My friend Trent and I went up to the Uintas on Thursday afternoon. We had no real plans other than go wherever we wanted to. We knew we were going to start at the Crystal Lake TH and hike up to Wall Lake. We ended up hiking up to the Twin Lakes that night. We arrived at our campsite around 7pm. What a beautiful place. Our campsite was at the southern/smaller of the Twin Lakes. Trent did some fishing and I hiked around and met Derek from Taylorsville. He was up here with his son and their scout troop from Morgan. We talked about Coyote Gulch which he had been too many years ago, Ryder Lakes which he wanted to go to and my recent trip with my Varsity Scouts to Escalante.
The next morning we got packed up and headed up toward Notch Mountain pass. We spotted a herd of mountain goats and watched them for a little bit then decided to Ibantik Lake. The trail was muddy in parts and had some snow on the trail, but nothing that was impassable. We got down to Ibantik Lake around 12:30 and relaxed for a bit. A scout group had come in after us and were fishing and then lated jumping off some rocks into the lake when Derek whom I had met the night before walked up, I introduced him to Trent and we chatted for a while.
Ibantik Lake was an emerald green color as was Lovenia Lake. We hung out for a few hours and then decided to head back, maybe to Clyde lake, we weren't sure. As we headed up the trail dark clouds rolled in with thunder and a few flashes of lightning. We decided to move on as we didn't see anymore lightning, but then it started to hail and then downpour. It actually felt pretty good. When we got to the pass at Notch Mountain we decided that we had seen some pretty amazing spots and we were going to head home. We hiked back to the Crystal Lake Trail Head and got back home around 7:30.
https://picasaweb.google.com/jeb1972/TwinLakesUintas
During our trip, Trent had used his new backpack for the first time. He bought it a while back. When we put our packs on upon arrival at the Crystal Lake TH, his waist buckle snapped. He rigged something up. When we were looking for a camping spot at the Twin Lakes, his loops on the bottom of the bag with his mat and fishing pole ripped right off. He bought them at Sportsman's Warehouse and we were going to pass right by it so we decided to stop in and take a long shot with no receipt and it being well over 30 days.
We took it in and he talked to the lady at the customer service desk who then called over someone from the camping department. Candy was the girls name. We explained the situation and pointed out the fact that you can tell the bag was brand new and that we looked and smelled like we just came from a backpacking trip. She hesitated for a second and then said she would exchange the back for full value and show Trent some better bags. A few minutes later Trent had a new backpack and we were on our way home. I know Sportsman's isn't known for its customer service, but Candy has restored our faith in it.
