Chemists in the Winds 2013

On Wednesday, August 7, Jack and Peg drove to Pinedale and stayed overnight in the Sun Dance Motel. The next morning, they entered the Winds at the Spring Creek trailhead and hiked to Glimpse Lake where they camped that night. On Thursday, August 8, the rest of the group (Peter, Matt, Patty, and Erin Armentrout and Mary Ann White, Chuck, Heather, and Lee Ann Wight) drove to Pinedale where they also stayed in the Sun Dance Motel. On Friday, the big group hiked from the Spring Creek trailhead to Neil Lake, while Jack and Peg hiked from Glimpse Lake to Neil Lake. After searching for good campsites, surviving a rainstorm, and looking around for one another, the two groups got together Friday afternoon at their Neil Lake base camp. Below is a photo showing the entire 2013 group at their base camp.

Mary Ann White, Matt Armentrout, Erin A, Lee Ann Wight, Heather Wight, Chuck Wight, Patty A, Peter A, Peg Simons, Jack Simons

On Thursday’s hike in, the view looking down at Freemont Lake showed a lot of haze from a fire several miles to our northwest.

But, Peg kept truckin’ along the trail toward Glimpse Lk.

This is the view looking down into the deep Pine Ck. canyon containing Freemont and Long Lakes (this is Long).

Finally, J and P got their first glimpse of Glimpse Lk (above)

This is J and P’s campsite at Glimpse Lk.

The next day (Friday), J and P left Glimpse Lk and hiked to Neil Lk. This is the view from a half mile north of Glimpse looking down into the Pine Ck. canyon.

This is Prospector Lk about a mile from Glimpse Lk

The wildflowers were beautiful, especially as we gained elevation.

This is the next lake, Little Trapper Lk.

And, in another mile, we came to Trapper Lk. where we see hints of higher mountains in the distance.

After two more miles at around 1 pm, we reached the lake just to the west of our goal, Neil Lk. P and J scouted a good campsite and waited for the arrival of the Armentrout and Wight clans who showed up around 3:30 pm after a rain event of about an hour.

Lee Ann, Matt, Peter, Erin, Mary Ann, and Heather getting our camp communal area set up.

The next morning (Saturday), we took a hike up to Summit Lk. This is the lake near our base camp showing how calm the wind was.

Gottfried Lake was about one mile along the trail from our camp.

Mary Ann, Patty, and Chuck moving along the beautiful trail.

With Peter, Heather, Matt, and Erin coming along behind.

The next lake we came to is Borum Lk, which is a bit closer to the tree line.

As we gain even more elevation, we begin to see some higher peaks.

Finally, as we approach Summit Lk, we see Glover Pk to the northwest.

Erin, Mary Ann, Matt, Patty, Heather, and Peter at Summit Lk.

This is the view from the top of Glover Peak looking southeast toward Summit Lk

(we climbed Glover in an earlier year).

This is Chuck (with Jack following) beginning to go down the wrong trail on the way back from Summit Lk to base camp. Matt yelled at us to correct our error.

Here come Mary Ann, Matt, Patty, Heather, and Erin moving along the correct direction.

Again, the wild flowers were spectacular.

We all made it back to base camp. Here are Chuck, Matt, Patty, Mary Ann, and Peter.

The next day, we went on another day hike. This time to Gottfried Lk and the west to Heart Lk and Dean Lk. The above two photos show most of the group beginning this hike.

Again, we first got to Gottfried Lk.

When we got to Heart Lk, we saw these really pretty Lilly pads. After passing Heart Lk and going to Dean Lk, we returned to Heart and then cut cross-country back to our base camp.

This shows Chuck and Heather cleaning up after the hike to Dean Lk.

The next morning, Peg and Jack left camp at 6:30, just as the sun was coming up over the mountains.

After about an hour, they made it down to Trapper Lk.

Where they stopped to take a look back at the mountains they had camped near.

The wildflowers were pretty as they hiked out.

Little Trapper Lk had a lot of Lilly pads on it.

When they got to the Crow’s nest just above Glimpse Lk, they took one last look down into Pine Creek canyon.

This is Glimpse Lk with its Lilly pads.

As we neared the trail’s end, we got good views down Pine Creek canyon to Freemont Lk.

Peg feels the end of the trail near. This is the last photo from the 2013 Chemists in the Winds. After Peg and Jack finished, the rest of the group soon appeared. We drove into Pinedale for a nice late lunch and then back to SLC.