Twig Adventures

Category: Wind River High Route

2024 Summer/Fall Summary & Stats, Year In Review

14ers, Benton MacKaye Trail, Continental Divide Trail, Foothills Trail, Grand Canyon Rafting Trip, Great Divide Trail, Short Hikes, Teton Crest Trail, Uinta Highline Trail, Wind River High Route

2024 was quite a whirlwind for me, especially in terms of terrain, locations, and variety. I guess I could call it a Hiking Sandwich, with paddling trips serving as the bread. In short, I rafted the Grand Canyon, thru-hiked 2 shorter trails (BMT/Foothills Trail) on the east coast, went to AT Trail Days, hiked half of the Great Divide Trail in Canada, was forced off the trail by wildfires, then went on a wild and unplanned hiking spree in the Tetons, Gros Ventre, Winds, Sawtooths, and Uintas. In September, I hiked 16 14ers in Colorado, bringing my total over 40. I wrapped up the year revisiting some of the special places along the Hayduke in Utah and Arizona, followed by[…]

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Wind River High Route, Part 2

Continental Divide Trail, Great Divide Trail, Short Hikes, Wind River High Route

WRHR NOBO Day 1, Saturday, Aug 10th, 2024, Big Sandy trailhead to Big Sandy Lake west end, 5 miles, Elevation 9700′. I felt a bit defeated after our first attempt at the High Route, but better about our chances on our second go-around. Approaching the the route from the south allowed for more bailout points at the beginning. At first we were just going to do the Cirque of Towers circuit, but then we decided to try for the rest, wx forecast be damned. We brought about 6 days of food and hoped for the best. The biggest challenge was getting to the Big Sandy trailhead, which was almost a 2 hour drive one way. Incredibly, a Florida friend saw[…]

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Wind River High Route, Part 1

Continental Divide Trail, Great Divide Trail, Short Hikes, Wind River High Route

We managed a quick turn-around in Pinedale, gathering enough food for about 6 days, as we planned to do the Alan Dixon version of the high route. We briefly considered the Andrew Skurka version, but it looked like a more difficult route than we wanted to take on. Plus, we were already in Pinedale, so our options were limited to the two trailheads on the western side of the range: Green River and Big Sandy. These are the 2 start/end points of the AD route. Getting to either trailhead is a daunting task, as I already knew from hitching to and from Green River while on the the CDT. But we figured we could swing it. We also had our[…]

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