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| We sprinted out from Helen Lake and were in Buffalo in time for breakfast at Pistol Pete's. |
Once again I suffered through a night where sleep would come easy once, then not again. This time I awoke at 4 AM and laid there for another two hours. Yeah, I was looking forward to sleeping in a real bed and getting some quality sleep even if it meant pounding down 8 or 9 Stellas to do it.
We decided that we were going to try to get out as quickly as possible today so that we could get breakfast in Buffalo, and were leaving our campsite by 6:45.
It was a cool morning, cold enough to numb my fingers a little bit, but it soon warmed up as we kicked it into high gear. There wasn't a lot to see since we'd been this way a few days prior. I was hoping we'd see a moose in the wet meadows above West Tensleep Lake, but didn't see any wildlife of any kind. The only highlight was crossing the stream about a half mile from the trailhead. In what may have been my most unathletic moment ever, I failed to cross the stream with dry feet---either of them. Enough said about that.
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| Reorganizing gear at the city of Buffalo's swimming pool. |
We did the 5+ miles back to the trailhead in 1:45 keeping us on track for breakfast and by 10 AM we were back in Buffalo. We drove through town looking for the Exxon station that served as the Greyhound stop so that we could pick up Ward later that night. We picked the wrong Exxon, but this worked out to our advantage as the clerk, Vi, was a wealth of information and steered us to Pistol Pete's for breakfast. Nice.
The breakfast burrito at Pete's was an incredibly large slab of everything a guy could want for breakfast...two thumbs up. While waiting for our meal I managed to make contact with internet pal Rob (Blue Sage on the www.backpacker.com message boards) who we would be dining with that night. He suggested meeting at Sol de Vallenta at 5 PM which would give us plenty of time to do what we needed to to.
After gorging ourselves, we decided to reserve a room at the Motel 6 before finding a grocery store for our resupply. Luck was with us again as we were able to reserve a room for a mere $85. The catch: only two beds, no rollaways. Two of us would be doubling up tonite.
It took us a while to take care of the grocery shopping but I was able to find the most important stapes for the Beartooth hike: small flour tortillas, Spam in the pouch, and 3 oz tuna packets. Game on, baby. Another quick stop to pick up some needle and threat for Brad's upcoming pack repair and another to the local Radio Shack for more camera memory and we weree ready to head back to the city park/pool to clean and organize our gear again. Ooops, why don't we go back to the Sports Lure so that Brad can pick up a Pocket Rocket as well? Turns out our luck ended here as they didn't have any in stock.
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| Brad's new pack needed a little stitching |
It took a little longer to get our gear situated this time but it was an enjoyable hour and a half. It seemed as though every kid under the age of 12 was at the pool on this glorious afternoon. Temps were in the mid-80's which was much better than the other two times I'd been in Buffalo when temps were in the 90's and 100's.
Finally satisfied we were organized, we drove back to the Motel and checked in. The shower pressure was fantastic and the room clean. WE spent the balance of the afternoon getting our food ready, laundry and watching Seinfeld reruns on TV. As an added feature, I began peeling my sunburned face as much as I could.
Soon, it was time to head back downtown to meet Mr. and Mrs. Blue Sage at the restaurant. We didn't have to waitl long before Rob and Marsha arrived and we were quickly seated which was nice. I had the Carne de Asada on Rob's recommendation and it was excellent as was the dinner conversation mostly about the Bighorn's but with some humorous anecdotes about Yumi's father thrown in for laughs. It was an enjoyable dinner and great to finally meet Blue Sage after conversing with him on the message boards.
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| One of the highlites of the trip was meeting Mr. and Mrs. Blue Sage. |
After dinner Brad and I went bck to the motel room and lounged around
until it was time to pick up Ward at the bus stop. AFter doing nothing for a while we decided to just head over and wait for him in the parking lot
. While waiting I decided to give HikerJer in Billings a call. Jerry was also a backpacker message board regular and resident expert on the Beartooths.
We had a nice conversation and made plans to meet up in Billings for dinner on the Friday we hiked out.
At last, Ward's bus pulled into the Exxon station, a little late, and out he came---complete with his famous hiking staff that I later found out he'd had for nearly 10 years. After the introductions were made we crammed into the trusty Santa Fe and back to the motel room.
At this point it was time to bust out the 12 pack of Stella Artois that I'd been saving for nearly 8 months. They went down easily and I soon found myself feeling pretty good. I later calculated that I'd consumed more beer that night than I had the previous year combined so by 11:00 we were all ready to hit the sack. If you're wondering, Brad was the lucky guy who got a whole bed to himself.
It was good to see Ward again after a year and marveled that he would take the bus out. I hoped it would be worth it.
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