Tag: off trail

trip video: Teton & Washakie Wilderness – Younts Peak, July 2022

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This is a companion video to our upcoming trip report.

Meeting up with Richard and Mike, fellow backpackers from Backcountry Post forums, we were headed to Younts peak over the Wyoming high country along the Continental Divide. This was the second time I joined Richard on an adventure and since I’d survived the first, I thought I’d push my luck. Luck, in this case, can be interpreted as a few guests we met, 16 specifically.

You can our full detailed report of our hikes below in the index as they are posted.

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guest trip report: Bob Marshall Wilderness – Prairie Reef & The Chinese Wall, September 2023

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Adventures with Richard is always amongst the most challenging backpacking trips on my calendar. I’m assured plenty of bushwhack and boulder hopping. But it’s all worth it. To provide another viewpoint of our backpacking trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness, this report was written by Richard (themountainrabbit.com) in 2023 on the backcountry post forum. With permission, his writing was edited by site editor and owner John (me) and published here. It is also supplemented with my pictures and video. This was the third trip I’ve done with Richard and all three were epic. 

Richard:

I’ve been trying to get out to the Bob Marshall Wilderness for a number of years now – I’m happy to say I finally made it. For the third year in a row, I was able to join up with John and we had a fantastic trip. I will say, despite my love for September/October backpacking, if I go back to do any high traverses in “the Bob” it will probably be earlier in the year – there’s very little water above treeline by September. I suspected this and planned for it, but it definitely affected our route.

I’d told John that I hoped for a bit of snow and shoulder season conditions and I wasn’t disappointed on that count. The weather did convince us to make a few alterations to the route – including missing a traverse of the Chinese Wall itself – but I’ll be back, so it’s all good. And we did get to do the section I was most excited about – it didn’t disappoint in the least.

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trip video: Bob Marshall Wilderness – Prairie Reef & The Chinese Wall, September 2023

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This is a companion video to an upcoming backpacking trip report (at some point).

Richard and I teamed up again for a late season backpack into Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. The Bob Marshall Wilderness is just south of Glacier National Park in Montana and is known for the 15 miles long feature called the Chinese Wall. Unlike the typical hike to visit these Walls, we had plans to be on top a couple of them. What do they say about plans? Regardless, my 3rd team up with Richard was again a Wild adventure, with a capital “W” as he says.

You can our full detailed report of our hikes below in the index as they are posted.

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trip report: Wind River Range – Ross Lakes, Bear Basin, Grasshopper Glacier, & Dinwoody Creek loop, September 2020

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At one point on our eight day off trail backpacking trip into the Wind River Range, we set up our tent on a bluff overlooking a turquoise colored lake. No matter how often I’ve encountered them, they seem so surreal every time still. Across from us was the terminus of Connie Glacier spilling down into the lake. The funny thing was, we joked that probably the closest person from our five star camp this evening was at least 5 hour, 5 miles, or at least another valley away from us. We were roughly 1 to 2 days of tough and technical travel across talus & scree from the nearest trail, making those prospects not surprising at all. This was our experience in the northern portions of the Wind River Range, it beat us up and I still look forward to returning.

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This is part 1 of 2 of our trip out to Wyoming and Colorado. In this part, we cover our eight day off-trail backpacking trip in the Northern Wind River Range. Get ready folks, this is a long read or very much “magazine” style.

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