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| More snow than water at Paint Rock Creek |
One would think that after the killer day we had the day before that sleep wouldn’t be a problem. You would be wrong. At least warmth wasn’t a problem despite having slept in shorts and T-shirt through the night. Still, I thought of a soft bed in a Buffalo motel room more than once before breakfast.
My appetite certainly hadn’t suffered. I gorged myself again on 3 breakfast burritos spiced up with good ol’ Spam. I offered some of this culinary wonderfood to Brad, but he declined. I called him a wuss and questioned his manhood for his transgression.
Knowing we had a short day we took our time packing up and didn’t leave camp until 9:30. It was another beautiful, sunny day which wasn’t doing my sunburned face a whole lot of good. I noticed what I thought was a slight burning to my mug the day before but had every confidence my new hat would keep me safe. I was wrong. Today I could feel the burn and wondered how hideous I was starting to look.
The hike from our camp was excellent. We decided to hike straight down to Paint Rock Creek based on the information I had from yesterday’s scouting mission and were treated to a rapidly flowing creek, snow and boulders. At one point the creek had carved out a narrow gorge and undercut a large bank of snow. After conversing for a few seconds we decided to hike up as far as we could on the snow instead of rock hopping downstream. This would prove to be good practice for later on.
Having avoided injury thus far, our next obstacle was a serious scramble down a 40 foot ledge, which we made without incident. Before us lay a gorgeous meadow worthy of a rest break at the very least. I thought about setting up camp right here as it would have been tough to find a more picturesque camp.
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| Once we got past the snow we discovered this beautiful meadow and took a Snickers break. |
Despite not knowing good processed meat products when he’s offered some, Canadian Dude did know his backcountry treats and produced a couple of Snickers bars for a snack. Snickers were one of the reasons I came into this trip 15 pounds (more or less) overweight, but I wasn’t about to turn this one down.
I sat in the sun among the many wildflowers, my face roasting and Snickers melting in my mouth I thought of Brett Favre and how sorry I felt for the guy. He was probably sitting at home, bored out of his skull getting hollered at by his wife. At that moment I wouldn’t have traded places with him for anything.
After about a half hour’s worth of cultivating some melanoma we continued downstream and found ourselves on an unmarked trail, most likely the climbers trail up to Cloud Peak, and soon found ourselves above the falls.
Not even noon yet, we looked around the huge, flat meadow for a suitable place to set up camp. This proved to be harder than originally thought. The ground was very rocky and there was little shade to be had so we decided to try our luck on the east side of the meadow where there were some trees.
There were some mediocre camp sites on that end, but they were heavily impacted and littered with horse shit, fire rings and litter. Still, there was some shade so we decided to suck it up and eat lunch there.
While eating we consulted our maps and decided to climb 200’ up the opposite side of the valley where there were a few small ponds and trees. Maybe we’d get lucky and find a hidden gem up there and then hike down to Lake Solitude before dinner?
After filtering some more water we began the climb up through tall grass and wildflowers. There were a few decent sites up there, but nothing that really stuck out so we decided to get on trail 38 taking us back to Mistymoon Lake where we’d try our luck.On the way we crossed paths with a group of 6 hikers from California, the first backpackers we’d seen since the first day.
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| The Falls at Paint Rock Creek. |
The allure of the unnamed lakes north of Mistymoon were too much to pass up and we quickly decided to head in the direction where we’d spent our second night out.
Campsites were plentiful in this area, but so were other campers. A beautiful grass plot of land was already occupied so we were forced to hike further north but eventually found a suitable patch of ground around 2 PM. Our short day on the trail turned out to be longer than expected, but that’s what warm up hikes are for.
Once again, the mosquitoes were brutal despite a slight breeze, so we spent a few hours inside the tents in an act of self-preservation. It was during these moments that I had a cooking epiphany.
Forcing myself into the cloud of mosquitoes I grabbed my food bag and began mentally preparing a tuna melt quesadilla thing. I normally dislike tuna on the trail but bring it along anyway because even I tire of my normal potato chips and peanut butter. This, however, would be different. My small block of cheddar cheese, kept cold during the trip by burying it in snow had maintained it’s consistency. I had enough tortillas and a little olive oil. Sweet. Now all I had to do was execute.
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| We decided to camp here for our fourth night (13T 324179 491300) |
The resulting meal may have been the best-ever backcountry meal I’d ever eaten. Either that, or I had finally acclimated to the higher elevations and my appetite was back?
Brad and I talked for a while after dinner and noticed a few groups of hikers making their way down a trail directly to our northeast. A quick check of our maps led us to believe this was a climbers trail heading up to Bomber Mountain. Duly noted for next time.
Not wanting to spend any more time than necessary outside we took refuge inside our tents once again and wrote in our journals when we were startled by the sound of large animals running very close to our camp. WTF? Ever the brave one, I poked my head outside but saw nothing. A few minutes later whatever it was came through for another lap.
Fed up with the noise, I put on my Crocs, went outside and discovered the intruders were nothing more than a few deer. I made a few threatening gestures with my extra trekking pole after stalking one for a few minutes then went back to the security of my tent and optimistically rated sleeping bag.
About this time the wind picked up and the temps dropped. Too lazy to zip on my pant legs I hoped it wouldn’t get too cold.
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