Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge 2/2002

When: February 1-3, 2002

Crew: Ryan, Me

Summary: I met Ryan at Doris campground late on Friday night. The campground closes at ten, but Ryan arrived early enough to get a campsight. I unpacked my sleeping bag into the tent, and we looked at the refuge map before climbing into our bags to escape the cold. The low for the night was 15°F, and I believe it was every bit of that.

The next morning we packed up and drove to the Charons Gardens trailhead, where we left our cars. The weather forecast for the weekend was clear and sunny, but Saturday turned out to be cloudy and gray. We hiked out into the wilderness, and soon lost the "main" trail, the only one marked on the map. It didn't matter, since we didn't really have a destination in mind. After a few miles, we found a nice campsight, set up the tent, and had lunch. It wasn't until we sat down to eat, that we really began to feel the cold bite of the wind.

After lunch, we took the map and some water and set out to climb Mount Lincoln. The area had suffered an ice storm the previous week, and there were several rocks that had a thin sheet of ice on the outside. We could see the ice melting from the inside out, little black trickles under the white veneer.

We made the summit of Lincoln without too much effort, and set off for it's nearest neighbor, Phantom Mountain. We made it most of the way to the top before our scrambling became futile. The boulders were too big and dangerous to climb, so we rested for a while and then headed back to camp.

Ryan cooked some delicious salmon cakes for dinner, breading canned salmon with lemon-pepper bread crumbes and frying the patties in a skillet. We began to feel the cold again as we ate, so we hiked around the camp, exploring until it got dark. About seven o'clock, we climbed in our sleeping bags to weather the freezing night.

The next day was a little warmer, and we made it back to the cars without incident. We drove over to the Boulder trailhead and took the short hike to the Forty Foot Hole, a favorite destination of my adolescence. We enjoyed a Texas Longhorn burger at The Meers Store, and parted ways, heading for our homes.

Other: Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge Waypoints