West Fork of Black's Fork River, August 2005

Highline Trail & WFBFAugust 19th thru 22nd, 2005 - High Uintas Wilderness

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• trip date: 8/19 thru 8/22/05
• distance: 31 Miles
• starting point: West Fork Black's Fork Trailhead (Map)
• destination: The Highline Trailhead on The Mirror Lake Highway (Map)
• peak elevation: 11,581' on top of Dead Horse Pass
• the group: A solo trip, just myself and Nikita

So this was the huge epic backpacking trip of the year. Actually it was the huge epic backpacking trip of my life up to this point. This is the longest trip I had ever done. And by far the longest thing I had ever done solo.

The plan was to get dropped off at the West Fork Blacks Fork (WFBF) trailhead on the north slope of the Uintas. From there I would hike up WFBF, over Dead Horse Pass, through Rock Creek Basin, over Rocky Sea Pass and then out to the Highline Trailhead near Mirror Lake on Hwy 150.

As you can see there is a whopping four images below. Allow me to explain... The first night we car camped, Taylor was to drop me off at the trailhead the following morning. We got to the trailhead and I was packing up the last of my things when a local rancher pulled up and opened the gate to WFBF. He had a big flat bed truck and I thought if I hurried he may let me catch a lift further up the canyon. This was the one HUGE mistake of the trip. Did I say HUGE? I meant humongous, monumental, colossal mistake. See photo below:

Oh wait. I have none. In my rush to catch a lift I left my camera in the 4 Runner. And I was not fast enough to catch a lift with the rancher. I was a few hundred feet into the hike when I realized my mistake but Taylor had already turned around and drove away. The nearest road was 17 miles away. I was on my own. With no camera. LAME.

I'll summarize the rest of the trip. It was supposed to be a 5 day trip. Day 1 was 10 miles up to Dead Horse Lake. Day 2 was about 10 miles over to central Rock Creek. Day 3 was about 11 miles out to the car. Yeah, I did it a little faster than I had planned. But it was lonely out there. I saw some of the most spectacular scenery in my life. I fished some beautiful lakes and caught nice big Brookies. I met a pair of mexican sheep ranchers in a place called Buck Pasture. I met 3 cowboys with about 10 hourse 15 miles from the nearest trailhead. They had every amenity you could imagine. A big stove, camp chairs, coolers. But did they invite me to hang out when I stumbled upon them in a torrential downpour? No. In fact one of them ran out from their camp and told me to hold still in the rain so he could take a picture of me and Nikita with her backpack on. I was going to camp at that lake but they changed my mind fast. The next day I met two couples sitting at the crest of Rocky Sea Pass with lighting striking all around. I met a pack of boy scouts near the end of the hike. It was absolutely incredible, every inch of it.

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