The Torgesens

Well, I just got back from High Adventure yesterday having spent a week in the White Cloud Mountains with nine boys and 3 other adults. We had a great time doing lots of hiking (exhausting), fishing (not me), swimming (it was FREEZING), and eating (best part of the trip.) We left Monday morning at 4AM, driving four hours to a spot 30 miles east and 20 miles south of Stanley, Idaho. There we met up with an outfitter who packed in on horseback our food, tents, stoves, and laterns. We all packed in our personal gear of about 30 pounds each. We got on the trail at 9:00, finally arriving at Hatchet Lake at 5:00 after 8 hours of solid uphill hiking. We started at 6000 ft and ended at around 8600 ft. The camp spot was beautiful which you can see in the picture below. Our tents are over on the left hand side of the picture.

Tuesday was spent on a couple of mile side trip to Frog Lake (yes, there are frogs everywhere.) Wednesday was another long day, hiking through the Boulder Chain Lakes up to the top of Windy Devil Pass. That's the picture of me at 10,000 ft at the top of the blog. To get to it you hike past a chain of seven lakes (hence the name) each slighly higher than the last, all being connected by a stream, which we had to cross several times. On the way back to camp in the afternoon the boys took a swim in each of the lakes to prove how tough they were . You cannot imagine how cold they were, with several still having snow along the edge.

Thursday was another fishing, and swimming day. I brought along my washers game and the boys liked it a lot. Needless to say I was the tournament champion. The last picture was on the hike out, which only took 5 hours instead of the 8 going in. All in all we had a great time. I didn't kill anyone, which is always a good thing.