Wind River Range, Indian Basin, Fremont Peak, August 2007
Over the years of drinking beer and margaritas together, my friend Jeff and I dreamt about doing something more active together. This year the stars aligned and we headed off to Wyoming's Wind River Range. Jeff decided that we must be the only two grown adults in the range whose combined height is less than eleven feet. Trail and summit registers have been signed stating that fact. (Jeff towers several inches above my 5’ 2” frame, so we still have quite a ways to go for eleven feet, actually).For a first trip to the Winds we settled on the accessible Elkhart trailhead, into the incomparable Indian and Titcomb Basins for 5 days. We bagged Fremont Peak 165 years to the day after John C. Fremont was first on the mountain. We finished with a couple of days in Lander, visiting Sinks Canyon and hiking miles up the Middle Popo Agie River. (Extra credit for those who can correctly pronounce that Crow Indian name – I couldn’t).
The Winds exceeded expectations. We are already scheming for a less than eleven feet sequel next year.
