Sonnicant Lake Wind River Range, Wyoming

The Wind Rivers. I'd always heard how beautiful and impressive these mountains were, but I'd never been here myself. As a matter of fact, this was a first for all of us. Having a little lunch, probably a little shy, shy of halfway I'm guessing, which we did talk to some people. I guess there's a bear running around up here somewhere. They just ran in till about 15 minutes ago. We had also talked to some folks at the trailhead. They had told us that it was much easier and faster to get into Raft Lake through Twin Lakes, but that did not hold true for us. Once we left the meadows to Twin Lakes, the trail was overgrown, unmarked, and most definitely unmaintained. Realizing that we weren't going to make Raft Lake by dark, we had to cut our losses and make camp at Twin Lakes for the night. It was a beautiful morning in the winds. We wanted to get an early start and try to make up for some lost time. We'd heard the fishing was good at Raft. We were all pretty anxious to see for ourselves. Good morning. Morning of day two. Pretty rough hiking yesterday. We didn't make it as far as we wanted. We wanted to make it to Raft Lake. We got up to Twin Lakes, but the trails just kept disappearing on us. Should make for a pretty easy hike today to get up to Raft Lake. I believe we've only got a mile. We're going to backtrack a little bit back to the last defined trail that we saw, which is probably it's going to be a good half, three quarters mile back. Hopefully we can hit that and get up to Raft. Once we got packed up, it was another tough day of hiking. At times we could easily see and follow the trail, but at other times we were dropping our packs and spreading out just to try and find anything that resembled a trail. After what seemed like the better part of the day, there it was. We just pulled into Raft Lake. It took way longer than we thought it was going to, but needless to say, we made it. So I think we're going to start getting camp set up and go out and see if these rumors about these Mackinaw on this lake are true or not. Good morning. It's the morning of day three. We're here at Raft Lake. We're going to take a zero here today and pretty much focus on doing some fishing. Caught a couple macks last night. Rachel was on fire. She caught more than the rest of us. We're just getting ready to head out. We're going to go walk around this lake, go see what the fishing is like. It wasn't too bad yesterday. We're just hoping we can maybe get into some bigger ones today. So far the fishing's been a little slow. We've caught a couple. A couple brooks. I actually pulled in a mack on my fly pole, which I didn't think that was even possible, so that was cool. He wasn't huge. He was about 16 inches. This lake is beautiful. It's been a blast just walking around and exploring it. Josh and Rachel and Mike are down below me fishing. Just trying to make my way around this cliff face so I can get to a new hole. Hopefully pull some fish out. I'd had people describe the winds to me as the Uintas on steroids, but now that I'm here, I don't think that's true. The winds definitely have a character and a vibe that is all their own. It's the morning of day four. We're here at Raft Lake. Everybody's just getting up and getting some coffee and some breakfast going. I think we're going to pack up and head out. We're trying to make it to Sonican Lake today, which we'll see what happens there. It's about a six, seven mile hike, but if the trails are anything like they were coming into Raft Lake, I don't know if we'll make that today. Heading out of Raft Lake. We knew it was going to be a long hike to get into Sonican, but we were just hoping the trails would be a little more defined and, well, user-friendly. So we made it to Sonican. It was a little farther than we thought. A little over 10 miles to get here, but thank god the trail was so much better. We didn't lose it one time. There was even a sign on one part of the trail. Of course it was pointing to Raft Lake, so we obviously went completely the wrong way, but we're going to stay here for two days and we're going to go hike around and check out some of the other lakes. Really want to try to make it down to Darin Lake. We're going to hit Sonican, maybe Little Sonican, maybe Spider, but definitely Darin. The fishing at Raft Lake was pretty decent, but it was amazing at Sonican. Fish would definitely be on the menu tonight. It is day five, morning of, so we hiked up into this no-name lake. A few miles from camp, do some fishing. So far the fishing has been amazing. It's just full of cutthroat. Guys are killing it on a spinner. I'm trying to get one on a fly here. I haven't had much luck yet, but I just barely started. So we're going to fish here for a little while and I think we're going to move on up to Darin Lake. And supposedly there's some big, big cutthroats in there. So we're leaving this lake that doesn't have a name. It's had some pretty good fishing for cutthroat. We are going to bushwhack our way and drop down into Darin Lake. Supposedly there are some big cutthroats there. Solitude Lake. Stopped here for lunch, all threw in a few casts, all caught a few fish. Might have to hit this on the way back, get some dinner. That's Darin Lake off in the distance and Ice Lake up near near us. Supposedly there's five pound cutthroats in there. We're going to walk right past Ice Lake, go start chucking spinners and flies into Darin, see what we can pull out. It was another beautiful morning in the winds. And I gotta tell you the views around Sonican were breathtaking. But we knew we had a tough day of hiking ahead of us so we wanted to get an early start. But honestly I don't think any of us were quite ready to leave Sonican Lake. Our plan was to make it to the meadows. That's where we intended to make camp for the night. But the miles were starting to stack up and take their toll. And we knew we still had to make it up over Antigua Pass so we decided to take a break, eat some lunch, and really just enjoy where we were at for a bit before making our way up over the pass. Antigua Pass proved to be a bit longer and more grueling than expected but once we made it to the meadows and set up camp we still had enough in the tank to throw a game before making dinner and turning in for the night. Here we are, morning of day seven. Had an interesting night last night. Had some Catholic school girls across the way that sang most of the night and then started up again this morning. Now everybody's just having coffee and breakfast and then we're gonna get on trail and get to the truck. Should have a fairly quick and easy out today. All right, day seven, break and camp. Heading back to the truck. This is always the bittersweet moment. But I think everybody's ready for a nice big greased burger and a milkshake. All right, it's a done deal. We've made it back to the truck. It was a real easy out today. As a matter of fact, I think we were only on trail about an hour and a half.