High Uintas

Bradley and I have been talking about going back
packing in the Uintas all summer long. I decided that it was a little slow at work and the weather was nice so I took Thursday and Friday off so we could do it.

I needed to find a lake to go to that wasn't too far from the road in case Bradley wasn't in a hiking mood and I had to carry him and all of our gear. I asked around at work where a lot of people frequent the Uintas and was told by two guys that Ruth Lake is an easy hike and would be good for our first back packing adventure together.

It was a perfect pick. It was only 3/4ths of a mile to the lake and the amount of up hill wasn't very hard. It also helped that Bradley was in a hiking mood. He stole my trekking poles and took off. He made a lot of stops and slight detours but it was fun to follow him along.

Here is Bradley showing me the best route to take up the trail. He was very watchful and if I didn't follow him exactly he would send me back down the trail to come up, "the right way". It was really fun to see him using the trekking poles.



Here he is telling me that he is a, "strong hiker, the strongest in the mountains". He was quite funny. After a while he noticed me looking at my watch to (it is a compass watch) orient our map. He decided that he would come up with a pretend watch and every 10 steps or so he would make us both stop while he consulted his wrist. He would then inform me which way his watch told him we had to go to properly negotiate the trail. He was very serious about this.

At one point on the trail he told me that his watch told him we needed to go a certain way to find the letters. I was really surprised, as I think he was, when we went around a corner of rocks and there was a trail marker sign saying the Ruth Lake was straight ahead (letters!) Bradley started cheering saying his watch told him right! It was pretty funny.



Here is Bradley having a break. We were nearly at the end but he said he needed to rest and just sat down right on the trail. After a few minutes of resting he stood up and continued to lead me on.

Nearly there but we had to stop at this small lake to throw rocks in.



Yeah! 1 hour and 16 minutes later we finally made it the 3/4 of a mile to Ruth Lake. Bradley was very proud and started cheering. I decided to let him pick our campsite. We looked at about 5 different spots and he picked the best one all by himself.

Bradley happy at camp.

Here is Bradley checking out the campsite he chose and letting me know that it was time to make a fire to, "die the bugs." Yes there were a lot of mosquitoes around.

Here is our 1 1/2 pound tarptent. It was cozy inside but worth it considering it's weight. It is actually only a single person shelter but with Bradley as skinny as he is it worked out fine for both of us.


Here we are looking for a stream coming into the lake to get some water from. We were camped in the trees behind us to the right of the picture.




Bradley jumping over a small stream Friday morning.

With Bradley cars are a necessity of life even when back packing. He did carry all his toys as well as his blankets in his own backpack so I can't complain.

Here we are right before heading back down the trail to the car.

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. It was right as we were leaving and it was our last look at Ruth Lake. Bradley stood there awhile saying, "goodbye Ruth mountain lake".

When me made it to the car this was his state about 3 minutes after buckling him in. It was a lot of fun and Bradley was a great back packing companion. I am sure we will make this a yearly tradition as long as he stays interested it camping.