I'm 54, 5'11' and weighed 178 prior to the trip. My skin out weight was 11.5 pounds (7.5 in the pack and 4.0 worn/carried). 11 pounds of food plus some group gear and water brought my pack up to about 24 pounds on the first day. So the total weight on my feet the first day was about 206 pounds and about 195 on the last day. Trail shoes are fine for this type of load. I wore Salomon 3D XA-Pro trail runners with CEP/Medi(http://www.mediusa.com/sports.html)compression trekking socks and compression shorts to improve endurance and reduce fatigue. Feather-weight ankle gaiters (www.dirtygirlgaiters.com) help keep small pebbles and duff out of the low-cut trail shoes. After the trip I replaced the Salomons with Inov-8 RocLite 295's with "grippier" tread. I have done a few weekend trips with them, but haven't had them in a long distance off-trail situation.

Patrick, thanks. Dan, your comments are much appreciated too. Patrick, I will definitely take a look at the shoes-n-socks you so kindly pointed out. Thank you all for allowing the thread to get off the beaten path. I do appreciate it. And I do very much appreciate these trip reports. They allow me to get out even more and learn from such a large community.

Doug, thanks for sharing your gear list. Very informative.

Another place added to my long list of places to go. Sigh... Thanks for the report, guys!

I didn't realize until the end of the report that it was one of the BPL WT class groups. Is that right? I hope there are a lot more of those courses in the future. And more reports from them. Good times!

This was an optional trip, put together by the students in an online planning course. The trip itself was not part of the actual course.

Damien - great video, really capturing the joy of the trip.

A question: can you post the names of the songs you used? The groups are mentioned in the credits, but it would be nice to know the titles/albums, too. Excellent choices.

"This was an optional trip, put together by the students in an online planning course. The trip itself was not part of the actual course."

This was very clear to all of us from the beginning. We simply enjoyed the planning process so much that we all decided to follow through with our plan on our own. Very glad we did!

Ah, okay. Well, it's still a darn good end to the course, even if it was optional. The more the merrier!

Steven,

Glad you enjoyed the music! It turns out that I got one of the artist names wrong in the credits... actually I had originally used the one listed there (Metric), but decided to swap-out the song and forgot to change it. Here are the names of the artists and songs (listed in the order they are played):

- Brandi Carlile - Gone
- Afro Celt Sound System - Seed
- Sigur Ros - Saeglopur
- Filter - Take a Picture

So I have to ask...why does Ryan have the largest (heaviest?) pack?? Never thought I'd see that.
Tom

Ryan carried a CiloGear NWD 60L pack which is 3.5 lbs before any stripping. Knowing Ryan, it was probably 2 lbs or so after his work on it.

"So I have to ask...why does Ryan have the largest (heaviest?) pack?? Never thought I'd see that."

He had to carry my stuff. I'm a wuss.

Doug, that's funny!!

I've been spending 10 days or so there every year for a while now and can still never get enough. The Cathedral Group (North and South Fork Cascade Canyon) are awesome! However, the North end of the park is seldom seen by others. Moose Basin Divide, Bitch Creek ......beautyful. Just North off Grassy Lake Rd. you will find what was formally known as the "Huckleberry Hot Springs" Great place to soak.

It appears you averaged 8-9 mpd. I assume that was a very easy pace given the terrain and gorgeous weather you had. How do you think you would have been affected by snow at passes or on some ridges? I'm working on a similar route this summer as early as late June. I'd also assume water availability shouldn't be as much a problem June-Aug. How much water were you typically carrying?

That's about right...we could have easily managed 12-15 miles per day...but the spectacular vistas demanded a slower pace ;)

Snow is not a problem in late summer. If present, it would certainly would slow you down a bit. Early spring (April - May) conditions may require snowshoes.


Water was hard to find in late August on the northern end of the range due to porous, permeable sedimentary rock at the surface. We descended nearly 1,000 ft at the end of the first day to find water. Many of the small creeks and ponds in that (north) part of the range are seasonal and we found them bone dry in August. We each carried 2-3 litres where water was scarce. Once you walk into the crystalline igneous core of the central part of the range, water is abundant at all elevations. It's not a bad idea to review the local geology to determine the nature of the surface rock and its capacity to trap surface water along your route.

> It's not a bad idea to review the local geology to determine the nature of the surface rock and its capacity to trap surface water along your route.

I suspect not many of us have the geological knowledge you do. :) I know we have similar issues with the karst topography in Indiana. At what point on your route would you say that transition takes place (or is there some site that maps it)? Sounds like it may be worth staying a bit lower on the northern end (or carrying 4 liters perhaps).

Also, was there any particular reason for exiting at Phelps instead of the "normal" WY 22? Not enough off-trail perhaps?

Edited by topshot on 02/21/2012 06:45:17 MST.

Unfortunately, one member of our group was unable to complete the trek and left the trip at the trailhead on Badger Creek. Diverting to this exit point on the fourth day forced us to adjust our exit point to Phelps Lake.