God Bless Montana! a TR

“WOOT!

Got back Monday from hiking the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness area in Montana. Awesome trip, great fishing, great views, some peak bagging and scrambling, and for the unattached guys out there, tons of cute hiker girls on the trails.

More to come.
Photos:
http://www.humanpackmule.com/beartooth05/index.htm”

“Great pics so far! What's the cairn for?”

“Hey HPM, nice pics! Glad you had a good trip. Those trout look yummy!”

“I'm checking it out. Look forward to you TR.”

“They look kinda fishy to me, aero.”

“Those cutthroat are getting big up there! They had some problems with a parasite several years ago and they've re-stocked a lot of the lakes; looks like they're ready to eat! I could really recognize those pictures along the East Rosebud to Cooke City trail!”

“Big thanks to Aero and all who provided their insights when we were planning this one.

Bit, thats what happens when your bear "ropes" fail.

Day one

We flew out of Jacksonville at 5:30 am so most of us had been awake since 2am. The flight out was uneventful but when we boarded the Atlanta to Salt Lake plane we had flashbacks of the High Sierra Trip. Once again the powere was being turned off and on and it was obvious that they were trying to diagnose an electrical problem.

Naturally, Madman was getting antsy and was expecting a repeat of the HST flight out debacle. Luckily the Delta techs were more competent than the United techs from two years ago and we continued on without any further troubles.

We arrived in Billings and met Mark Sr, and his friend Bob from Minnesota who had flown out a day earlier. Mark and Bob had bought us all straw cowboy hats and red bandannas to wear. They passed them out to us at baggage claim and proceeded to take photos. It was pretty embarrassing because none of the hats fit. They were pretty small and reminded me of the tiny hats one of the characters on In living color wore during the “Men on film” skits they did. Lots of gay cowboy jokes ensued.

While loading the rental cars it became obvious that we needed another car to hold al of Mark Sr’s stuff. You see Mark always has fun, it’s just a an unbreakable rule. Mark defines fun with food so Mark always packs TONS more food than he can possibly carry and just filters it out at the trailhead. The rest of us just have a pack, a carry on daypack and an out bag (containing anything we need after the hike). Mark? Well, it was like four huge suitcases. Plus we found out that Bob had to fly out a day earlier that the rest of us so three cars were necessary.

We picked up fishing permits and other last minute things at Walmart on the way out of town. Rather than go to an actual outfitter and get isobutene canisters we opted for the coleman brand carried by walmart. That turned out to be a mistake.

After a lot of driving we arrived at East Rosebud Lake and settled into the tent campground to resort our packs. We also decided that we didn’t want to drop a car off at Cooke City as we had planned. No one wanted to do the big drive and return and no one wanted to do a key swap hike so we decided to just do an in and out hike.

That night the clouds rolled in and it rained very lightly, barely enough to call rain.”

“you ought to post your route etc...sounds like a neat trip”

“I will.”

“Route:
Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area, Montana
Night 1- Rainbow Lake
Night 2- Dewey Lake
Night 3- Fossil Lake
Night 4- Fossil Lake (begin return hike the following morning)
Night 5- Top of Impasse Falls
Night 6- Rainbow Lake

Night 7- Drove around to Yellowstone National Park and tent camped at Slough Creek
Night 8- Visited Mammoth Hot Springs and headed back to Billing MT to hotel close to the airport.”

“Here's the only picture of a cute hiker girl in HPM's album:

”

“She was HOT!”

“Lol, Laurel just saw the picture of the marmot ans said "that's daddy's squirrel! She's so CUUUUUUUTE!" in a little girl sqeaky voice.”

“I love reading your trip reports! Keep em coming.”

“Sorry I didn't get to see you guys HPM--I was tied up w/ the State Games when you guys arrived, and out of town last weekend. A couple of us are headed up to Moon Lake up the Rock Creek drainage this weekend to stalk the wiley trout!”

“Did you go to Fossil Lake? Are there really fossils there? And if so, what kind and from what time?

I NEED TO KNOW!!!


ps - you pictures are great, I'm still looking!”

“oh man -it is gorgeous out west.....next stop - Cali”

“Twinks, yes we did but we didn't find any fossils. We looked pretty hard too. I had heard that trilobites (sp?) could be found there.

Day 2

We got up early and packed up for the hike in. Madman and I realized that we had a problem. We were the guys who were going to do the shuttle driving. As such we had planned to get breakfast and lunch on the drive and to pick up some brats to cook for dinner in camp. Due to the dropping of the shuttle plan we were now going in with one day less food than we had planned. Breakfast was no problem as we just dipped into Mark Sr’s cornucopia of endless food. For the rest…..well, we will just figure something out on the trail as we both had one or two “extras” packed away.

The trail started out through a burnt out section for the first few miles. Nothing to tough but it was out in the sun. The trail followed a rushing stream up to Elk Lake. Some 3 miles distant. The trail would get close to the stream and then pull far away from it. We were glad to get going and the miles went quickly.

Once at Elk Lake Chris pulls out his fishing pole and proceeds to fish. We decided to head to the far side of the lake where the stream dumps into it (better fishing) and take a lunch break. Sure enough Chris snags the first fish of the trip within two minutes, a rainbow trout. Well, ALL the fishing gear came out then and we fished for awhile. Not too much luck after that. Madman and I nibbled some snacks for lunch after a bit we headed onwards.

The trail above Elk Lake became very rocky and canyon-like with trees few and far between. The topo made the trail look as if it was a relatively easy bottom hike. Not so, it actually was a pretty good climb. We hit Rimrock Lake and began to see the weekend hikers filtering down homeward. We were immediately struck that the male/female ratio was close to 1 to 3. We never see that in the Southeast. Usually it’s more like 6 to 1. Awesome. It was pretty cool seeing all the ladies out there enjoying the woods as opposed to the usual “I can’t believe you like that” or “That’s so not safe” or “I’d rather got the mall” crap you hear out of the ladies back home. So at that point the phrase “God bless Montana” was heard frequently.

Presently we came to Rainbow Lake and made camp at the edge of a nice grassy field. I had found some really thin string back home that I had though had a real high tensile strength to use as bear ropes. I was pretty jazzed that I didn’t have to carry the usual heavy rope. Well, it didn’t work out that way. Once I got the thing strung up I tried hoisting one of the bags. I kept pulling and pulling the string and the bag remained firming rooted to the ground and the string stretched and stretched and stretched. Finally I held the bag out at arms length and pulled up the slack line and let the bag go. SNAP! The frickin thing just popped.

Well crap. That’s embarrassing and disconcerting. We then decided to just build a cairn over our food bags every night with the pots and pans on top and some good throwing sized rocks nearby.

Madman and I for want of dinner went fishing where the stream dumped into Rainbow Lake. My little $25 walmart rod did us proud. I had some flies with me and we just let them get carried out in the current and jigged them around. Sure enough Madman caught a nice sized Rainbow Trout and I pulled in a smaller Cutthrout Trout. Madman had a packet of crabmeat in his pack so we seasoned them up and had freshly caught trout seasoned and stuffed with crabmeat for dinner. We all dipped into the pack of Pecan Sandies cookies I brought for dessert that night.

Food crisis averted. Life is good.”

“Sounds like a great trip, hpm...not too crowded either!

Those fish on foil sure looked delicious :)

But, geez, where are the pics of...

"tons of cute hiker girls on the trails."

:( :( :(”

“Trilobites, really? I can't find any info online regarding that area. If there are trilobites it could be anywhere from early Cambrian to late Permian. That's old stuff!

I'm working on K/T stuff right now but have a curiosty about the late Permian. Mass extinctions are fascinating!”

“Well, unless you're part of one.”

“And your point is?



lol!”

“Sorry to disappoint but....
I'm happily married. No need for me to take those kinds of photos. I'm not a cad.

I left the photo taking of girls to the single and unhappily married guys.
last edited: 7/27/05 11:19:17 AM”

“Can't wait for the rest of the reports!”

“oh man, you missed out on the main attraction of MT...Aero? well sounds like you had a fun trip anyway.
;-)”

“Very nice. I'm jealous.”

“Yes Lyra the sun was less bright and the sky was less blue and food held little flavor for lack of Aero. However, we managed to suffer through it.”

“Actually, there are no fossils up at Fossil Lake; the rock there is Precambrian granite. But, the Trilobites are found in the area to the southeast near Beartooth Butte, which is a Paleozoic remnant left after most of it slid off into Wyoming as the Beartooths uplifted.


Twinkle Toes-- I was doing some reports on the K/T boundary here in Montana in the Hell Creek Formation for the Lewis and Clark monument at Pompey's Pillar (which is Hell Creek). I was looking into the Alvarez hypotheis, Iridium anomoly and the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan. They've mapped the Iridium layer to the north of here at the top of the Hell creek (where they've found the Triceratops)”

“Hey lyra, I missed that one. Yes, I'm an attraction here and it's free admission!”

“Aero - will you marry me?”

“LOL! I am a fossil!”

“Well.
That 'esplains why we didn't find any fossils then.”

“Lots of blue sky, lots of wildflowers, lots of water, lots of fish, and lots of rocks....what more could you ask for? Looks like it was a great trip.”

“HPM- I think the side you guys did is the best! There are way more waterfalls and lakes on the East Rosebud side than the Clark's Fork side. It would have been cool if you guys could have done the trail point to point, but you hit the best spots.”

“hehe...so, that's a no? I'm heartbrokem.

Yeah, I've been learning more and more about that Hell Creek formation. Have looked at some lovely specimens which one of my professors has pulled out for a few years running now.

I'm working on an east coast project...actually, at this point I'm just a field stooge helping to pull out a variety of marine invertebrates. I love it. Screw banking...”

“Goebeet is a fossil too...............I mean, he knows about fossils.......too”

“Yeah Twinks, you need to get out here for a dinosauer dig before they're all gone!”

“where you went, did you need any permits? good trip report, we will be out there mid-sept.”

“

"I left the photo taking of girls to the single and unhappily married guys."
humanpackmule

Also, he knows what treebait would do to him, if he brought home pictures of girls.”

“Dinos are cool but not really my thing. Though, if I happended to find a bit o'dino I wouldn't throw it back into the pile!

I found a croc scoot about a month ago...and was totally heartbroken when I accidently dropped it into the creek. Of course, have I found one since? Nooooooo”

“Croc snoot???

Huh?”

“Nah, NS, I'd tell him to take the pictures to the next Scout meeting, for "expanding their interests" in backpacking out west. ;)”

“The girlie pics are on his OTHER memory card that didn't make it home. He keeps that one at the office. I bet they consists of ladies bathing in cool mtn streams. Glistening water in bright sunshine.....”

“Day 3

We got up late-ish and Mark Sr and Bob were off fishing. The rest of us went about breaking down camp, eating breakfast and sitting around a small smoky fire to ward off what few bugs there were. Presently the fishermen came back with a few trout and we cooked them up for breakfast. A nice supplement to the menu.

We hiked up out of the Rainbow Lake area and were presented with some excellent views back down to the lake. Today’s goal was Dewey Lake. The mileage was low but it seemed to take forever. We checked out various campsites along the way to determine where to stay on the return trip. Mark and Bob fished most of them too.

Impasse falls was awesome and we took a rest there before heading the rest of the way to Dewey Lake.

Some of the guys had gotten there before us and were crashed out in the tents. The bugs were fierce here. Dewey had the worst mosquitoes of the trip. I pitched the tent and took a nap.

Later we tried to fish the lake with limited success. With all the bugs the fish were way too well fed and the only thing that worked were some Mepps spinners I had bought. We were only able to pull in one or two so we just released them and ate what we brought as our pack weights hadn’t gone down yet.

During dinner I heard the roar of falling rock and I saw a small snow cornice on a nearby mountain collapse and send a small shower of rocks down the mountainside. It was way too far away to be concerned with but it was very cool to see.

Around dusk we were sitting on a slabby section of rock looking across the lake when I saw a white shape on a cliff across the lake. Sure enough it was a mountain goat. We tried to get some photos of alpineglow but the show wasn’t so hot. That night the mountain goat showed up in camp and munched the grass all around Bob’s tent.

About 3am Madman and I awoke to the sound of wolves in the distance. It could have been coyotes but it didn’t sound right to be coyotes to me.”

“Dayhiker, Madman and Lightning Rod met the skinny dipping hiker chick.”

“Cyndee no permits required at all.
Just show up and hike.

Oh yeah, there were seven of us.
Me
Madman
Mark Sr.
Bob
Mark Jr. (former Scout)
Lightin Rod (former Scout)
Andrew (former Scout)”

“Mepps work great on those lakes, HPM! Thomas lures (spoons), too.


I think dead fish don't mind having their pictures taken, but if you take random shots of hiker-chicks along the trail you might risk a hiking pole to the groin!



I do remember on Montanapalooza Gojo taking a shine to the friendly female Ranger!
last edited: 7/27/05 12:14:03 PM”

“Day 4

Today we head up the Fossil Lake and spend two nights. By this point my hands had been pretty sunburned and I was forced to tie bandannas over my hands for sun relief. Unfortunately the small bottle of sunscreen Treebait had bought me for this trip had opened and leaked all over the top lid of my pack during the flight. Bummer.

We were ready to leave Dewey lake and the associated mosquitos but Mark and Bob were hard at work trying to fish up more trout. Sure enough they brought in four of them and we cooked them up for breakfast. By this time Madman and I’s food crisis return in reverse. We now had too much food. What a happy situation to have. We resolved to eat our extra dinners for lunch and our lunches for between meal snacks and our trail snacks? Well then, just open up and say ahhh!

The climb today was short but in sections steep. About part way up I noticed a ranger gaining on us quickly. Madman then announced that we had reached snowline by pummeling us with snowballs. Well, snow means gatoraide slushies. So we stopped for a slushie break. Before too long the ranger appeared and stopped to chat.

She was fresh out of college and this was her first season as a ranger. She was also cute, intelligent, sociable and quick to laugh. We married guys kept nudging the younger guys to get moving. Sadly enough, the boys weren’t quick on the uptake. Mark Sr. talked her up hard. It was hilarious to watch this old guy just chat it up with her and try to do a handoff to one of the younger guys and watch them just die. Fellas, you know the situation I’m sure. Before too long she headed up the trail and we old guys rounded on the boys.

HPM: That was the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen.
Madman: You guys are getting a punch on your man cards.
Bob: Were I young man I’d of at least tried to get a phone number or an email address.
Mark Sr: I would have proposed on the spot.
HPM: I see a glaring deficiency in your scout training.
Lightin Rod: I’ve got a girlfriend
Madman: Does she hike?
Lightin Rod: Errrr…..no.
Bob: Will she hike?
Lightin Rod: Ummm…..no.
HPM: would you like it if she hiked?
Lightin Rod: Ahhh…..yes.
Madman: Hand over your man card please
Mark: what about you guys?
Andrew & Mark Jr.: We got to college in another state.
Madman, HPM & Bob: TRANSFER DAMMIT!

We ribbed them like that for the rest of the trip.

We reached Fossil Lake about 20 minutes later and set to fishing. Near the site a stream ran into the lake and we fished it heavily as we could see lots of fish below the surface. We did very well there with cutthroats and golden trout. In the stream beds and small channels we saw several large trout and Lightin Rod grabbed Mark Sr’s net and just scooped one out of the water. Not to be outdone Andrew grabbed two of them with his bare hands.

Now that was hilarious, Andrew of all people snagging a trout bare handed. You see Andrew is a very particular young man about cleanliness and neatness. Case in point we were three days in and we all looked rumpled and stinky. Not Andrew, his shirt was neatly tucked into his pants and there were still crease marks in his shirt from pressing. Bob had taken to calling him GQ. So here’s Andrew noodling fish and being quite good at it.

Some of the guys climbed a nearby peak and scrambled around the other peaks. At dinner we fried 7 trout. Yes fried, Mark Sr. toted in a bottle of oil, breading and an oil thermometer. The fish were quite tasty. That night the moon rose over the lake and the guys all experimented with their camera settings trying to get a great moon photo.
last edited: 7/27/05 1:06:26 PM”

“Awesome TR, HMP!!!

"Hand over your man card please." LMAO!”

“Montana is on my list..
Great trip report HPM..
Great pics..”