Beartooths 2008
I am two weeks back from my backpacking trip to the Beartooth Mountains. It was a grand adventure!
Planning for the trip started over a year ago. Because of everything else going on last summer I did not make it to the mountains for a backpacking trip but had to settle for a quick three day trip to Coyote Gulch in southern Utah last October. For over a year now I have been looking at maps, viewing the intended route on Google Earth and asking questions on internet forums and via email. In the over 32 miles and 5100 feet of elevation gain in 5 days I did not look at the maps once to determine our route. I already knew the route as well as I could without actually hiking it. We consulted the maps almost daily after we got to camp to help my partner visualize where we were and where we had been but did not need them to find our way.
A friend who had been with me on our trip to the Beartooths in 2006 had been planning to go with me for over a year. About a month before the trip he informed me that he was too swamped with work to be able to go. My son Craig had decided that he could not get away from work or his computer class and my other sons were tied up with work and family obligations. I began to frantically search for a partner while trying to convince my wife that if I rented a satellite phone I could go by myself. Finally, 2 weeks before the trip, I talked with a patient at work who said that he would love to go and he would check with his wife. He called me back a couple of days later to say that he had clearance from his wife and that he would like to take Cory, his 14 year old son. Normally I would hesitate to take a 14 year-old on a trip like this but Scott said that Cory had climbed the Grand Teton with him last summer. Cory was a little slow on the uphill grinds but was a strong hiker and never stopped. Scott had a heavy pack to take some of Cory’s load but he was Super Man. He is in very good shape and I don’t know if he even got tired. I proved to be the limiting factor but was pleased with how well I did. I had worked to get ready and at elevation still only found myself sucking air a few times on the really steep stretches.
Day 1
Wanting to get some miles behind us on the first day we left home at 4:30 AM. Scott picked me up right on time. We made good time but missed the turn towards West Yellowstone at Idaho Falls and had had to take Highway 33 over to Rexburg. We stopped for gas in West Yellowstone and stopped at a fly shop to get me a filter bottle. Scott and Cory both had filter bottles and I figured if I got one I could leave the water filter in the car. As it turned out Scott threw his filter in his pack anyway. The filter bottle still saved us from having to stop to frequently filter water along the way.
We had a 15 minute delay between Yellowstone and Cooke City for construction and arrived at the Clarks Fork Trailhead at 11:40. We were met as we got out of our car and told not to leave any food in the car as they had been having problems with a bear that was breaking into cars. We were on the trail and headed out by 12:20.
We wanted to get at least to Russell Lake for the first night but knew that it may be crowded so we thought that we would go beyond if time and energy would allow it. The first 4 miles were through thick forest and though pretty it could only be described as tedious. Russell lake was only 6 miles away and 600-700 feet above the trailhead but with all of the ups and downs it was 1200 feet of climbing.
The mosquitoes were as bad as I have ever had to deal with for the full trip but were especially thick for the first 4 miles. At one point I think that Scott must have had 2-3 per square inch on his one shoulder. 100% DEET worked well and we frequently wore our head nets. I ate a few along the way and I am sure that I inhaled more than one of them.
Along the lower portion of this trail we saw some bear scat and a decayed log that had been rolled over and torn apart. It was the only sign of bears we saw for the entire trip until we saw two bears while driving through Yellowstone on our way home.
After the first 4 miles we entered a narrow, steep, granite canyon. Russell Creek flows through the canyon and there were many beautiful waterfalls and cascades along the way. The beauty of the stream and the many cascades helped to ease the work of the climb. The cascades right below the outlet of Russell Lake were especially stunning.
It took us until 5:00 PM to get to Russell Lake. I was ready for a good rest. Cory said that we had gone far enough and I wasn’t going to argue though I thought that after a rest perhaps we could have made it a little farther. I knew that there were switchbacks coming up though so we stayed at Russell Lake. It was crowded there. There must have been 20 tents along the east and north side of the lake. On the way back out on Friday we didn’t see a single tent at Russell Lake.
We found a place to squeeze our tents in and proceeded to fix supper. After supper we cleaned up and hung the food bags from the bear pole. We fought mosquitoes until dark and then I found out that the batteries on my headlight were not very strong and that the light was not bright enough to read by.
As I laid in my tent thinking about how tired I was after a “short” day I began to wonder if my backpacking days were coming to an end. My age seemed to be catching up with me. My feet hurt and my thighs felt like rubber. Perhaps I wasn’t even going to be able to do all that I had planned for this trip. I knew that the elevation gain from the trailhead wasn’t much. I didn’t know how much climbing we had really done for the day. After getting home and tracing the route out on my Topo program I found out that we had done 1200 feet of climbing. It is still not a lot but considerably more that the 600 feet overall gain.
We had just a little light rain that evening but the sky was clear and blue the next morning. There were only two times on the entire trip where we had to duck into the tents to seek shelter from the rain. On days that weren’t overcast we were wishing that it was to give us some shelter from the hot sun.
Day 2
The fun begins! It was 9:00 the next morning before we got breakfast over with and got packed up to hit the trail. Cory needed a little prodding in the mornings to get him going. For breakfast we had Pina Colada Rice--instant rice with sugar, powdered milk, shredded coconut and dried pineapple. Immediately after leaving Russell Lake we hit the switch backs. It was a pretty long climb to a beautiful, green, hanging valley. The valley had a winding stream, pretty meadows and lots of wild flowers. There were some very promising camping sites along this valley-especially in the lower end. The wild flowers really started in this valley and were wonderful the entire trip but we were still a week or two early for the peak display of color. With the cold, late spring things were not in full bloom yet.
It was in this valley that we passed a group of four women all at least 10 years older than me who were backpacking together. I decided that perhaps my problem wasn’t so much my age as my lack of conditioning. Scott isn’t that much younger than me and he never seemed tired on the entire trip. There is no question that he is in much better shape than me.
We also passed a Venturing crew from Minnesota out for a high adventure activity. We also saw them at Fossil Lake but I don’t think that they went beyond there.
At the far end of the hanging valley was another set of switchbacks up the east side of the valley through a boulder field. The trail crews had done a good job of constructing the trail through there so it was challenging because of the climb but not treacherous because of the rocks. At the end of the switchbacks we came to Ouzel Lake. Ouzel is a stunning little lake sitting at the base of a rounded granite peak falling directly to lake edge on the far side. One quarter mile further along we came to Bald Knob Lake. Another lovely lake but this one with some open shore line on 3 sides and some possible camping sites. We stopped at Russell for a break and some snacks. I had plenty of snacks along but it seemed that Scott could have supplied an entire scout troop. No wonder his pack was so heavy.
At Bald Knob we had our first stream crossing without a bridge and it was a little tricky getting across without wading. From there things opened up with fewer and fewer trees and a continuous, gradual climb. We saw Fizzle Lake off to the west, knowing that we would be passing Fizzle in a few days on our way back to the trail after several days of off-trail hiking. We crossed the summit of the East Rosebud trail and arrived at Fossil Lake by 12:30 where we stopped for lunch. It was here that we crossed our first snow field. We also ran into a group of three guys who had been on the trail for three days to get to this point. They said that it was really killing them. They were from Orlando and the elevation was really hard on them.
We went out onto one of the peninsulas where I found the shade of a boulder to have lunch. There was lots of exposed granite and lots of remaining snow banks. It is a stark, imposing landscape. Lunch lasted about 45 minutes and then it was time to move on. We knew that we had a few more miles and some challenges yet ahead of us for the day.
After lunch we started down the trail again feeling somewhat refreshed. About 30 minutes beyond Fossil I began looking for where we would leave the trail to go to Oly Lake. We actually left the trail prior to the point that I had planned on but as we began to lose altitude I began looking for a route that would avoid dropping down lower. We took a rather gradual climb up to a saddle that was almost directly across the canyon south of Oly. From there we dropped down a steep, grassy slope to the canyon bottom and started looking for a way to cross the outlet stream and stay dry. I managed to find a rock-hop that was easy until the last jump. I was a little worried about making the leap with my pack on so I took it off and swung it over to the far side. It was then an easy jump. I made my way up stream and then through a rock field and up a steep slope to the lake. By the time I got to the top I was breathing hard, hot, and in dire need of a drink. Meanwhile Scott had gone up the outlet and found a way across the stream near the top. The outlet is almost a waterfall so it was a very steep climb for him as well. He called to Cory to come up the same way and he did. But Cory ended up with wet boots when he crossed.
It was then around the east end of the lake, a climb up over a knoll at the lake edge and we stayed high to go up into the glaciated valley above Oly. We didn’t go very far as we found a nice place to camp on the north side of the first tarn that we came to. We pulled into camp at about 3:30 PM. This was to be home for the next two nights. The valley floor was relatively flat with lots of smooth granite and a stream wandering and cascading down the valley. There were a few trees on the slopes above the valley floor. At the far end of the valley was a cascade of several hundred feet as the outlet of Billy and Cairn Lakes tumbled down the steep slope. In spite of the continual roaring of the stream as it dropped down the slope below camp to Oly there remained a stillness to this place. In the two days that we were there we did not see anyone else though the next day we would meet a group from Iowa up at Cairn Lake. The valley floor had more of the tundra vegetation while the slopes had colorful expanses of wild flowers. There were patches at the bottoms of the slopes that had obviously just lost their blankets of snow and the plants were just starting to push through the soil surface.
Day 3
This morning we were a little anxious to get started as we wanted to get to the lakes above to do some fishing. Still, we didn’t get away from camp until 9:00 AM. After a steep climb of several hundred feet we arrived at Billy Lake. I laid claim to the spot out on the end of the little peninsula that Swimswithtrout had pointed out on a map as the place that he fished. The fishing was hot for a half hour or so and then slowed suddenly. Scott out-fished me by a large margin but I managed to land a few. We had been turning loose everything we caught and decided that we had better keep the next few for supper. The brookies at this lake were definitely the biggest I had seen. We were catching quite a few that were over 12 inches and knew that the lake held even bigger fish. We stashed 3 fish in a snow bank for later retrieval and headed up to explore and fish Cairn Lake. There were no trees in this glacial cirque-only rocks, snow, wind and water.
On the moraine at the east end of Cairn was a group of three tents. Four guys from Iowa were camped there. They reported that they had experience very off and on fishing there with the good periods being quite good. They had come over the top of the ridge from Sky Tops but planned on going down to Oly to return up the canyon from there.
By now the sun was heating up and I was looking for shade. My search was in vain and I ended up waiting for the clouds to move in while I read a book. Cory tried for a while to catch some more fish but the water was like glass and was not about to release any fish to our group.
By 4:00 PM we were back in our tents waiting for a rain shower to pass so that we could fix supper. It soon abated and we fought the mosquitoes for our supper. Afterwards I hiked up the valley and found a peaceful spot to sit, relax and soak in the beauty around me. There was a bit of a breeze so the mosquitoes were not quite as bad as they had been but I still made frequent use of my head net.
After a brief but moderate rain shower Scott said that he and Cory were going down to Oly Lake to do some fishing. I told him that I would hike down in a bit to watch. After they left I thought that I remembered something about the lake. I pulled out my RMS map of the Beartooths (kindly sent to me by Hikerjer) and sure enough, there were no species of trout listed for Oly Lake. After Scott returned he announced that he didn’t think that there were any fish in the lake as not only did they not catch any fish but they hadn’t seen a single fish rise. I was able to confirm their suspicions. Scott claimed that I hadn’t come down because I knew all along that there were no fish in the lake. He was right--kind of.
Supper was mountain spaghetti and poached trout. The spaghetti was OK but perhaps not something that I will repeat. It was an easy dish though and one that I will keep on the list.
I had experienced just a little condensation in my Tarptent Double Rainbow the night before so this night I opened up one side of one of the awnings and experienced no condensation at all while Scott had a pretty wet inner surface to his rain fly.
While hiking up the valley I hiked up on the slope on the north side and found the only mountain goat that we saw on the trip. Under the overhang of a boulder there was a pile of goal hair, a jaw bone and a piece of the skull with one horn attatched and the remants of the other horn. It was interesting to speculate on how he met his end.
Day 4
The real fun begins! This was the day that I had been anticipating and worrying a little about. I knew that we would experience some rock-hopping and challenges in route finding. The route finding challenges were not the sort that could get you lost but were more along the line of finding our way through the jumble of rocks and ridges. I had sent an email to SWT asking some questions and expressing some concern and he had reassured me that it was doable and not all that tough but would take some time.
The day before I had checked out the route over the ridge just above Oly Lake and found that getting into the canyon we wanted was really very easy. Working our way up the canyon we found that the first half mile was also easy and pleasant as the north side of the stream was mostly a moderate, grassy slope. But then we came to the crux of the canyon. The canyon narrowed down to about 25 feet wide and was blocked across the entire width by a deep snow bridge with the stream running under it. With just a little anxiety about the stability of the bridge we went up the side next to the rocks and over the top. On the far side we found the entire width of the canyon to be filled by the stream. Along the side however, there were enough rocks to rock-hop up to dry land. We traversed two more snow bridges before the canyon opened up before us into a broad, jagged bowl filled with ponds, boulders and rocky ridges. We hadn’t seen anyone for a day or so and this day was again a day of no contact with other hikers which made the scene more wild and magnificent.
We made excellent time through this upper bowl. This was due to good luck in route finding and being able to go up snow covered slopes that may have been otherwise impassable. On one high, steep slope which I felt was not something that we should try we climbed up a rocky point for the first 2/3 of the climb and then onto the snow and over the top for the remaining 1/3. The hot sun had softened the snow to the point that it was rather easily done. This ridge turned out to be the last major obstacle before the top. From here it was must a matter of crossing minor rocky ridges and snow fields. I stayed to the rocks a fair amount in an effort to keep my feet dry. It really didn’t matter. My feet got good and wet and the remaining hike for that day was pretty short anyway.
The last low ridge at the top put us over the lip and into the Sky Tops Basin. We passed by only the lower lake but the brief visit made me want to return to explore the granite maze of the basin. On the south end of the lake was another snow field that looked steeper than it really was and dropped abruptly into the icy lake with an undercut edge. It was just intimidating enough that we undid the straps on our packs before we crossed in case of a slip into the dark, frigid waters of the lake.
We easily passed around the end of the lake without incident and faced the climb down to Rough Lake. On Google Earth and pictures this appears as a forbidding obstacle. SWT had assured me however that it was really not that bad and totally a doable thing. It required some care through the rocks but I found that the biggest risk was in crossing a few patches of bare dirt up high on the really steep part where the risk of slipping was the greatest. Once to the lake edge we hiked through a few more sizable but rapidly melting show fields until we reached the peninsula on the east side. This was camp. We had made the trip from Oly in just 3 hours and 40 minutes. We had been lucky in our route choice through the rocky labyrinth and the snow made some of the climbs easier than climbing over bare rock and rubble.
The tents were quickly put up and water filtered. The other two decided to try their hand at some fishing while I relaxed and did a little reading. I fixed some lunch. It was here that we had the only prepared lunch of the trip. It was Thai Peanut Rice (recipe compliments of BP forums) and was pretty good. After lunch the others headed out for fishing again. I decided to hike down to Lone Elk lake and check out the hills between the two lakes. They followed me down to fish down there as my understanding was that the fish down there were bigger. They did not find this to be the case and caught only very small brook trout. While hiking I saw three tents on a bench above Lone Elk’s inlet on the north west end and a single tent tucked between ridges at the south end of Rough.
About the time that we got back from our exploring and fishing it started clouding up pretty good. We hurried and boiled some water for the Mountain House (used for two nights on this trip) and got supper over with. Just as we were finishing the clean-up (1930) it started to rain. We dove for the tents and I got out my book to read. It was dark before the rain started to let up. I was wanting to open the awnings for some breeze and looked out at about 11:00 PM and I could see a few stars peeking through the clouds. A half hour later they had disappeared again so I kept things pretty well shut up and in storm mode for the rest of the night. The next morning I got out the small sponge that I carry and wiped of the roof of my Double Rainbow. It was nowhere wet enough to drip or run--just a little damp.
The next morning the sky was clear and blue and it was time to move towards the trailhead. I was ready to sleep in my bed, more than ready for a hot shower and looked forward to a meal without mosquitoes. But I was rather reluctant to drop back down into the trees. I was anxious to see my family. I do well on the trail but during my down-time I tend to miss my family on these trips. I had a grandson (my first grandchild) who was just a day and a half old when I left home and a daughter-in-law who was still having some post-op problems last I heard. Even still, I was reluctant to leave this setting that I had planned and dreamed about for the last year.
We climbed the steep slope above camp and started working our way through another confusion or rocks, ridges and ponds. Route finding was easy though as we merely had to let gravity take us to the low ground and we soon found our way into a long, grassy and lovely valley. As we got lower the wild flowers got thicker with a profusion of yellow and reds with just a few blue tones thrown in. We soon crossed the outlet of No Bones Lake and found ourselves looking down on Fizzle Lake. After an easy climb around the southwest shore we descended the outlet. We were slowed by our futile efforts to photograph and preserve the dazzling display of blooms.
We got down to the stream crossing at Bald Knob and found the rock hop back was a little trickier than it was in the other direction. I lunged from a log up onto the biggest rock in the chain and just about lost it. I was waving arms and lurching about but finally regained my balance enough to propel myself to the next rock and on across. Cory didn’t do quite so well as he ended up with another set of wet boots. We hiked on down to Ouzel where we took a break and Cory wiped out his boots and found some dry socks in his pack.
The hike on down to Russell Lake was delightful. It was a little cloudy which helped to keep us cool and the scenery was magnificent. After quickly hiking the hanging valley above Russell it was on to the switch backs down to the lake. I honestly didn’t remember them seeming as long on the way up as they did on the way down. At the inlet stream it was time to sit on a log for a few minutes and refill our water bottles. From there it was all down hill-both literally and figuratively.
We had dropped down out of the alpine splendor that I love and into the forest. With every step my feet seemed to hurt more and the mosquitoes got thicker. The air traffic controller of the mosquito world had his hands full that day. Our goal for the day was to get to Fox Lake to get us within easy striking distance of the trailhead for an earlier start for home on Saturday. We took the fork in the trail towards Fox and quickly found ourselves steeply descending into a mosquito infested hell. We located what seemed to be the best camp site with a nearby bear pole and enough standing dead trees to wipe out Patton’s 5th Army if the wind should blow. We hesitated in setting up camp though it was starting to rain. It was only 3:00 PM and we seemed doomed to spend the rest of the day in our tents hiding from the mosquitoes. Finally I proposed to Scott that we go on to the trailhead and look for a shower. The next 4 miles seemed to go on forever with their rock strewn ups and downs. I survived somehow and we were soon driving through Yellowstone and getting stuck in the traffic jams at critter sightings. A stop for Pizza in Rexburg and then on to a welcome hot shower and soft bed at about 12:30 AM.
My feet hurt so bad for the next couple of days that it was almost two days before I began planning next years trip. I enjoyed this trip so much that I wouldn’t mind doing it all again but I think that I will look for new sights. Perhaps into Aero Lakes, over to Rough and day-hike up to spend a day exploring Sky Tops Basin instead of merely passing through the lower end. The planning and dreaming will help get me through the long dark days of winter.
A special thanks to all on the Backpacker Forums who answered my many questions and provided encouragement-especially SWT and Hikerjer. Thanks to Scott for saving my trip and thus saving my summer by being my hiking partner. Thanks to my wife for letting me escape every summer and enjoy the majesty of the high country. Thanks to God and the majesty of his works.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)