Blog commenter DAVID just received a book entitled "Sky's Witness, A year in the wind river range" about a guy doing research in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. The study was to try to determine what all airborne garbage was being detected in the snow and rainfall traps on the backbone of the Rockies in that area. The gut wrencher for me was my probably never being able to go backpacking there again.

Our power plant construction project was shut down by a labor strike. A bunch of us from our company decided to take a backpack trip into some lakes in the Wind River Wilderness. In the book, the author seemed to be going up the same trail we did to Big Sandy Lake.

When I pack for a trip of any kind there is the tendency to take more than some folks, especially my wife, deem necessary. My GI surplus back board, from comments about it, was designed to haul what someone said was a field pack canon or howitzer. One thing for sure, it wasn't designed for how I tried to use it. The curved plywood frame had several hooks along each side on the back for lashing a load to it.

Seemingly always on a tight budget, my idea was load up extra canned goods, cooking gear, clothes, fishing tackle,etc. into a GI duffle bag and lash it to the frame. Experienced packers know to get your weight distribution as high as possible (that is right, isn;t it?) to help your balance when totin' a load.

Somehow, the load sensed my tenderfoot lashing tecnique and figured a way for the load to work its way down to half way down my butt rather than up on my back and shoulders. I must have looked more like a humpbacked pregnant goose than a man going up that trail. It was darned unweildy and very uncomfortable.

Anyone who hasn't hiked in the mountains should know that wilderness trails aren't covered with blacktop like some of the jogging/bike trails in city parks. There are tree roots, various sizes and shapes of rocks, downed trees, critters like porcupines, clouds of mosquitoes and maybe even swarms of biting flies on a forest trail. You also might encounter bears, deer, elk, moose and other disagreeable critters such as other hikers who seem to think that they OWN the trail.

On the plus side of hiking into high country lakes, especially as soon as the ice melts off them, is that the fish are usually ravenous and will often hit anything you throw at them for bait. There is often the casual observance of local wildlife including the young of the year (be careful not to get between mamas and her babies).

Back to the sliding groceries, you can bet an earnest effort was made to consume all the canned goods before heading back down the mountain. Pork & beans and fried spuds went well with all those fresh fried trout.

Remember: Dig the potty hole well away from water and cover your latrine and pack the dirt well before breaking camp. Take out all your trash and leave nothing but tracks.

How about sharing some of your high country adventures with us?