Jess Returns!!! Lets go Backpacking

Months of waiting and trying to keep myself busy.

Go to work, come home to an empty house...

All that is in the past!

FINALLY, the summer sales part ends early thanks to a Hurricane!

Jess starts his looong trip back to me, alone this time. However he gets to make a 3 day pit stop in Canada to visit Teya. 

While there they go to the circus, paint birdhouses, dig for bugs, go on an outdoor adventure walk, and enjoy nights at a hotel without electricity!

Needless to say they had an absolute blast together as always.

Once my honey made it home safely we decided to go on an adventure we had been talking about since before we were married. Jess is an avid backpacker enthusiast and all around lover of the outdoors. Thankfully for him, I am too! Having been talking about taking a backpacking trip forever and seeing that the Utah weather was still quite nice, we decided to hit the trail and go camping. Since Jess sells every summer we hadnt been able to go camping at all yet! Tragic I know! So we dug out our camping junk, rounded up some extra backpacker necessities and set out.    

Now, truth be told I had been excited and dreading the day we decided to go backpacking together. Jess has told me multiple stories of trips he had taken in the past and they were all quite, involved. Most YM as scouts take trips like the 50 miler and so on. Well, my sweet husband was one of those scouts who made a 50 miler more like an 80 miler because they wanted to explore more! So.. here I am wondering if I am even going to survive a trip with Jess more than 5 miles whilst hauling a backpack that weighs about 30 lbs or so. Which he tells me is quite light. LIGHT!!! hahahaha (Jess took most of the heavy stuff so that my pack wouldnt kill me for our first trip.. awwww)

And so, it Begins....

 The first stopping place was a heaven sent! I wasnt used to carrying much weight on my back and so every rock I saw became a comfy seat to rest on! lol Jess had planned out the perfect place to hike to and set up camp. It was on the outskirts of Hayden lake. Unbeknownst to us we started out on a journey that took us ALOT farther than we thought! 
We were able to stop at Ruth Lake, which for those who dont know is found in the Uinta Mountain Ranges. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! 

 To make an extremely long, frustrating, and exhausting story shorter I will recap the hike to our final destination. After we passed Ruth Lake which was only a mile 1/2 from the car, we thought we would take a detour and see some of the smaller lakes surrounding on our way to Hayden Lake. As I huffed and puffed around with my pack, we discovered our slight navigational error. We couldnt find Hayden, our stopping point! After maneuvering over rock slides, cliffs, deadly drop offs, and skirting small lakes we heard running water. Following that sound we cam upon a huge and gorgeous lake! Walking around it we found our spot, set up camp and reveled in our achievement of reaching Hayden Lake! Jess and I wouldnt figure out the truth of our destination for another day and a half.. 

 My love was kind enough to let me make FIRE!!! It is my absolute favorite part of camping. I also think I do an awesome job at it too.. better than alot of guys I know who use boy scout water.. robert... As usual the fire is my survival. I HATE the cold so I live in the flames as soon as the sun starts setting and first thing in the morning. Thankfully my husband is a complete sweetheart and he gets up and starts the fire every morning while I stay warm in my sleepingbag!

 FISHES!!!!!!!
Between the 3 days we were there we fished our hearts out! Our success came when my hook got stuck on a log. I thought I was going to lose it but Jess came and got it undone for me. On the other end we found a fly, up til then we had been using salmon eggs on a hook and hadnt gotten any bites. One try with the newly found fly and we were pulling in fish! We ended up catching around 20 fish!!! 

 Well, the next day we discovered our navigational error.  We finally walked the whole lake and ran into a sign. Imagine our surprise  when we read Teal Lake instead of Hayden Lake!

After pulling  out our handy dandy  map we found our location, WAAAAY past our original point.

Jess calculated we had hiked  at least 4 miles past  Hayden Lake.

Needless to say we were shocked and completely pleased. 

Teal Lake was off the beaten path so we had the whole place to ourselves!  

 My mouth is watering just looking at this picture again.

Fried freshly caught fish is soooo delicious.

Gutting is actually pretty fun, weird I know.

However, the cooking is my favorite part!

Imagine, the smell of butter, lemon juice, and seasoned fish bubbly over an open fire.

Perfection

 Saying goodbye to the best camp spot ever, we shoulder the packs and head home. This time we knew where to go! hahaha My back was pretty sore and tired but I loved hiking back. Honestly I didnt want to head home. I loved our little spot on the edge of the Lake, catching fish by day, freezing my butt off by night. It was easily the best first backpacking experience ever and I look forward to more asap!

 Quick side note, we did stop and take a sneak peek at Hayden Lake. It was nothing special and the backpacking gods were obviously guiding our paths through the wilderness to the better spot. Jess had to stop and see how the fish were there. Needless to say a picture is worth a thousand words! heheheh

That concludes our first ever epic backpacking venture!