Day 95: The Cirque of Towers and Beyond

Mileage: 23.6 miles (1677.8-1701.4)

I started off the day walking past the diving board, a spot where you could stare down a 2,000 ft vertical drop from East Temple Peak. I didn't do it, mostly because I would have had to walk extra uphill, and I was anxious to get to the Cirque of the Towers, one of the most famous areas of the Wind River Range.

Big Sandy Lake had great wildflowers, with the meadows dotted with pink Parry's Primrose, Purple Lupine, Alpine Fleabane, and a yellow aster I didn't know. It was a splendid display, made all the more spectacular by the sheer granite peaks towering over the meadows.

On my way up to the Cirque I met a nice couple with dog from Grasse Valley, CA. We sat and chatted before I headed up to the pass, where I could check out the Cirque for the first time. 

From my first glimpse, I realized the Cirque was truly incredible. It's a place that reminds me most of Yosemite, with its impossibly sheer cliffs, framed by a brilliant blue sky. There were towers with names like Sharknose, Warrior Peak, the Watch Tower, and most famous of all, Pingora Peak, a very popular climb for rock climbers around the world.

I ran into some Boy Scouts, who, once they heard what I was doing, gave me a block of cheese ("We each have a block, you want mine?") and graham crackers and water. They were in awe and asked all sorts of questions. My favorite was, "Do you have a before picture?" No one has ever asked me that before so I had to check. It turned out I did and when I showed it to them, there were a lot of "whoa's".  I'm still not sure how to take that one. After they'd got their fill of questions I was about to leave and a kid had one more question: "But, how did you get to the Winds? Did you get a ride?" I guess it hadn't quite gotten through that I'd literally walked to the place we were sitting from Mexico. I guess it hadn't really hit me yet either. It actually happens a lot. I have to say, "No, I didn't get any rides, I walked literally here from Mexico. On foot. I don't have a car."

Leaving the Scouts And heading up to Texas Pass I saw some climbers way high on spire. Crazy. Down Texas Pass in the valley North of the Cirque there was loose footing and it was quite steep, so I was glad I had my poles. I went down into another Cirque and past a couple more lakes, descending back towards the CDT. I met a couple hikers and chatted on way down, happy to take a break from all the climbing I'd done that day.

After I joined back with trail I chatted with nice couple from Salt Lake. It's only four hours to the Winds from there, which is nuts. The man had spent a lot of time in the Winds climbing back in the 70's so it was cool to hear some about that.

With the sun setting I saw a hiker up ahead who was moving pretty slow. It looked like an older man, who was a bit heavyset. It turned out to be another CDT hiker, Moss, a woman probably in her 40's in baggy clothes which made her figure larger than it actually was. We hiked together and talked for about a half hour and then I setup camp and Mosquitos swarmed. It was kind of a weird moment. Moss was like, "that looks like a good campsite" - it was flat, but really low next to a swamp. I didn't think it was, but I I was very tired, and it was almost like she wanted me to camp there, so she could camp alone. I can't explain why it was awkward, but it was almost as if she was afraid of me or something. I shrugged it off, endured the swarming mosquitoes as I setup my tent and fell asleep, exhausted by all the elevation change of the day.