Highlights from the Highline Trail

Nelson and I had such an amazing adventure on our weeklong backpacking trip: 

6 days of hiking plus a rest day, 

75+ miles, spanning the Uinta Mountains east to west,

6 passes (the saddle you hike up to before you get to the peak of a mountain),  

1 GPS track from a friend that never let us down

The Highline trail is definitely not for the faint of heart: it is a LOT of hiking, major elevation gain and loss every day, quickly changing weather, and extremely difficult-to-follow trails.  But now I understand why Nelson wanted to take me back only a year after he did it before-- you can't comprehend how beautiful the entirety of the Uinta mountains are, or how empowering it is to hike miles and miles every day and see your progress, or carry everything you need in your own backpack and live outside for a week until you actually do it!!!  I might have started as more of a faint-of-heart type, but with Nelson's help and detailed preparation, I think I can say that I ended up as a real "Highliner."

It was such an exhilarating feeling to make it to the top of a pass (North Pole, Anderson, Porcupine, Red Knob, Dead Horse, then Rocky Sea).  To look back and see the dense forest of pines in the low valley that leads up to a grassy meadow, then to the rocky, steep pass, then to look forward and see another grassy meadow valley full of streams and lakes and boulders with another dense pine valley beyond, with steep mountain peaks surrounding us-- that was the best part!  We often felt like we were in scenes of the movie Lord of the Rings in the beautiful places we hiked through.  Nelson called this trip "Return of the King" :). 

The varied terrain meant a variety of wildlife.  We saw two bull moose, bald eagles, deer, elk, squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, a badger, big mice-looking animals, woodpeckers and lots of pretty birds, a huge herd of sheep, some horses, and pack goats.  

The clouds were so beautiful-- big and white and puffy, all over the bright blue sky most days.  We felt like we were hiking right under the clouds at some points.  We had significant rain our first afternoon hiking, then again our last day.  I have never been in rain like we experienced our last 8 miles of hiking-- it was like a monsoon!  The trail that was wide and well developed at that point became like a running river of mud that we tried to hike around or step on rocks sticking up in the trail.  

We crossed probably a hundred creeks, streams, and rivers-- mostly without incident.  Nelson did slip off a wet rock and was above ankle deep in the water trying to cross a river in the rain our first day as we tried to hike quickly away from the moose, and the weight of his pack prevented him from steadying himself at all.  

We sang a lot as we hiked-- partly to keep ourselves entertained when we weren't panting up steep hills, and partly to keep the wild animals at bay-- and realized we don't know lyrics to a lot of songs as well as we thought we did.  I was singing "Let It Go" as we came to a river at the valley below Red Knob Pass one day, and we stopped there to filter some water.  Nelson made a comment about needing to find a place to go to the bathroom, then "Oh- you startled me!"  There was a bow hunter in head-to-toe camouflage on a hill right above us.  He came down and said that he had been sleeping, but that he heard some singing, "which wasn't a bad way to wake up!"  He was really nice, as were all of the people we met along the trail.  When we were about 14 miles from the finish, as we prepared to look for a place to camp, we ran into three backpackers from BYU who had started that day, attempting to complete the Highline trail in 5 days.  They were super friendly, but looked very ill-prepared with their ziploc baggie of paper maps and compass (no GPS), jeans and cotton T-shirts, and huge backpacks.  We hope that the crazy rain on their second day on the trail led them to make the decision not to try to do the whole Highline so they would be safe and not get lost.  We also enjoyed talking and listening to some cute Boy Scouts on their way up to King's Peak, which lightened things up for us on that tough, steep section of trail.

We took about 30 lbs of food, which was probably 10 lbs more than we needed, and we know exactly how we would pack food differently for another long backpacking trip.  After a few days, everything started tasting like everything else. . . peanut M & Ms that taste like beef jerky are not super appetizing.  Julie's favorite trail snacks were little Tilla-Moos of cheese and Chex Mix, and Nelson loved anything chocolate and Kind brand bars. We had a freeze-dried meal every night for dinner and some mornings for breakfast (we'll tell you our favorites if you need recommendations :).  

Nelson expertly hung bear bags every night, which held all of our food and "smellables."  This consisted of picking the right tree, tying a rock around an end of the rope, throwing it over the perfect branch, tying the bag(s) to one end of the rope, hoisting it up into the tree, then securing the free end of the rope onto another tree nearby.  I was amazed at how many knots Nelson knows and uses!  We mostly managed to hang the bear bag and be in our tent before it was pitch black except for Saturday night when we hiked as far and long as we could to cut down on our Monday and Tuesday miles.  Even though it was a little eerie being in a dark forest, it was really amazing to see millions of stars and the Milky Way that night.

Conclusion: Nelson makes the best hiking partner ever, and our experience on the Highline trail was epic!

We missed our kids like crazy, and were so thankful for those who helped take care of them while we were gone.  It's good to be home, but now I can't decide what is harder: taking care of three kids and running a household or hiking miles and miles each day :)