Thursday, Aug 13 - Llama Trek to Three Forks Park, Popo Agie Wilderness

Up for breakfast, after which Gary arrived with another catch of 9 juicy trout. He considered just catch and release, but couldn’t resist when he kept catching keeper after keeper. How many opportunities do you get to eat fresh mountain lake trout??? So, we repeated the process, only this time I fried the trout, and once again Kayla did the bone separation to produce succulent chunks of trout to share with the crew. After this, we cleaned up, broke camp, packed up the llamas and we were on our way. I make it sound like we did this quickly, but even as efficient as we were in working as a team, it still would take about 3 hours to break camp and pack the llamas. We were on the trail at around 12 noon this day, with 7 miles to go to Three Forks Park. The distance made me nervous, considering how long it had taken us to go 3 miles a couple days before! On top of that, we were faced with a major water crossing after the first hour. We used the stop as an opportunity for a group photo with the llamas as the view to the West was open to snow-covered peaks and watery alpine meadows.

Once we got past the water crossing and left the mountain lakes area (10,500 ft and greater), we left the rugged trails behind as well and we found ourselves hiking in shaded alpine forests, with relatively smooth, descending trails. It was another beautiful day, so the going was good, and we attempted to put some miles behind us before stopping for lunch of summer sausage and rosemary crackers (gotta get me some of them crackers!) in a hilly, shaded area at a small creek crossing. We were all together hiking after lunch (we tend to get separated for reasons of photography, videography, or youth/age!), which ended with an extremely steep, rocky, arduous descent into the Three Forks Park area (around 9,000 feet), thus named because of the junction of 3 major trails in the Popo Agie Wilderness. Right at this intersection was a nice spot that we considered calling home for the evening, but we scouted up and down the trail and found a better spot away from this potentially busy intersection. There were spots on either side of the trail, but we chose to take the spot away from the smooth stream running nearby. The rules state you need to camp 200 ft from water and 200 ft from the trail. While the campsite along the creek was nice, it was really 10 feet from the water, and 10 feet from the trail!! It would only be a short walk for us to visit the stream, and the campsite farther from the trail offered a wide variety of tent locations. We arrived well before sundown, having covered the 7 miles in record time! We set up camp, and some headed to the stream for some fishing. The trout were biting, but they were very small. The stream setting with the trees and mountains was very serene. Another benefit of our camp was the ability to gather firewood and have a campfire, something we couldn’t do in our two days in the Ice Lakes.

Over the course of a trip like this, there are many “you had to be there” moments where things happen, we laugh and joke for hours and days about it, but when you try to explain it to someone else… Well, you know what I mean. Tonight, it was Susan and "The Soap". Having volunteered to do the dishes (just a small bowl with a small squirt of “Camp Suds” – highly concentrated), Susan proceeded to use about 2/3 of a bottle of Camp Suds in her 2 cups of dishwater. She and Michael spent the next 2 hours doing dishes and trying to rinse the soap from all the cups and silverware! We were all very relaxed and very tired, and just sat around the campfire and laughed and joked, including Susan and Michael!


Llama Trek to Three Forks Park photos - click for more