Four Lakes Basin - August 14, 2008

For what looks to be my last trip of the year, I organized a trip for my brother and my brother-in-law up to Four Lakes Basin in the Uintas. We originally expected to have a few additional people on the trip, but conflicts came up and just the three of us went. We passed several folks along the way. We ran into a guy who rents pack goats. He had lost one of his goats and asked us to keep an eye open for it, but we never ended up seeing it.


Weather couldn't have been better for hiking. We made very good time up to our initial rest stop about 5 and 1/2 miles in. We stoppd at one of the prominent streams that cross the trail and endulged in some snacks and gatorade. We also treated a few developing blisters. The quality of the trail was not the best. Many parts of the trail were like walking up a creek bed...extremely rocky. The rockiness made for awkward stepping. I normally don't get blisters, but I got a few whoppers, and my brother-in-law starting having knee problems. Before we could quite make it to our destination, his knees locked up and left him in agony. Gratefully, we were close enough to our destination that we made it the rest of the way. My brother and I left my brother-in-law to rest and scouted out a decent spot where we could establish our camp. It was rather difficult finding a flat spot without rocks to pitch a tent. The site we chose wasn't the most fabulous spot, but given the circumstances would have to do. While scouting, we had carried one pack with us so that we could carry the other two packs after we retrieved my brother-in-law. That way he could walk the rest of the way without having to carry a pack, which he did with extreme pain.

Our original plan was to stay two nights, but we decided to start back early since we might be going very slowly due to injury. In the meantime, we made a great camp. I was able to try out one of my ideas for improvement by bringing an empty, 5-gallon water container (light as a feather). Instead of constantly refilling water bottles for drinking, washing, and cooking, we filtered a whopping 5 gallons all at once, built a tripod with some cut poles and a tripod lashing, and had what amounted to a backpacking kitchen sink. Any time you can do a little extra work and eliminate worrying about something, it is worth it. We didn't have to worry about retrieving water for every little thing every time we ran out...we never ran out!

Being as this was also my brother-in-law's first backpacking trip ever, my brother introduced him to what we call the "poo rope". Taking care of business in the wilderness can be downright unpleasant, or, if engineered properly, quite comfortable. All you need is a 6-foot piece of good rope and a bow line. Once you've dug a hole at your chosen location, you simply tie one end of the rope to a tree and the other end around your waist with a bow line. You use a bow line because it won't slip and tighten against your body. You can then lean back with both hands free to handle your business. This process eliminates all awkward reaching, straining, and leaning that risks total catastrophe. Of course, you must tie your knots properly, and heaven forbid something should attack you while you're tied to a tree, but at the very least you have one hand free to transact while the other can fight off buzzing and biting intruders. I suggested to my brother that he patent the idea.

The consensus was that we enjoy the evening and then get to the business the following day of figuring out how to get an injured hiker out of the middle of nowhere. To make matters more complicated, our night was not very pleasant. Although we had no rain, wind gusts thrashed at us for the majority of the night and prevented a reasonable night's sleep. In addition to the wind, whenever I have a lot on my mind or have a problem to solve, I sleep poorly. Oh, and the moon was almost full, which, in the Uintas, is unbelievably bright. You almost don't need a flashlight. Some people sleep better when it's dark.


We had a rather plentiful breakfast in the morning. We all rose early, and I hiked up to Amy Lake to catch a few trout. Another idea I came up with after my last trip was to pack a small and light cutting board. After catching the fish, I filleted them and removed the skin. I then seasoned them with salt, pepper and Lowry's seasoning salt (all packed in miniature ziplock bags). After breading the fillets in flour, I fried them in butter on my backpacking stove. The vote was unanimous...delicious.

We decided that our best bet was to give my brother-in-law a few light items and then divide the remainder of the gear between my brother and me. We offered a prayer and then began our hike back. An idea of cutting the injured two walking sticks which he could treat as semi-crutches popped into my head in the wee hours of the morning. They seemed to help significantly.

Our initial plan was to travel about halfway back and camp, but at some point during the trip back my brother-in-law was doing well enough and wanted to try to make it all the way back to the truck before sundown. I agreed that that was a good plan, so we pushed hard and made it the rest of the way back. There were spots when it felt like the trail was never going to end. I had an irritated hamstring that became outrageously mad by the end of the hike, partly due to a heavier pack. I am glad we were able to make it out though, and I hope my brother-in-law's knees are not permanently injured. It's a real blessing to be able to ask for help and strength from God and receive his aid. Indeed, we could never have done it without Him.

I have to confess that as I planned this excursion I thought we would be able to take on something tough and have no issues. The trail turned out to be one of the worst I've seen, especially carrying a heavy pack. The rockiness of the path required us to take awkward steps to get appropriate footing and avoid mistepping. If a person were trail running or just out for a light hike, it might have been different, but with a pack it was harder to be agile on such an uneven surface. Perhaps for trips in the future, especially group trips, it might make more sense to take the trip in shorter legs of 4 or 5 miles...at least to avoid injury.