The original plan was to go backpacking with all of Rob's family, but with Matt's bad back and a funeral, Rob and I were left to go alone. We left the judicial conference later than we planned, and the drive to Wyoming took two hours longer than we had planned, so all of the sudden we found ourselves racing against the sun to get to our camp sight in time to set up before dusk. Everything may have worked out ok, because when we arrived at Half Moon lake in our car, we still had two hours of daylight left. However, I forgot the bug spray, and as soon as we stepped out of the car, we were attacked...not kidding...by hundreds of mosquitos. So, already in a time crunch, we had to drive twenty minutes back to town to get some. It was getting pretty dark by this time, so we decided it would be a good idea to get a hotel for the night rather than hike in the dark. Of all places in the world, Pinedale, Wyoming had ZERO vacancy's, except for two which were way above our budget. Seriously, we checked EVERY SINGLE hotel!! So at this point we were faced with two options; 1: we could sleep in the car, or 2: we could hike into Lower Pool Creek, about a 1 & 1/2 hour hike in the dark. Being the intelligent people we are we decided to disregard the guidelines all true hikers adhere too and hike into Lower Pool Creek when it was already dark.
Hiking in the dark is much more difficult than one may think, especially on an unfamiliar trail. About thirty minutes in, we realized we had gone off the trail, and had no idea were to go. Our headlamps just couldn't give us the light we needed to find it again. Go figure? Just before panic set in, we saw a camp fire in the distance! Hurray! We were not totally lost. We hiked to the camp fire hoping there would be other sights nearby to set up camp for the night, but the only other spot was about 50 meters from the other camp. We were polite and didn't set up our camp there, but having found the trail again, we set off to find another-any other-camp for the night. About ten minutes later we found ourselves once again off of the trail. But once again, we got lucky and spotted another camp fire. Upon getting closer we realized this was a little bit too familiar...and then discovered we had walked in a circle and made it back to the exact same camp sight. Tired, hungry, and sort of lost we set up camp practically in the other people's camp sight for the night. Silly. So this first picture is near half moon lake at our first camp.
We woke up really early the next morning hoping to avoid the campers we had camped with, and headed to our actual destination. Here it is!
The view from our camp. AMAZING!
Fishing! Rob is a pro.
First fishing attempt ever.
Rob will try to tell you that I caught this fish, but he actually hooked it and I reeled it in. My actual first catch was about the size of my pinkie finger. I felt so bad.
Yummy fish for lunch! It's kind of cool eating food you work hard to get.
Exploring for more fishing spots. If you look close you can see out camp sight near the river in the middle of the picture. Look for a white tent.
This is the most beautiful place I have ever been. It is seriously incredible.
More fish!
More exploring.
On our way out. So fun.
