Date: 6/18/21 – 6/20/21
Training Day: 147 – 149
Miles: 15 miles for the weekend
Fish Caught: 12
Lakes Fished: 3
Weather: Warm, mostly sunny days and crisp nights

How It Felt: The knee felt pretty good until the intense bushwhacking of the second day. It continued to bother me on the hike out. But the day after that it was feeling alright.

Commentary: A couple of friends and I went backpacking this past weekend to do some fishing in the mountains. The Wind River Range experienced an insane wind storm last September, and the trail crews are still working on clearing the blow downs. They said it might take years.

Anyway, our hike up was good for about two miles, then we hit the point when the trail crew stopped, and we had to find our way around the blow downs.

At some point I ended up on my own, and the boys somehow got ahead of me. I didn’t know this, so I waited 15 minutes for them in a clearing. Then I hiked on to another clearing and waited 30 minutes. I kept hiking and stopped one last time. No sign of them.

Once I got to the lake both of them had their tents set up and one was already fishing. Thank goodness they’re not dead! Instead of setting up the tarp I borrowed, I put up a small bug shelter to sleep in and called it a day.

I set up my fishing pole and tossed my line in the water a few times, and I did quite well! I even caught the biggest fish of the trip!

Last trip I forgot any flame to light my stove, so I had three lighters with me. But my dumbass forgot my stove this time. I’m actually grateful I did because my friend let me use his, and it is sooooo much better than mine. So good that I ordered one on the drive home.

The next day we set out for a lake about a mile and half from camp. The blow downs were ridiculous again, and it took us quite some time to get to our destination. The worst part is we only saw one fish in the lake and didn’t even get one hit. I guess that’s why it’s called fishing and not catching!

Our last day we packed up our stuff and stopped at a lake right off trail on the way to the trailhead. One friend and I managed to catch a few fish, and I got some great pictures of him trying to pose with him fish!

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It was just the sort of weekend I needed. Physical activity, challenging but relaxing, beautiful scenery and great company. Although my knee physically bothered me, I didn’t let it get to me. It’s almost like I found some extra patience in those mountains. My knee will het better when it does, whenever that is, and then I’ll start running again.

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