Ryder Lake

Well,

I lived :)

And I actually liked it!

most of the time

We sort of left the house a disaster in our flurry to pack.

You see, we were out to see The Help the night before we left for the Uintas.

Totally worth the rushed packing- The Help was awesome!!!

Anyway... We hit the trail and hiked about 3 miles Friday after work.

We discovered on the way out the door that the backpack I intended to use was missing a hip clip, so I switched to my lovely, yet large pack which worked out quite nicely!

These first few photos were taken on a real camera. BUT, that first night our battery died!!! I had charged it all day, but this was an off-brand battery I had gotten online. I guess I learned my lesson and will always pack a few extra from now on. Luckily Scott's phone saved the day and captured some memories from the rest of the trip!

We heated up our fruit pies on a rock so the sugar on the outside was kind of caramelized... delish!

And our first night's camp- we had it goooood. There was dry firewood galore!

The "trail" was really treacherous at times. We found our inner gymnast and managed to cross rivers without falling in!

After about 9 miles with a 2,000 ft elevation gain, we found ourselves in this beautiful meadow:

the trick to backpacking is just to keep on walking!!!

And then we came upon Ryder Lake! We agreed that our camp spot here is the most beautiful place either of us had ever camped. With our tent fly off, we had a 300 degree view of lake and mountains. With only about 2 other people at the entire lake. It was really, really incredible.

We reached the lake about 3-4 pm and had the afternoon to swim, lay in the sun, play some cards, and you know... camp :)

We took a little stroll around the lake without our packs- delightful! Those packs get REALLY heavy when you carry them so far.

Just as we got hunkered into our sleeping bags for the night, we heard the rain start coming. Scott was a hero and went out to tighten our fly and get our packs in super safe/dry spots. He built up a rock wall to protect us too!

Well, we stayed dry through the night, but it did rain almost all night long. That means the trail was exceptionally muddy and wet on our hike back to the car.

Gorgeous, right?

So with mud squishing between our toes, we trekked it back. I tried not to complain, but backpacking is kind of hard on your back, and your feet it turns out.

We came upon these crossings about every 5 minutes for hours on end. Those logs were slippery!!!

Scott's new water filtration system worked like a gem. So few pumps= such clean, fresh, cold water!

That's A-1 peak in the Duschene side of the High Uintas.

These last 3 pics are from what Scott refers to as

"The Valley of the Great Bog."

It was impossible to cross without getting your feet sucked into the mud. You should have seen us running and screaming our way through this section... wow, that was some good laughs!

Ooh, yeah, he was not happy at that point!

Overall, we had a great trip and we're glad we went! Totally beats laundry and dishes... :)

Working hard feels good.

It is so easy to feel Heavenly Father's love for us when we are out in His beautiful creations.