In August of 2002 my brother Jim and I went out to the Wind River Mountains for what was to be a weeklong trip from the Elkhart Park trailhead to Island Lake. We left from Minnesota and took the same back roads I had taken the year before (a route I shall credit to Uncle Mark, the well traveled truck driver), stopping at Independence Rock again. I had learned one lesson the year before, and that was to start at a higher elevation, so we were in beautiful country and in view of the highest mountains almost the entire time.

We were going the long way around to get to Island Lake -- Pole Creek Trail to Wall Lake, then cross country north to Island Lake where we would base ourselves for a couple days and try for a walk-up or two. Return was to be via Indian Pass Trail back to Pole Creek Trail.

While we cut the trip down to a three-day loop (skipped the Wall Lake to Island Lake leg, still did the Pole Creek Trail and the Indian Pass Trail), we had a good time and mostly good weather. I think our trip over Lester Pass after we missed the turnoff for Wall Lake on the first afternoon was supposed to be a consolation for not getting to our intended destination.

And it was Jim's first wilderness trip of any sort, so he can't complain too much about me cutting it to three days. I determined though that my biggest problem with staying out so long isn't the walking or the distance -- it's largely the lack of a place to stay (one that I don't locate and assemble) and good food (that I don't prepare) at night, which is why Nepal was perfect.

We didn't have a digital camera at the time, so these are scans of our one roll of film. I've finally (in 2007) attempted to identify some of the places since I was much more aware of identifying peaks and lakes during our trip in 2005.