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| Albino Lake on a beautiful Montana morning. |
I didn't’t sleep particularly well due to a slight slope beneath my tent, but managed to wake up refreshed at 6:15. There was still a lot of smoke to the south but, as I pointed out to the others, those tires can burn for a long time. Temps were on the cool side but nobody seemed to care. Besides, it gave Ward and I ample opportunity to give Brad shit about his North Face cap
After a breakfast we were quickly packed and ready to begin our adventure in earnest, and at 7:45 were on our way.
Hiking along the east shore of Becker Lake the morning was still and quiet. After a smaller climb to get up to Albino Lake we were treated to our first real views of the Beartooth high country to the north. Without really consulting the topos beforehand, we discovered the best way around Albino was not following the eastern shore. Though we could have made it around the cliff face by doing some climbing, we decided to just go around the other way, following the west shoreline instead.
Water was everywhere on the slopes west of Albino, though we did manage to find a dry spot to take a short break before finishing our climb over the pass. I knew from hours spent on Google Earth that crossing the pass would put us in the rugged high country of the Beartooths.
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| Jasper Lake, looking northeast. |
Once to the top we were not disappointed. Jasper Lake sat in the basin a few hundred feet below with Golden Lake just to the west. Snow seemed to be everywhere and we immediately snapped off a dozen photos just to remind ourselves we were actually here.
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| Ward crossing the Jasper Lake outlet stream. |
Once we got down to the lake we had our first real stream crossing of the trip. “Real” in this case meant Ward and I had to remove our boots and change into our water shoes. Brad was wearing some Merrell mesh trail runners and was able to wade right through.
I took note of Golden Lake as we crossed the stream, thinking that would be a nice place to camp. Golden wasn't’ on my radar going into the hike but now it was. It wouldn't’t be the last lake I’d fall in love with over the duration of the trip.
Once we got going again it was nearly time for lunch so we decided to climb another minor pass north of Jasper and take it all in from there.
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Dorf shows off his cooking and sanitation skills
Views of Jasper Lake
Views of Triskele Lake |
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After lunch, the hiking became just a little bit more difficult. No longer were we hiking on grassy slopes, but hopping across boulder fields and walking on snow. Our ultimate destination for camp would be Two Bits Lake but I was harboring concerns that the one suitable camping location would be very wet.
Regardless, we hiked on through some beautiful, remote terrain. We hadn’t seen a soul other than the fisherman at Albino lake earlier in the day and suspected for the next couple of days, anyway, we wouldn’t see anyone else until we dropped down below the tree line.
Navigation off trail proved to be far easier than expected. I was led to believe that we’d be doing plenty of back tracking, trying to find routes past various obstacles. The truth is that the Canadian Dude was a stellar navigator who, at times, made my GPS look incompetent.
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| Two Bits Lake |
After a few more climbs and descents we stood atop a large, snow-covered pass looking down at Two Bits Lake. As I expected, the grassy area was awash in water so we knew alternate plans were in our future. Still, Two Bits was a beautiful alpine gem tucked below Sky Pilot and Beartooth Mountains.
As we descended it became clear that the temperatures were falling and the wind picking up. The sunshine that had been or pal for most of the day was now obscured by ominous looking clouds. As we continued down to the lake we expected the worst but didn’t feel any raindrops.
As it turned out, there were a few decent spots to camp along the stream between Two Bits and Triskele Lake, but nothing that would shelter us from the wind so we kept on going. After a short time we found what would normally be a shit site, but because of a natural rock barrier turned out to be nearly perfect for the conditions. It was only 1:30 in the afternoon but the impending weather forced our hand
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| We managed to cram all three tents behind a natural windbreak at Triskele Lake (12T 609746 4988511) |
After doing battle with billowing tents and strong winds we had our shelters pitched side by side like a cheap backcountry housing project...but we were somewhat sheltered and would be able to cook without having our stoves flame out.
After spending some quality time reclining against our wind break the first raindrops sent us scurrying to our tents in a hurry. Poor Ward didn't have anything to occupy his time other than trying to catch a few Z's. Brad and I, on the other hand, had the luxury of being able to peruse the maps and GPS as well as write in our journals.
This brings up an interesting comparison of Brad and my note taking techniques.
I've always carried a 3" x 5" 50-page notebook for as long as I can remember. They fit in my pocket, can withstand some serious rain (as my 2007 Wind River book did) and there's an endless supply of these things at work. Meanwhile, Brad had a single sheet of spiral notebook paper and wrote on that all week. Can you say "gram weenie'?.
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| After dinner we attempted to hike up to High Pass Lake but failed due to a shortage of light. |
As it turned out, the rain didn't amount to much, doing nothing but making a the silnylon on my tent sag a little bit, and by 4:00 PM we were all out of our tents, again reclining on our wind break, watching the wind push water upstream back towards Two Bits.
By 5 PM the winds had abated about the time our appetites arrived so all three of us busted out the Pocket Rocket's and began preparing dinner.
I had decided to ditch my cooking pot in favor of a small fry pan for the trip and again worked my culinary magic creating a Spam and cheddar quesadilla. Ward was content with his Pro Pak and Brad with his home dried far.
By 5:30 we were all done eating, the sun was starting to poke through the clouds---a perfect time to try to get up to High Pass Lake. But first, I had to perform my new nightly ritual of stashing my cheese into a snowbank to keep it cold for the next day.
Our first obstacle was getting across the stream bordering our camp site. With nothing close by we were forced to hike/scramble upstream a quarter mile before finding a suitable rock hop. But instead of hiking up the stream directly across from our site we decided to take the more direct route.
Unfortunately, we were unable to get up to high pass due to high snow and a darkening sky but were able to get some great photos from up there. Still, it would have been great to get a look at the Lake Fork drainage as it was part of our original route before Reed had to bail.
Without even knowing, we were able to retrace our steps back to the stream crossing and made it back to camp with about a half hour of light to spare. We noticed the return of the smoke and hoped that it might knock the mosquitoes down some, but that didn't happen either.
Still, it had been an incredible day, one which felt much more remote than we really were. By 8 PM, we all found our way into our tents for the night. It was going to be a cold one, as it had been most of the afternoon and evening, and i was glad I swapped out the Montbell bag for the Western Mountaineering.
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