[Schenk]

Went to Montana and Wyoming for 9 days. I went straight for the Winds for the first part of the trip. This is my first TR so I am sorry if it is a bit spare and doesn't stand up to the reporting standards here... I started out at a little used trailhead up the Sweetwater River (Southern area of the Winds) that had a great option for a quick loop. The east fork leads out to Sweetwater Gap and north, I came back in on the west fork of the trail; the Joe larson Trail heading back South. My Basic route:

• The trailhead is 8881 feet and goes up from there to the first pass, Sweetwater gap, at 10,327 feet.
• Then I dropped down to 9700 on the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie only to climb back to 10,900-ish, through Ice Lakes Pass.
• Then after passing through Ice Lakes and Deep Creek Lakes I had a longer drop to 9200 feet on the North Fork of the Popo Agie.
• After a nice, relaxing and enjoyable climb up the valley you get to the Cirque of the Towers and then a short, but stiff hike up to 10,800 to cross Jackass Pass and exit the Cirque.
• Once over Jackass there is another drop to 9700 at Big Sandy Lake.
• From Big Sandy lake you have some options. I chose to climb past 3 lakes, the last being Temple Lake, and from there you climb over Temple Pass at 11,600 feet. The map shows the pass is a little lower than that but the trail does not cross at the lowest point.
• After that you descend to the Little Sandy Lake area at 9500 feet.
• Then from Little Sandy Lake you make a final climb on the Joe Larson Creek Trail up to 10,160 feet.
• And then back down to the trailhead at 8881 feet.

I will say also the fishing was excellent in the Winds, as always. I spent the last half of the trip driving back through SW Montana. Fished lots of classic waters...Red Rock, Ruby, Big Horn, Beaverhead, Blacktail, Grasshopper, Wise, etc... In one of these I caught the largest Grayling of my life...no record but it was an honest 15 inches. All fish on this trip were released. Sorry...no pics because I don't have flickr, picasa, or any of the other public online photo services. No plans to subscribe to any of them either. If someone can tell me how to post pictures from off of my desktop I will get some up...some are really incredible and would be good Winds Porn.

[Benzarino]

Thanks for the info. Would be nice to see your pics, considering few of us have been to the Winds. I'm pretty sure NWhikers doesn't host photos because they would then have to pay for even more storage space. Flickr is pretty easy.

[Schenk]

I'll shoot some pictures out to anyone who PMs me with their email address.