Atwood Basin Golden Trout

[neveronsunday]

2014 September 001

Uinta River

I got a kitchen pass to do some backpacking and couldn’t find anyone to go with so I decided to do the stupid thing and do a solo. The thought of sitting in front of a TV for a week was far scarier than being lost in the wilderness.

I decided on heading up the Uinta River. To get to the trailhead go north out of Roosevelt, Utah on State Route 121 and follow the signs to the Uinta River campground and trailhead. The Uinta River is a hidden little gem unexpectedly large, clear, cold and fast considering the surrounding area you drive through to get there.

2014 September 002

Trail sign for turn off for Atwood Basin.

I saw several deer and walked into a small Elk heard just a few miles up the trail.

2014 September 003

Sheep Bridge Crossing.

Four miles up the gentle canyon, the trail to Chain Lakes and Atwood Basin forks off over the sheep bridge and starts a long series of switchbacks.

2014 September 004

Trail Crossing at Krebs Creek.

A couple hours of climbing and the trail crosses Krebs Creek at 10,000’ and continues another 600’ to the lower Chain Lake.

2014 September 005

Lower Chain Lake

2014 September 006
2014 September 048

Middle Chain Lake and Brooke Trout

2014 September 047

Upper Chain Lake

2014 September 046

Fourth Chain Lake Cutthroat Trout

Some how I didn’t get a picture of the Fourth Chain Lake (the only natural lake of the chain) probably because it was raining, hailing, snowing, slush sleeting, thundering and lightening on me, but I did manage to catch this Cutthroat there.

2014 September 010
2014 September 009
2014 September 042

The next excitement is crossing Robert’s Pass, another hour of steep, rocky switchbacks, strewn with the bones of long dead pack animals. The striations in some of the rocks were incredible. The trail winds around a talus ridge of Mount Emmons and then back up into the Atwood Basin.

2014 September 014

Atwood Basin

There are some beautiful open meadows in the Atwood Basin full of little streams full of little fish. I jumped another heard of Elk in the tree line just before breaking out into this clearing.

2014 September 026

Lake Atwood and Mount Emmons

I hiked for two days without getting my fishing pole out, strange I know.

2014 September 015

Lake Atwood and Kings Peak

I set up camp along the north-east shore of Lake Atwood and hiked to the Trail Rider Pass area the second day just to scout around.

2014 September 017

U-19 and George Beard

This little bit of a puddle of a lake above the tree line at 11.600’ was actually my goal. That evening there were Moose and deer and coyotes doing their respective things as I hiked back down to my camp.

The next morning I hiked back up to the upper basin with my fishing pole amid two bugling bull Elk.

2014 September 027

Golden Trout

I found what I was looking for, a Golden Trout. This one went for a size 18 moose-hair mosquito fly. Incidentally, in September this was the only mosquito that was seen on the entire trip – kind of nice.

2014 September 035
2014 September 031

The kitchen and the kitchen sink

So as long as I was breaking several back country rules I thought I’d just cook dinner in the tent, besides it started snowing a little. Animals I kind of expected to see but didn’t were mountain goats, pica and perhaps a bear - looking to have dinner in my tent with me.

The little spring along the north-east edge of Lake Atwood was a terrific water source.

I decided to pull up stakes and try another area in the basin. Allred is a gorgeous lake that wasn’t drawn down for irrigation not far from Atwood, but I skipped by it to Allen instead, looking for more Golden Trout.

2014 September 034

Allen Lake



2014 September 039

Camping along Allen Lake

I fished here for several hours looking for more Golden Trout, before packing up and heading down, but only found a bunch of very Brooke Trout.

2014 September 033

Brooke Trout

2014 September 036

Cold, clear, frosted morning at Allen Lake

2014 September 040

Unnamed lake at 40 44’ 10” N 110 17’ 04”" W Elevation 10,781

The clear skies gave way to raining, hailing, snowing, slush sleeting, thundering and lightening weather again, so I thought I’d hike all the way down just doing a drive by with the fishing pole at the lakes along the way.


2014 September 049

High Uintas Wilderness, Ashley National Forest

The trail was mostly dry and rocky on the way up. It was slippery, muddy, standing water, rocky on the way down and took me as much time going down as going up. I made it to the sheep bridge and decided to camp there instead of hike the last hours in the dark.

2014 September 051

Trail traffic – cow moose with calf

The last morning brought sun again. It was still muddy and slow going with several moose on the trail, some were spooked, some thought it was their trail, and that I could wait on their breakfast before getting back to the truck.

I was in love with the beautiful country, surprised how much the Golden Trout had grown since being air dropped two years previous, swollen from a bit of altitude sickness, satisfactorily tired, and positive there wasn’t anything I missed on TV quite as exquisite.
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[riverdog]

Nice. A little more work than the half hour drive off Mirror Lake to reach. How big was that golden? Those at Echo are still very small but that partly reflects catching this year's stockies is much easier than last years. Uinta and White Rocks rivers are both nice streams to fish out in that area.
I'm with you on hiking alone if needed. Far more people get sick and die from inactivity than those that don't make excuses and get out.
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[SkunkedAgain]

I love it, great report and adventure. Thanks for sharing that with us. I'm impressed you would get a kitchen pass to do that alone. I used to do that kind of stuff before I got married, now I have to find someone to go with so my wife won't worry too much, but its alright because I have a great time with those I go with and it sometimes makes it even more fun to have someone to share it with. But cheers to you for making a great trip. I'm starting to wonder if I've caught goldens before and called them Cutts. How do you identify a golden? Thanks again for the report. J
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[cpierce]

Quite a long hike and a great write-up! Loved the pictures. There is just something special about the high mountain lakes and streams.

Good that you got out, even if on your own.

I do a lot of fishing and hiking on my own. For my family's peace of mind, and my own, I have always carried a personal locator beacon. For years I used the ACR plb. It doesn't have any additional subscription with it, but in a life threatening emergency I could call in search and rescue.

The Spot beacon is initially less expensive, but you have a yearly subscription for their service. It has some additional communication/message features too.

What I use now is the Delorme InReach. I really like it. It has all of the emergency locator features as well as the ability for me to send and receive personal messages by satellite. I can also just send checking in messages that lets my family know where I am and that I am fine. But if I break down or get sick or whatever but don't really need search and rescue, I can call on my family. It has a yearly or monthly subscription also. In my opinion it is well worth it for even just one trip.

Here is a link to a few of those I mentioned at REI. Not the only place to buy, just a handy page to reference.

http://www.rei.com/search?query=personal...or+beacons
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[riverdog]

One thing to consider is just getting a satellite phone instead. You can get new ones cheaper than the price listed for that at REI ( ebay). Globalstar cheapest plan is $300 a year with 120 minutes. It'll take more than a year for that text/emergency locator to be less expensive. A lot depends on what features you want and your needs. I had a satellite phone for a couple years (business expense) when I had to be occasionally reachable. It worked fine but it's not normally a locator but can be. Beware with any Sat device coverage is limited to none as canyons get narrower. It's been years since I hadn't to be reachable so now I leave the outside world behind totally and let them worry[laugh].
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[TyeDyeTwins]

What a fantastic read! That area has been on my list for a while. I think I will actually take the time to click on all those images too.

Let me know if you want to learn how to do the pictures inline instead. I'd be more than happy to help you out with it.

Keep up the great posts, I just can't wait to read about your next backpack adventure.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Do you still have to use the photo bucket deal to put the pics in line? I need to relearn how to do it since the Firefox mode won't work for me anymore. Thanks J
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[TyeDyeTwins]

My instructions are for using Photobucket. Really any image hosting site will work. I used to use mountain website to get mine on here until I learned "the way of photobucket".
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[neveronsunday]

Riverdog - This golden was right at ten inches. I was shocked as from what I had read they were one inch fingerlings air dropped two years ago this September. I was anticipating maybe six or seven inches at best. They seemed good and healthy, big shoulders and lots of spunk.
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[doggonefishin]

[quote neveronsunday]Riverdog - This golden was right at ten inches. I was shocked as from what I had read they were one inch fingerlings air dropped two years ago this September. I was anticipating maybe six or seven inches at best. They seemed good and healthy, big shoulders and lots of spunk.[/quote]


It looks like they are doing far better there than the ones planted in Murdoch basin. Congrats and thanks for the great report.
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[neveronsunday]

SkunkedAgain - I should have checked to see if the wife tripled the life insurance before issuing the pass. [] It's good to be loved. I'm far from the fish expert but from what I could discern, Golden trout maintain their parr markings (dark oval bands along the lateral line) throughout their adult lives where others lose them after a year or so. Their fins generally have a white leading edge (like a Brookie), but have deep crimson sides to golden to orange belly. The configuration of their little dark spots is similar to a cutthroat, a little larger and denser towards the tail.
I anticipated their colors would be a little more vibrant but I think this one was a little muted because of the water it was in. Here is a picture of a Brook trout from the same lake. It's color palate was extremely muted. It reminded me of Newton Reservoir where all the fish in there become shades of gray in the fall. Here is a picture of a Rainbow from Abe's lake that hasn't outgrown his parr marks to compare as well.
028 Golden
030 Brook
046 Cut
060 Rainbow

Enjoy.
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[neveronsunday]

TyeDyeTwins - If you have a quick and dirty recipe for inline posting that would be great, maybe a pm? The post here is kinda fractured as it was late, but I thought some folks here may have some interest so I cut and pasted off my blog and that's what showed up. To see what it originally is supposed to look like I guess it's ok to say do a Google for Wordpress blogs? If that's out of line feel free to censure as needed!
Many thanx.
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[TyeDyeTwins]

PM sent.[]
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[riverdog]

It looked like a descent size golden for Utah. I've caught a handful around 10 inches but that was before Echo was stocked the past 2 years. Now just tons of smaller goldens. Hard to know if that one grew to that size since the recent stocking at Atwood almost 2 years ago or if it was already there.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Hey thanks I think I can tell a Goldie now. Thank you. J
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[SkunkedAgain]

When I'm bored between fall fishing and ice you need to teach me the ways of photo bucket, but I don't have time now. Thank you. J
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[FishMcFisherson]

Wow, what an adventure. You're quite the trooper making that trek by yourself. I'd love to get up there. Maybe next summer. Is this located on Ute land?
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[albinotrout]

Great report and beautiful area. Maybe next year I will be able to convince the fam to do another back packin trip.
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[neveronsunday]

Heck, now you have me scratching my head. It's been so long since hearing about anyone pulling one out of that area I didn't even consider they were not from the most recent planting... hmmmm... they seemed to be all one size class... huh... and scratch sommore.
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[neveronsunday]

[quote FishMcFisherson]Wow, what an adventure. You're quite the trooper making that trek by yourself. I'd love to get up there. Maybe next summer. Is this located on Ute land?[/quote]

No red tape at all. Free parking at the trail head, no passes needed, just sign the register to let the Forest Service know when to come looking for you if you don't check back out. It's all National Forest and Uinta Wilderness land. With that there is no camping within a couple hundred feet of water sources or trails and no camping within 1/4 mile if you want to have a fire. There is also a restriction from grazing your pack animals around the Chain Lakes but that's about it.
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