More Essential Gear

Shoes:

Hiking boots or shoes are required. All trails in the mountains have sections of hard packed dirt, mud, streaming water, flat rocks and pointy rocks. I planned a trip that I was not able to go on do to a rock climbing accident. I ended up sending my father, brothers and a cousin down the worst stretch of trail they had ever encountered. It was miles of pointy basketball sized rocks. They had to carefully select each step and had many rolled ankles. I am secretly glad I didn't get to experience that part of the trail.

This nasty rock laden trail brings me to a point on hiking shoes:

Make sure your shoes have good soles. Miles of walking on roots, rocks and other uneven terrain will have your feet aching unless the soles of your shoes prevent your feet from feeling the rocks and roots. Most good outdoor stores that sell hiking shoes have a inclined ramps with rocks fixed to it. When you try on hiking boots make sure to walk around on this ramp and if you feel the details of the rocks, points and ridges, do not buy those shoes.

Ankle support is also a good quality to look for in hiking boots/shoes. I need ankle support with my once broken ankle but when I was younger I liked to hike in trail running types of shoes. These are nice because they are lighter but just make sure the sole is nice and stiff.

I used to bring an extra pair of tennis shoes. My dad made fun of me for carrying the extra weight until I stepped into a mud hole that swallowed my hiking shoe, the trail running type. My converse all stars weren't the best but they were better than my mud filled hiking shoes.

It is normal to get shoes wet and muddy, on the outside!! Wet feet make for blisters which make for exceedingly painful walks home. Make sure your hiking shoes have good soles, ankle support, and are water proof/resistant. If you can handle the extra pounds hang some old sneakers off the back of your pack in case a mud hole gets too close to you like it did me.

Below are a few pictures of decent hiking shoes:

The Wind River Range and Good Backpacks

This is Brother Dillman. I am very excited for the upcoming high adventure trip. I have camped in the Wind River Range five times for about one week at a time. Three of the trips were camping at the headwaters of the Green River. As a youth, our young men's group had a great time hiking, swimming briefly in frigid glacier fed lakes and fishing. The views at the Green River Lakes are the most impressive landscapes I have ever seen. The picture I have shown below is Squaretop Mountain. I met some climbers that climbed up the face of the mountain, about 2000 vertical feet, over the course of two days, sleeping on the wall overnight.

I also led two backpacking trips in in the New Fork Lakes area which is just south of the Green River Lakes. I will show more pictures and discuss these trips in later posts. I can say from experience that a good plan and good gear are essential to having a good successful trip in these mountains.

Essential Gear
Backpack:

Obviously for multiple day trips into the wilderness you need a backpack. An acceptable backpack must have a frame, internal or external, and a good padded waist band. Unlike school bags, which do not work well for long backpacking trips, real backpacks are carried on the hips. If you try to carry 30-50 pounds for 4-8 hours a day on your shoulders only, you will be incredibly sore, to the point of being debilitated. If a backpack is carried on the hips only mild soreness will be experienced. So make sure the backpack you bring has a good padded waist band. Internal frame backpacks are a little more comfortable than external frame backpacks. The advantage of external frame style packs is the ease of strapping sleeping bags, fishing poles, canteens, and other gear to the frame. The external frame makes this a little easier that the fixed loops and pockets of the internal frame packs. So either style will work fine it just comes down to your personal preference. The following backpacks are good examples of external and internal frame packs:

Link to High Adventure Camp Document

The following link will take you to a document prepared by Bro Johnson that describes the preliminary  plan for the high adventure backpacking trip. To view it please copy the url and paste it in you browser address bar.

Click here, it is actually quite comical.