The Beaten Path - Day 4 - Elk Lake

I'd like to report that each morning I bounced out of the sleeping bag ready to take several side trips and run, not walk, to the north trail head.  But by Day 4, my dogs were barking.  It feels as if I'm in pretty good shape for a 62 year old, but there was no getting around the stiffness and the sore feet.  The good news is after walking for awhile, it was not so noticeable.

Interestingly, we ate relatively little in comparison to our caloric output on this trip.  I have not felt particularly hungry, and I knew I was losing what turned out to be about 5 lb. (2.3 kg)  What is it, then, this need to eat that I feel when I am at home burning many fewer calories?

We took off early in order to be at Elk Lake in time for our planned rendezvous with Matt.  It was warmer this morning -- 50F (10C) at 7 AM.

Just south of the Rimrock Lake camp, we crossed to the other side of East Rosebud Creek on a actual bridge.  There's a LOT of water going under that bridge (barely visible in the lower right corner of the photo at right).  Without the bridge, this north end of the trail would fall into disuse.

Heading south from the bridge, the trail continues to drop rapidly in elevation.  Parts of it hang on steep rock faces, but nothing felt particularly scary.....although it was clear that falling would ruin your day.

As we were threading our way along the cliff trail, two runners burst into view.  Maybe Larry and I should have just run the trail.

The hike to Elk Lake took several hours.  Part of the trail near the lake works its way through a burn, and there were many berry-bearing shrubs coming in after the fire.  I have never eaten thimbleberries.  They were ripe and good.

Elk Lake had elk tracks.  And deer tracks.  And a beach with sand and grass.  It was perfect for a quick (very quick) swim in the sunshine.  Larry told the family when we got home that he saw a great white walrus in the lake.  I didn't see it.

The lake had many visitors.  The lake is close enough to the trail head that more groups arrived from the north end after we for the scenery or fishing.  No one else seemed to be swimming, however.

Matt showed up right at noon....with this great looking Dagwood Bumstead sandwich.  I was impressed -- no summer sausage and cheese for this guy!  He also offered to carry Larry's pack, and later, about half way to the finish line, Larry offered to carry mine.  I put up a brief fight.

The Beaten Path is a remote place.  It is remote enough that we had to drive about a half hour to get any cell phone reception whatever, and that, of course, is the true measure of remoteness in the early 21st century.

It was also remote enough to be good for the soul.  The solitude was refreshing.  Larry and I talked when we wanted to, but also respected each other's need for quiet.

I know why Jesus left the crowds to pray.  When Linda and I visited Israel in 2004, I rose early in the Judean wilderness before the sun even lit the mountains east of the Jordan.  I walked out of the camp and talked with the Lord as the sky began to lighten.  It was the same here in the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness.  Somehow, away from the works of man, it is easier to connect with God.

I am grateful that such places as this exist.  They are a window into our past.  This land is little changed from the days when it knew only the feet of the Crow Indians.

One never knows when will be the last time for something.  The season for climbing through the mountains is winding down for Larry and I, and I'm happy that we have the health to enjoy it still.  It will be a good memory for us both.

The Beaten Path

• Day 1 - Russell Lake
• Day 2 - On to the High Country
• Day 3 - Lakes and Falls
• Day 4 - Elk Lake

Trip Photo Album

The Beaten Path - Day 3 - Lakes and Falls

I carry a thermometer in my pack so I can either brag or complain, depending on how far temperatures range from comfortable.  On the morning of day three the thermometer registered a cool 41F (5C).  That's almost a brag, but the temperature really should have fallen below freezing to get any significant bragging traction.

After our a wet evening the night before, clear skies before dawn looked pretty inviting.  The large rocks near our campsite were already dry because of their slow release of heat from days of hot sunshine, so we laid out everything wet.  When the sun came over the ridge a little after six , drying moved faster.  We hung around the Twin Outlets Lake campsite until almost ten to dry out and rest.

Not long after mounting up the for the third day we saw one of the most beautiful vistas of the trip.  Larry stands on the lakeshore sans pack in the picture of this vista at right.

It turned out to be the beginning of a series of stunning lakes and falls.  Not far from the outlet of this lake, the water of the creek squeezes through a channel one could almost jump.  It shoots out at high pressure on its way to more rapids and falls.

I remember thinking as we padded along that you can't see scenery like this from a highway.  There are some marvelous sights along the North American road system, but because of how trails work, the walker is right up close to the scenery....and not whizzing by at 60 mph (97 kph).  The scenery on this trip is unparalleled with any Rocky Mountain scenery I have seen over the years.

Impass Falls was one of those unparalleled sights.  After shooting through rock flumes and racing through rock-choked channels, East Rosebud Creeks falls down a steep bank for perhaps 200 feet.  The trail passes not far from the falls.

I thought this must be Lake At Falls, an intriguingly named body of water....but it's Duggan Lake.  Lake At Falls is another waterfall fed lake.  Its most visible waterfall comes from much higher Martin Lake, but with less water than Impass.


Trail on cliffs could have been the name for this section of the Beaten Path.  The trail almost looks hewn into the rock or blown out of it, but I think for the most part, it follows a natural ledge.  In many places, the trail is shored up by some careful rock placement that builds up the path.  In one notable place, aging iron bolts, bars, and wooden cribbing hold the trail from careening down the mountain.

The trail was mostly pretty wide along these places, but narrow in a few.  These places didn't seem particularly dangerous, but it was a little unnerving to see rock on one side and at least 100 feet (30 m) of very thin air on the other.

After passing Lake at Falls we stopped for lunch.  I have a love-hate relationship with summer sausage.  The only time I ever eat it is while camping.  It is calorie dense, and lasts a long time in moderate temperatures. I should probably stop writing about this now.

My Swedish heritage dictates eating a certain amount of rye crisp bread, so I brought some of that along, partly because it, too, lasts a long time, but mainly because I like it, and I'm not saying that because of some buried cultural imperative.  I have tried many kinds of rye crisp, and this is the first time I have managed to buy one that actually tastes like cardboard.  It's probably fine with butter and jam, and it did have a lot of fiber.  You may be wondering at this point how I know what cardboard tastes like.

While we were eating the summer sausage, cheese and cardboard, a USFS trail maintenance worker walked up.  She carried a very efficient looking saw-on-a-pole and a shovel in the back pack.  We chatted a while about the trail and its history.  She said it had been in place since the 1930's when the CCC put a LOT of time into it.  That explained the amazing amount of rock work on the trail.

It also made me think about what might happen to the trail if a time comes when the USFS is no longer fiscally able to take care of it.  Avalanches, high water, and just freeze-thaw cycles can really change things in a short time.  There are a few places that could easily become impassable, and that would be the end of through traffic.

This afternoon at 1:30 my thermometer read 76F (24C).  That seems pretty warm to an Alaska boy like me, but it beat the 90F+ (32C) temperatures in Bozeman.  On day one, I wore shorts, but did fine with my long pants the other days.

We kept going because we wanted to make it a fairly easy fourth day to the rendezvous we planned with Larry's son at Elk Lake.  We did stop for a while near Rainbow Lake to chat with a Montana FW&P game warden.  He had hiked in the eight miles (12.8 km) to check compliance with the fishing regulations.  There are fish in many of these lakes.

Rimrock Lake was our last campsite.  I think it was the most attractive.  It was nice and open, and dry.  It was easy to take a splash in the lake and clean up.  We finished our chores and crawled into our sleeping bags.

I had fallen asleep when I felt Larry's elbow hitting me.  "Did you hear that?" he said.  I hadn't, but if Larry, who isn't easily alarmed was sitting up, I was going to listen carefully.  I sat up.  The rustling around outside our tent came soon again.  This was no junco thrashing around for bugs in the leaves.

Grizzly bears are not uncommon in the Montana mountains, and while we hadn't seen any sign of them, we had pulled our food up into a tree each night out of long habit.  The USFS has wisely required bear proof containers or bear proof storage for travelers in this area.  This requirement is not only good for individual campers, it's good for bears.  Fed bears usually become dead bears, I have learned over the years.  Once a bear gets the idea that humans have food, it becomes either a serious annoyance or a danger....and it winds up hurting a person, is killed, or both.

We each carried a can of "bear repellent" for the entire trip.  I love that name: it conjures up images of bears buzzing around, but confused about landing because of the smell.  And if it is a repellent, why don't we spray it on our own skin?  Could we get a combination insect and bear repellent?

We also carried a pistol as a last resort.  I don't want to shoot a bear....the bear is just being a bear, we share the same backyard, and killing a threatened species in defense of life means explaining oneself to officialdom. And then there is the specter of wounding a bear.....

We peered a little apprehensively out under the tent fly and saw.....deer prancing in the dim light.  Four of them.  Mostly they were just looking around our camp site, but there was also some prancing going on.  There was a buck in the group.  Were they showing off for each other?  Were they having fun?  I am intrigued by animal play behavior, but I would have also been happier to observe their antics at a more reasonable hour.

It rained twice today.

The Beaten Path

• Day 1 - Russell Lake
• Day 2 - On to the High Country
• Day 3 - Lakes and Falls
• Day 4 - Elk Lake

Trip Photo Album

The Beaten Path - Day 2 - On to the High Country

On our second day of the Beaten Path, we left early and continue climbing toward the high country.  Some trail sections tilted down but most were up, up, up.  

Larry wanted to start at the southern end because there is less climbing involved.  The south trailhead is around 8,000 feet (2438 m), the trail summit just under 10,000 (3048 m), and the north trailhead around 6,500 (1981 m).  South to north involves less climbing, although one hiker we met at Elk Lake said it was easier on the knees to go the other direction.  She also carried a sunflower umbrella, and walked faster than we did.  You have to respect an older person who has done the trail both directions, walks fast, and has the chutzpah to deploy a sunflower umbrella on a sunny day.  She also pointed out that it was a matter of tradition to patronize the Grizzly Bar in Roscoe on our way home.  I thought wistfully of the highly recommended hamburger as we whizzed by the bar.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

One of our early stops on this second day was in a beautiful meadow through which a small clear creek flowed.  We hadn't been resting long there before a black dog bounded up the trail toward us.  Wow, you're a long way from home, Bowser.  But pretty soon a pack train of horses led by some pretty non-dude-looking types showed up and it was clear who Bowser was with.  The pack train turned off the trail and headed up the hill to a nearby lake.  

Back on the trail again we came to a not-bridged creek. This was not good news to guys who had started to build up a fantasy about dry creek crossings on this trip.  After a pretty dangerous looking attempt to get across on some slippery logs just above an impressive set of rapids -- actually, it really more of a low waterfall -- the accumulation of 120+ years of staying-alive wisdom kicked in and we walked upstream to more level spot.

Now, note, ford does not necessarily mean getting across with dry feet.  If you are aboard a steed, yes, that might be so, but the only steeds in sight went the other direction an hour ago.  

Off came the socks.  Boots back on, we plunged in.  It was neither especially deep nor horribly swift, but there was plenty of liquefied snow to fill calf-high boots had we been wearing them.  We linked arms, doubled trekking poles in the out arms and made it to the other side without drowning even once.  I would have gladly carried some little lightweight fording shoes to avoid many hours of wetfoot.

Speaking of trekking poles, I have learned to appreciate them, and this trip underscored that.  One of many ways to get hurt on this trip is to stumble on a rock and do a face plant (or a rib or knee plant) on another rock.  But beyond the advantages of sticks to ward off klutz moments, they help with balance, take load off the knees, and allow us to put our arms into the walking/packing motion.  You guys in your 30's with your pristine knees don't know what I'm talking about.  You will.  When 60 years old you are, hike so well you will not -- at least not without sticks.  My spiffy little sticks are adjustable (longer for downhill, shorter for up) and have carbide tips that really dig into rocks.

On up we climbed.  None of it was arduous, but for a guy (me) who lives within sound of the sea (Cook Inlet) 9,000'+ (2743 m) of additional elevation was.....umm.....good aerobic excise.  My brother, on the other hand, acted like he wasn't even tired.  He walks slowly and steadily uphill, but on the level, it's hard to keep up with him.  Good thing I spent many hours on the treadmill, stair climber, elliptical and fixed bicycle this past spring.  It's hard on older brothers to be walked into the ground by younger.  I stayed up with him, mostly.

Some hikers we met coming out of the high country reported a lively flock of mosquitoes up on top.  They showed us their headnets and reported that the little suckers made life less pleasant in the Fossil Lake vicinity.  I asked how many mosquitoes got sucked in just in normal breathing, eating and talking because that is the true measure of mosquito badness. I also asked them if they were fishing them out of their food or if there were so many they just ate them anyway.  That's a good auxiliary indicator.  When they replied less than one per hour, and mainly fishing them out, we knew their numbers weren't epic.  But that didn't make us anxious to spend a lot of time in their company allowing them to probe our defenses.

So we walked straight on through from the trail summit just west of Fossil Lake until we got to tree line down valley to the north.  Between the mosquitoes, an electrical storm and accompanying rain and hail, the trees seemed like a good idea.  It was impressive how fast the storm came and went.  From a cloudless west, clouds began scudding in on the wind and getting stuck over the high country.  Within a couple of hours, lightning flashed, and thunder started crashing from far and near, and rain began to fall.  Pea-sized hail began, driven by the storm wind that followed.  A lot of hail.  

Although we were walking right along, the high country was beautiful, even if there was scarcely enough oxygen to support life.  Fossil Lake cried out for a raft from which to explore and fish the large lake.  Fish disturbed the lake surface as we walked by.  

We continued on downhill until we arrived at Twin Outlets Lake where we stopped for the evening.  The sky had cleared, but then clouded up and rained hail again.  We logged quite a bit of tent time that evening, but the skies did clear.  Mosquitoes were few.

I made a mistake that evening.  One of the great features of synthetic insulation sleeping bags is that they can dry out the washing, or at least small loads, anyway.  My mistake was wearing my wet socks in the sleeping bag overnight.  I should have just put them on my chest....anywhere that would have allowed my feet to dry out.  My feet paid for that error as the trip went on.

The Beaten Path

• Day 1 - Russell Lake
• Day 2 - On to the High Country
• Day 3 - Lakes and Falls
• Day 4 - Elk Lake

Trip Photo Album

The Beaten Path - Day 1 - Russell Lake

When my brother turned 60, he asked if I would join him on a summer hike in the Montana mountains in lieu of celebrating with him in Bozeman in mid-January.  We had been hiking together since Boy Scout days in the early 1960's....almost 50 years of backpacking.  It wasn't a hard question to answer.

The hike that Larry -- an experienced Montana hiker and climber -- selected was one that he had been thinking about for years.  The hike starts (or ends) near the NE entry of Yellowstone National Park and ends 26 trail miles (42 km) northeast of there at East Rosebud Lake, west of Red Lodge.  The trail is often referred to as "the Beaten Path".  The path is pretty well beaten, but it really ought to be called something else.  It has to be one of the most scenic mountain trails in the country.

We took four days to make the trip.  Some take longer to really look over the country.  It is at least 26 miles of up and down trekking over fairly rough country. Even with a fairly tame name, the trail is not for the faint-of-heart or unprepared.  There are many opportunities for serious injury or death along the trail....and rescue could be many hours away.  Even in mid-summer, the warm sun can turn to freezing rain and hail in an astonishingly short time.  The creeks are all very cold and some quite dangerous in places.  Some sections of trail are perched along cliffs high above lakes.That said, the Beaten Path winds through a never-ending procession of multi-colored flowers along watercourses and blue mountain ponds and lakes.  All of the scenery is beautiful and some of it is drop-dead gorgeous.  It's an unforgettable trip!

Our parents have loved the mountains since they first made their acquaintance more than a half century ago, so they were happy to drive us from their home in Bozeman through Yellowstone Park to the trailhead just outside the park's northeast entrance on the east side of Cooke City.  There were a number of trails taking off so once we got going, there was some comfort in my Accuterra / NeoTreks GPS iPhone app when it showed us on the right trail after all.  (Screen shot at right does not show a position indication)  Backtracking is not fun at the best of times, and especially so when packing heavy.

Forest fires are a fact of life wherever there are forests.  It turns out that fires actually play an important role in forest health and productivity, but there is some sadness in what was and what cannot be again for many years.  The Yellowstone Fire of 1988 torched some of this country, too, and the tall skeletons of lodge pole pine reminded us of its long reach as we passed though.

Horses are another fact of life in these mountains and we saw several mounted groups going our way and others coming back from excursions higher up the trails.  Having used horses in the past, I was a little wistful for the creak of leather and the smell and companionship of horses.....not to mention the lighter load on my back.

We lunched in a small copse of unburned trees above Kersey Lake.  The late July sun was hot, but the air under the trees pleasant.  Before hauling out the fixings, I touched off the second "OK" transmission on our SPOT messenger (photo at right). The first was at the trailhead. The SPOT is a small GPS receiver and satellite band transmitter.  The device finds itself using GPS, and then transmits the OK signal with the device coordinates.  That OK signal and map location is emailed and/or texted to a customizable list of friends and family.  In the event of a problem, one can transmit a "need help" signal, or a "911" in the event of a life-threatening emergency.  We found on our return that SPOT worked almost every time.  Those times that  our OK signal was not received was probably due to the steep sides of some of the canyons from which we transmitted, or my not leaving it sending for the recommended 20 minutes.   Our family reported that it was great knowing we were okay, and that we were progressing. I activated the SPOT every time we took off our packs.

We made it as far as Russell Lake the first night, and as at other evening stops, found good camping sites awaiting us.  No one else was in this or any of the other sites we stopped for the night.  I touched off the SPOT again to let the home team know our whereabouts.

I also peeled down and walked into the cold lake and splashed water all over my sweaty smelly self.  My other set of clothes felt awesome after that.  There were some buzzing blood seekers about, but scarcely enough to warrant repellent application.  Bug dope is an ally, but not much of a friend.  I'd rather swat than daub unless the little suckers are really nasty.

As we were finishing our dinner, we noticed a mule deer doe walking right through the woods toward us.  She seemed almost tame, but finally decided at about 20 feet (6.1 meters) that we might have been a little more frightening than she at first believed.  She never did run, but just ambled off in another direction.

The sun retired a little before 8 pm, and so did we.  When we both got up in the middle of the night for the usual reason, we found a million stars and galaxies wheeling silently overhead in the clear sky.  Larry pointed out that in addition to the incredible sky, it was at least a small mercy that the mosquitoes trying so hard earlier in the evening had also gone to bed.

The Beaten Path

• Day 1 - Russell Lake
• Day 2 - On to the High Country
• Day 3 - Lakes and Falls
• Day 4 - Elk Lake

Trip Photo Album