These pictures are all from Adam’s phone as we took turns using our phones during our trip to preserve battery since we’d be without charging stations for 4 days! 😆
Our first day was mainly spent hiking up to the meadow which is about a 5 mile hike in. We then set up tents, started collecting firewood, and started getting water boiling for dinner. We had fun talking around the campfire until everyone was ready for bed.
The next day we hiked 6 miles up to Lake Gadsby which is one of the Egbert family’s favorite lakes in the Winds. Not only is it the most beautiful blue/green color, but it is also surrounded by beautiful mountains, and we’ve only ever seen one other couple up there, so you usually have the place to yourself.
Because the lake is so remote though, it also means that you do a little bit of guess work to find it, which in our case meant we got a little lost. However, I think that was a happy accident because I had actually wanted to go and see two other lakes that day called Twin and Shirley, but had gotten outvoted, but our little side trip getting lost for a minute meant I at least got an arial view of the lakes! Yay!
Getting a little lost also meant that we got to see Gadsby as well from above, which is also beautiful, and that we got to take a more adventurous path down to it! Thankfully our nephew Sam had showed us there WAS a way down, or we would have had to do some serious backtracking.
We loved our time at Gadsby though and had the best weather yet while there. Usually its fairly windy which makes it COLD, but we lucked out and had really mild wind which made for a great day and beautiful pictures because the water was still! We stayed as late as we could, and then headed down so we could get back to camp before dark.
The next day we went to what the Egber family calls “Lost lake” but the lake on maps has no name. They just call it lost lake because for the first mile or two there is no trail which means that some of the time you get really lost trying to find it. 🤣
However, because I’ve been to lost lake oodles of times now being married to Adam for 19 years, and because we do this hike almost every year, I asked Adam if I could lead us to Lost and try out a different route than his family normally does because of a pattern I’d noticed. He let me try it out and I’m pleased to say we got to lost just fine! Yay!
Lost Lake is also really special to Adam because its the first place he ever caught a fish, at a place called explorer ponds. Its also one of our kids favorite places to fish as well. But we had a wonderful day at lost where each of the kids and Adam caught tons of fish, and I had a relaxing afternoon napping on the rocks.
Later we divided up into two groups with one group wanting to stay and fish longer and the other group wanting to head back to camp so we could get dinner going. I ended up going back to camp with Branson, Dawson, and Jamis, while Adam, Harry and Ady stayed to fish
.
We then all enjoyed a tasty Mountain house dinner and homemade dessert back at camp before heading off to bed. The last day was pack up and head home day, but Harry and I left a little early to go and explore one last lake that I love. It was about an hour detour, but in the end we ended up waiting for about 2.5 hours for Adam and the rest of the kids to meet up which we weren’t expecting so Harry and I ended up hiking back down the trail to see if anything had happened. Apparently Jamis had two left feet that day and kept falling down and struggled wanting to keep hiking so that had slowed them down, and then they’d also stopped to fish and play a bit at porcupine creek.
We were just grateful we finally found them and everyone was okay! Awesome Harry once again took backpacks for littler kids, and then I offered to as well, but little Ady was determined to finish the hike on her own! Cute thing. But another wonderful trip to the Winds! We sure are grateful to God for his beautiful creations we get to enjoy and for the opportunities we have to feel close to him in the mountains! <3
