Big Bird's Adventures

Host: “Welcome to the show everyone, I want to thank you all for tuning in we have a very special guest tonight but more on that in a bit. Let’s first give a shout out to our sponsors, Preparation H, cause when you need a friend, well that is all the help you are going to get. And now, let’s welcome our guest tonight, some of you know who he is already, but our guest flies way under the radar, and he has just returned from another (self – described) miracle in the wilderness, everyone give it up for a very special guest, Eric Hallander.”

[Crowd is clapping, could be a wee bit more boisterous and louder]

Eric: “Thank you, thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here tonight with such a welcoming audience. Thank you. You are all too kind. Thank you.”

Host: “That is quite a welcome you got there. It appears you might have a following. Ha!.”
Eric: “Well, it is hard to self-promote, but I give it a go, you know. Put meself out there as they say.”

Host: “Yes, yes, that’s great. And you just got back from another fantastic trip in the wilderness.”

Eric: “8 lovely wet days in the High Uinta Wilderness. It was everything we expected and more. And different in many ways from our previous Uintas adventure back in 14”.

Host: “Tell me about that Eric. The audience and the fans want to know how it is you returned to a wilderness you had already been to. Again. What gives?”

Eric: “That basically comes down to a good ol ‘I fucked up’, and when I ‘fucked up’ it was late in the planning stages, so it wasn’t like there were a lot of second options on the table that didn’t require some kind of permit or have restrictions. Plus, all those atmospheric rivers that pounded the West Coast this past Winter raked havoc over the number of wildernesses that would even be accessible.”

Host: “Tell us about the fuck up first please. How do you fuck up planning a trip?”

Eric: “I suppose there are trips where the planning goes great, and it’s the trip itself that gets fucked up, like National Lampoons Vacation, or Deliverance, and then there are those fuck-ups that happen in planning, and I simply fucked up the planning see. We wanted to go to Glacier, and I chose a very remote part of Glacier, the NW corner of the park. You may have seen scenes in June AND July of them still trying to clear The Road to the Sun of all the snow they had, but this was really remote, and for the number of people that had expressed an interest in going, I needed to apply for a large group permit, and then hope that I could use that to occupy two smaller remote camp sites along my preferred route.”

Host: “Glacier is a beautiful resource Eric. What was your proposal?”

Eric: “Well I thought we would fly into Kalispel, please note, this was before Montana enacted all that GOP bullshit anti-LGBTQ laws this past summer, which now I feel like ‘Fuck you Montana’, but Glacier still calls. Anyway, we were going to car camp 1 or 2 nights on Kintla Lake, accessible via 40 miles of dirt roads, it’s kind of like the West Coast of Costa Rica. In any case, start at Kintla Lake, and hike to a site on Upper Kintla, where the upper implies a gain in elevation. Then the next day, a hard day indeed, climb up and over Boulder Pass, but rather than descend completely, hike into a large bowl called “Hole in the wall”. That would have been a tough day with nearly full packs, and as I look at it now, it might be more advisable to simply hike as far as the Boulder Pass campsite, and then day hike into Hole in the Wall, but that is something for the future to discuss with me mates.”

Host: “Do you entertain suggestions from ‘your mates’? Isn’t that like the Captain asking the crew ‘Where should we go?'”

Eric: “We aren’t on a ship, and I am not the captain. I am just an organizer gathering friends who want to do this kind of thing, and are willing to follow me, however, what kind of friend would I be, what kind of leader would I be if I said ‘We’re doing this and just shut up and do it!’? I can answer that. I’d be a shit leader leading a party of one. I like the company, so I encourage advice, and the advice of late was leaning towards ‘less backpacking, more hiking and fishing’. Anyway, this Glacier hike would have knocked the socks off the entire crew, and everyone would have mumbled, ‘my pack is heavy, and legs are sore, but this is fucking gorgeous’. Anyway, after that, the camp sites were small, as in only 2 in certain key locations along the trail, and only 4 tents per site, so if I have 11 people, all in their own tents, well I think your audience can do the math. I had a personal goal of wanting to day hike to Canada on the Continental Divide Trail, which I had touched, we had touched in both of the last two years.
That brings me to another point. Yes, I do like to mix it up and try new things, but when we did the Weminuche in 2021, we were missing people, so I decided to go back again last year to take the people who missed out. So, yes we went back to the same place, though we did a different hike. I will elaborate more later. The short story was I screwed up on the date to apply for a large group registration, which was March 1st, but I confused myself and thought it was March 15, so when the 15th rolled around it was already too late.

Host: “That is a shame and what a fuck-up. I am sure you lost sleep over that”

Eric: “At this age, I never sleep well anyway, but still”

Host: “Don’t I know it! So why the Uintas?”

Eric: “The first major plus is it is a Wilderness and not a National Park, so ‘No Permits!’ Win! The second plus is Salt Lake City is easy for everyone to fly into direct, unless your name is Terry O and you live in Richmond, but for everyone else, direct flights! SLC also has great beer! And at least one REI! And Sprouts! And it wasn’t a long drive to the trailhead, depending on the route chosen. This is where I took the suggestions from my gang very seriously, and planned a circuit that had only 3 actual camp sites, and we would use the other days to day hike and/or fish. That way, we wouldn’t be constantly ripping up tent stakes and packing up wet (maybe) gear to haul to a new area where we would hope on the lucky side that we could find a camp site large enough to accommodate all of us. That was the thought at least.”

Host: “What’s involved in all that? Help the listeners and viewers understand the struggles, if you can.”

Eric: “Sure. We’re camping at nearly 2 miles of elevation, so it is very cool at night. the 40’s. It usually, and it did, rain almost every afternoon, so with that much moisture around, nothing is dry in the morning. Maybe that is an overstatement. Your tent inside might be dry, but outside, the rainfly is either wet or damp. Inside is probably damp. We have tarps rigged to hide under. Those are wet. What does wet add to stuff you have to carry? Weight. So, whatever weight you have eaten, is itself eaten up by the extra added weight of moisture, so your pack is heavier. Then it is 6-7 mile hike, to the next site, where first you have to find a place large enough for the whole group. This year we started as 11 people. That is the largest group that has ever come along. Then once you find a spot, everyone takes care of their own needs for a tent site, and then we concentrate on the group needs like where to erect the tarps for rain protection. We need wood for a fire, and we have to filter a large quantity of water for so many. If we stay in one place for more than 1 night, then we just concentrate on water and wood. It’s easier. Hiking without a full pack is easier as well.”

Host: “I think I see exactly where you are leading us. Yes indeed. I see you chose to start and end at Mirror lake. Why?”

Eric: “Well, it’s simple really. No car shuttle. Plus, my brother in law and my daughter both were hiking out early, so it would help if we came out where we went in. Fortunately Mirror Lake offered that option where we could head out North and hook up with The Highline Trail, and we could return via the Duchesne trail coming in from the South. It was perfect really. In the words of my brother in law, none of the structures that we had to hike though ended in the word ‘Pass’, as technically, we started from a Pass, so almost everything afterwards was at or lower in elevation than where we started. The only time that happened before was our Grand Canyon Trip in 2012. Everywhere else it’s start low and hike up.”

Host: “That’s Brilliant! Indeed yes. Very smart. I can understand the benefits of that myself. Eleven people? How did you end up with such a large group?”

Eric: “We have been doing these adventures now since 2012, where I have been running them, and I did a couple with Walt and his crew before that. I think over the years, people on the fringes of my hiking world saw the images, heard the stories, could imagine themselves having that fun and so we have toyed with large groups for a few years now, however when it comes to making the actual commitments, sometimes life gets in the way. This year life got in the way for only two and we had 3 new comers in Terry O, Jed P and Dave A. Jed P texted me on my last Weminuche adventure that he was in for my next one. Dave A, I saw this past Winter and he asked to be included, and Terry O has been interested for the last two go’s, and made it happen. The rest of the regulars were all in, and so, a large group indeed.”

Host: “Tell us more about this year’s chosen route. You didn’t exactly stick to your plan did you?”

Eric: “That is true. The last time we were in the Uintas it was in the middle of September, and we were another 35 miles East, and weather wise, we had maybe two afternoon storms, one in the early afternoon that came and went, and slightly more substantial one late afternoon up on Milk Lake. This year we had rain almost every day, where for the most part it all fell in a continued pattern, and this included our car camp day as well. Beautiful morning, with clouds starting roll in around noon with the first drops starting to fall near or after 2PM. Then it would be 1 or 2 storms to roll through some with and some without hail and lightning, with us pulling weather and watching the sky to see where our weather was coming from. Once we could see the clearing coming, we knew it was over, and maybe we would catch a few drops later on the edge of another system, but we were usually in the clear and used the opportunity to get our evening fire started. So, what role did the weather play in our adventure? Well, it played very significantly into our decisions.”

Host: “How so?”

Eric: “I have already stated what is involved in breaking down camp and setting up again, and we were in the Naturalist Basin already, with Four Lakes as our next destination. Alyson and Walt had already decided they were leaving early, and already audibled after looking at the map, that they would start their hike out Thursday from Four Lakes, rather than an early start Friday from Grand Daddy, as Alyson had a late afternoon flight. We could see on the map that Four Lakes was the smallest of all the basins we were going to visit, and with the weather being what it was, the idea of setting up camp in the rain, maybe a storm, above 10,600 feet felt a little dodgy to us. Add to that we had just gone through a night of showers, which fortunately only happened once, and all our stuff was really wet, so carrying heavier loads back up to that elevation also seemed to weigh heavy on our thoughts. There was also another development.”

Host: “Uh oh. What was that?”

Eric: “Both Dan and Kevin were suffering from physical issues. Kevin told us all that he let himself be talked back into downhill skiing this past Winter, and that decision may have cost him his future doing one week back country adventures as he could feel, during our previous day’s day hike into the upper reaches of Naturalist, that his knee was giving him the sign that he bit off more than they could chew, and he was going to hike out. In addition, Dan maybe should have thrown in the towel before coming out to play, but he thought his back, sciatica, would do better. In any case, it didn’t, and he was also going to hike out with Kevin, thus bringing us down to nine.”

Eric: “We all took a break after reaching the Highline Trail again, where Dan and Kevin would hike out, and looked at the paper map we had. I had made a blunder before leaving and failed to download the maps for our area into the Garmin app, and I was using 30 year old Quads which showed the main trails, but not all the trails, and it wasn’t until I examined the paper map that I saw we could cut off the Highline, onto the East Fork of the Duchesne River Trail from which we could enter Grand Daddy basin, and find a camp around 10,100 feet as well as beat the rain and get camp set up. With that change, we could day hike the rest of the week, using one of those to do a Four Basins loop hike, and Ally and Walt could enjoy the rest of their time a little closer to the exit point. As soon as I saw that, I knew that was the change we needed to make, and though I entertained thoughts from others, I pretty much decided that was what we would do. Of course, no one objected, and everyone felt better about camping a little lower in elevation against the backdrop of afternoon thunder showers. So that is what we did.”

Host: “It sounds like you almost always decide on the trail what you are going to really do, and that all the work you do ahead of time is really just a blueprint for an adventure, and not the adventure itself.”

Eric: “That’s true. The only adventure we have done without changes was the first one, into the Grand Canyon. Every other adventure always involved decisions on the trail to amend our plans, and in every one of them, those changes worked out for the better. The group always ready and accepting of the changes. So this year was no different. The main benefit of this year’s change was the opportunity to really do day hike exploration, which allows you to see more, at much less physical expense. The ‘much asked for’ request from everyone was always ‘more day hiking less backpacking’, and this change delivered that in spades.”

Host: “Tell us about the day hikes then”

Eric: “Well, we had that first one in Naturalist Basin seeking out the waterfall we could see from camp that morning and one of the upper basin lakes. We were reserving one day for Four Lakes, so that left 3 days to explore Grand Daddy Basin, which by means of its name alone implies that it has many options. There was a short loop that included Governor Dern, Rainbow and Palisades lakes, a longer loop that added Pine Island, Fish Hatchery, Betsy and Mohawk lakes, and if we played our bushwhacking cards we could carve out a short loop hike to Margot Lake and finish that off with Pine Island and Governor Dern lakes. It all depended on the weather.”

Host: “What happened with Hurricane Hillary? Did that affect you guys at all?”

Eric: “I don’t think so. No, not at all. For one it was a concern at the early start of the week, however we found that it tracked East after making landfall in Southern California, and that was just too far away to have any effect on our local weather. No, all of our local weather came from hot days in the Salt Lake Basin driving moist hot air into the Wasatch/Uintas where it condensed into storms in the afternoon. All of our weather cam from either the Southwest, or the West, and maybe once out of the North. The only day it didn’t rain on us was our hike out on Sunday. At some point we started getting up at 6:30 so we could hit the trail earlier and give ourselves a fighting chance to day hike and make it back before the rain started.”

Host: “And did you?”

Eric: “No, not always :). We all got soaked to the bone at least once. On our short hike loop day, we were right on the edge when 3 of our team decided to hike the 1/4 mile to see Pine Island lake from the trail junction we were sitting at. We’re all adults, so they made that choice, and the result was that we just made it back to the tarps as the rain was starting, whereas they got caught in it fully, and came back soaked. The next day, when Ally and Walt began their walk out, we got caught around noon between Margot and Pine Island lakes, and when we hit some geography elements that prevented further progress, we changed direction and beelined down the mountain towards Pinto Lake, our camp site, arriving fully soaked. That was all seven of us that were left at this point.”

Host: “So, let me get this straight. You are soaked to the bone, wearing wet clothes, and it gets cooler when it rains, doesn’t it? What did you do? Certainly you had dry clothes to put on, right?”

Eric: “Yes, we do have dry clothes, however you need to make sure that you don’t get your dry clothes wet, because you only have one shot. Your dry clothes are either in your tent, or your backpack, which is hanging from a tree, somewhat protected, and covered by a rain cover, but if it’s pouring still, who wants to bring all that water into their sleeping area? Even if you have a staging vestibule, that space isn’t large enough for me, and few others, so it’s a challenge to get your sleeping stuff out of the way so you can sit inside and change. Even doing that, it’s impossible to not get some of your sleeping stuff wet, and in reality, it is probably damp from the moist air, and from nightly condensation, so why risk that? It’s better to sit tight, and see how the rains change. They will stop, and we will get a fire going, and once you have fire, then all you have to do is stand near the fire and you can wear your stuff dry. Look, it depended on the person. Smaller people can make the vestibule work. Bigger people such as myself, I kept my dry clothes in my backpack near the tarps, and if I got too cold, then I would grab my things during one of the low ebbs, and then slowly change beneath the tarps. Upper body first, and then lower body. With the fire going, and the late sun that usually came back out, we always got our stuff dry. Even Terry O, one of the bigger amongst us who tried the vestibule routine and came out worried that he caused too much wet to his gear, got everything dried out again around the fire. That is Western Backpacking. That is not Eastern Backpacking where it can rain for 3 days, so greater care has to be taken, and donning wet clothing the next day is just part of the experience.”

Host: “I don’t know Eric. That really doesn’t sound like fun to me, and I am sure most of our audience is thinking the same thing.”

Eric: “I admit that there are sucky moments. When you are soaking wet, it’s hard to imagine being dry again, and worse maybe is how long before I am dry again? What if this time, it rains well into the evening and night? It could happen, but it didn’t. You have to compare those low points to the abundance of high points on a trip like this. Look, the number of people who are willing to endure the hardships to embrace the beauty of the back country wildernesses in this country is very very small. The rewards for these hardships are huge. The landscapes are so awesomely beautiful that being wet is the furthest thing from your mind when 40 to 50 miles of scenic beauty are being soaked into your cerebral cortex where they will reside for the rest of your existence. It’s why I write these little notes to my future self. Some day when I am eating my dinner through a sippy cup, my kids and (grand kids?) can show me these pages and say ‘Look at all the great adventures you have had’ and if my brain isn’t just gelatinous goop by then, maybe I can smile again and laugh at the great memories where I will know deep down that I laughed a lot with my friends while making those adventures. Embrace the suck! Because the rewards are tremendous.”

Host: “We’re running out of time, Eric, is there anything else you would like to say?”

Eric: “Just want to say that we did hike up to Four Lakes Basin on Saturday, and when I say ‘up’ it was up all the way from when we turned out of Grand Daddy Basin, and even when we entered The Four Lakes, it was still more climbing to get to Jean Lake, and even from there it was more climbing to get back out at that point. This further cemented the change of plans we made on Tuesday to simply go to the lower basin. Don’t get me wrong, Four Lakes was AWESOME, however the number of large camp sites was almost non-existent, and even though we would have been nine, still, we would have been hard pressed on Tuesday. As a day hike, Four Lakes was perfect. We entered at the Dayne’s Lake meadows, a huge wide open meadow that offered up tremendous 360 opportunities, and then we hiked up to Jean and Dean lakes where it was much tighter. We enjoyed some lunch, and tolerated an asshole who was not only firing a handgun into the rocks across the lake, but also setting off fireworks. What an asshole. Why would you bring fireworks into the wilderness? I can see maybe bringing a gun, because when you are a gun owner you already buy into the notion that you may need that protection, ignoring the data that says you have a larger risk of drowning, or being hit by lightning then actually needing a gun in that wilderness, but hey, if they want to lug the weight then fine. But why the fuck are shooting off rounds into the rocks? Idiot. Enough about that asshole. Weather was rolling in, so we rolled out, and when Jed noticed that we were within 45 feet of 11,000′ we scrambled up some scree boulders and were rewarded with a view that took our breath away. 270 degrees of awesomeness that included all the basins we had been in as well as Bald Mountain and Mirror Lake where we started from. Jed earned his ‘View Finder’ badge of honor at that point and then we spent the next hour descending, sometimes in a wee bit of rain, until we came to the same branch trail that we took on Tuesday, and finished off the final 4 miles back to camp, running the last 300 yards as the rain started to pick up again.”

Eric: “Lastly, and sadly we awoke early the next day to hike out. Even with near empty food stores, with heavy legs from two hard long day hikes, it wasn’t an easy hike out. It began with 1000′ of descending down to the East Fork Duchesne Trail until it joined the North Fork coming from our trail head destination where we had gain all that elevation back through many burned out sections of spruce forest. One highlight was to see some Aspens again, which could have meant moose, but didn’t. We gained the trail head parking area around 1PM where believe it or not our coolers still had some cold beers (refreshed on Thursday by Dan and Kevin when they drove up to fetch Walt and Alyson who hiked out) to consume while we high fived and congratulated each other on a great adventure together. We all decided to get our stuff packed up in the van and to drive down to Kamas to The Mirror Diner to grab some real grub. We donated our fuel canisters that still had fuel to some campers at Mirror Lake, and then headed out, driving back over the pass where we had a commanding view of everywhere we had been that week.”

Eric: “With our tummies full of good diner food, we set out for Salt Lake City where we stopped at the REI to return 6 unused fuel canisters, and then to our hotel where we all got cleaned up before going out for dinner that night. The only medical issue we had was Dave getting something in his eye that required a visit to an emergency care facility to flush the eye, and some drops to help with the healing. All was fine, we joined our pals for dinner, and relished the memories and new friendships made that week together and as can be expected the question ‘Well Eric, what is next?’ was asked. We will do something next year, I don’t know where yet. Personally I would like to still do the original Glacier trip, but I can’t take eleven people there. At most I can take 8, and that might be a push. There is also The Zion Wilderness, but that has to be either mid Spring or late mid Fall as I don’t like really hot temperatures. There is a lot going on next year as well, and there is always Ride the Rockies, or even next year’s PAC tour of The Rockies, which is more attractive than just a week ride in the Rockies. That is a big commitment and I have commitments next year already, but let’s wait and see.”

Host: “Well, that is all the time we have today folks. If you want to check out some more information on Eric’s recent outing then there will be some links provided. I want to thank our guest, Eric for his time and some really terrific stories about his recent adventures in The High Uintas. He is on FB and Insta, and I am sure that if you reach out to him, he can provide more answers than a simple on air interview. Any last words Eric?”

Eric: “Just do it. You won’t be sorry”

Host: “Very positive thinking Eric. That’s it, until next time, good night”

Links:
Composite Panoramas taken throughout the week
Portraits from most days
Strava Day 1
Strava Day 2
Strava Day 3
Strava Day 4
Strava Day 5
Strava Day 6
Strava Day 7
Strava Day 8
Original Route as planned in Komoot
Actual tracks published to Garmin Share – pw: High Uintas
Forest Service Information
Forest Service Map – In 2014 we started and ended at Swift Creek and summited King’s Peak via Anderson Pass.

Tagged: Backpacking, High Uintas, Hiking, Travel, Utah