chill under the trees for a few hours to wait out the rain. It rained for quite awhile so we decided to be done for the day. 

This was a really cool spot to camp though. Matt got a fire going and we ate food. The rain made everything more vibrant and the sky was way awesome. 

Day 5

Hiking up Anderson Pass was not fun! This was the first part of the hike where we actually saw a bunch of people since Kings Peek is pretty popular. It was pretty rough climbing since we had our packs on. I was jealous of the other people, because they all did a day hike from their base camp. 

This little guy is a pika, if you can find him. 

Kings Peak

We were unable to hike to the top of Kings Peek because it was stormy, which was a bummer since we were right there. It was kind of a relief too, because it would have been hard and taken awhile. 

Going down wasn't that fun either. Ha Ha I sound like such a pessimist. Going down really killed our feet, especially since we all already had a few blisters. 

It rained again. Even though I know we need rain. . . I still prayed that it would stop. We did find some cool hopping birds during this stop though. And it was pretty entertaining to watch Cameron try and wrap his torn poncho around him (I wish we had a picture). The rain stopped a few hours later and we continued. 

This was a super pretty lake. We saw literally tons of lakes along this whole hike. 

This is Kyle - Another one of Matt's younger brothers. He loves to fish and was super excited about catching so many at this lake. 

We had delicious fish for dinner and just in time too. . . because it started raining again. At this part of the hike we camped right at our bail out point. So Matt had to make the decision to continue on or not. We were at least a fulls day behind or more and they still had 4 more passes to climb and we had no clue what the weather would be like. In the end Matt decided to bail because he is a good husband and the unknown weather. He was worried I would get lost or hurt. 

 Day 6

This is our last day (sort of). . . and we thought it was going to be easy. . .but it was the worst!

Matt and I had looked at our bail out trail on the map a few times and he kept saying that it was all down hill. We didn't look it very well I guess. I mean I didn't expect it to really be all down hill, but what we got was the complete opposite. There were many steep hills/mountains we had to climb. 

Matt, Kyle, and Cameron decide to call it quits and camped by a little pond. I was determined to make it to the trail head and so was Peter. There was only like 2 miles left. I also really wanted a bathroom, because well that lovely time of the month came a little early.

Wild Man

So since we bailed we have to find a way to get service and call home. At this point Matt's parents had already dropped our car off  at mirror lake so we could just drive home when we were done. Since we bailed we needed a new plan to get home. So Peter and I continue on and we make it to the trail head. There were a few cars there and some horse trailers. We looked at the sign in sheet and realized no one would be leaving for a another day or two. 

Peter and I are just hanging out and going to camp at the trail head to wait for the other guys . We hear some people yelling in the distance so we started yelling back to them . . . hoping they'd hear us and have a car. We decided to start walking down the road to see if we can find these people. . .but while doing so Peter sees something through the trees down in the meadow. It's large and it's black. He starts running back up the hill. I  look down and see it too. It's a bear!! I look at it long enough to know it's a bear. I've seen bears before. So I'm a bit freaked out because Peter is already booking it up the hill so I start running too. We grab some food and Peter grabs his knife and we climb up the ladder and sit on top of the horse trailer. We sit there for a little bit and decide that we can't camp out in our tent knowing there is a bear near by. Peter has the lovely idea that we should get all our stuff and hide in the bathroom. It's a cement probably 6 by 6 bathroom and the door locks. So that is what we do. We ate dinner in there, we played skip bo, and yes WE SLEPT IN A  BATHROOM! It really didn't smell bad; at least to us anyway. Our survival skills paid off. Ha We were not eaten by a bear. 

 Day 7
The rest of our gang finally makes it to the trail head. Matt and I decide we will walk 5 more miles to Moon Lake, which is by a real road and is a lot more popular. Then the plan is that we will hitchhike into town and call my Mom. Then she could come get us and take us to our car and we would go back to get the rest of the boys. So we leave Peter, Kyle, and Cameron at the trail head just to wait for us. 

We saw an owl along the way. We think we woke it up from a nap, because it seemed pretty startled and got stuck in some branches. 

The end of hiking is near. We see a little bit of civilization. Once we got to Moon lake we had hiked about 65 miles. So I know we didn't do the full 80, but still it was pretty long.

We make it to the road and wait for a car. And then we hitchhiked - Yikes! This guy stopped and gave us a ride into Duchesne. He was a little strange at first, but seemed alright once we got going. We get there and we go to a diner to get some real food and while we are waiting I call my mom. This is where things get crazy and confusing. Apparently while we were hiking a nice man found our brothers and was able to drive down a few miles and call my Mom. She then called Matt's family because she didn't have enough room in her car for all of us. I guess things weren't communicated very well so Matt's Dad came to get us. Anyhow, it all worked out in the end. We all survived and got home safely. We just felt bad to make Matt's Dad drive so much.

A bear or a cow?
So to finish the bear story we end up telling Matt and his brothers about it when they meet us at the trail head. They were super jealous that they missed out. They kind of thought that we were silly for running away instead of watching it for awhile. But, Peter had never seen a bear in real life and got scared and so did I. So we end up going down to where we saw the bear and look for prints. We find a lot of mud and a giant cow. The night before I saw a pretty large black something, with stocky legs, and it was moseying around like a bear. After seeing the mud you could see how a cow legs could look shorter and stockier. And since it was kind of getting dark that night I didn't see a long tail, but there could have been. This bear was pretty darn big for a black bear, but you never know. So either way a pretty awesome story right? We either slept in a bathroom, because we saw a bear in the Uintas (which no one ever sees) or we slept in a bathroom because we saw a cow. . . A COW. 

 FYI: About a week before this trip I decided to get sick. We postponed our trip one day to load me up with medicine and vitamins. I felt a little better so I decided to go, which may have been a poor choice, but I didn't want to miss out - even knowing I would be miserable at some point or another. So just know I did this with a horrible cough, which actually ending up being whooping cough. . . so it's okay if you think I'm awesome! :) 

P.S. As much as it may sound like I hated this trip I really didn't. There were definitely moments where I wanted to be done. It was fun to be out in nature and the wild and see so many beautiful things. I know I won't do a hike that long ever again, but it was an adventure and adventures are always fun to talk about afterwards. I will definitely go back packing again though. It will just be a lot shorter and with days to just relax and camp. So until the next Adventure. . . 

The End