Final Thoughts

To be perfectly forthright, this trip was somewhat  of a disappointment and did not seem to measure up, to me anyway, to previous hikes.  Maybe the others felt differently, I don’t know.

My disappointment was probably due to a combination of many things:

• Vehicle problems both before and after departure and the added expenses incurred.
• Hiking a valley floor for two-plus days before getting to the tree line.
• Horrible weather
• Lack of “camp fire” time as a group
• Covering terrain very similar to 2008 for more than half the trip.
• Travelling a fixed route instead of going where we wanted and when.  
• Not getting back to the cirque behind Dewey lake for night 2---the one camp I really wanted 

Some of the Plieades Lakes

I do know that I was never able to escape the vehicle issues and fully immerse myself into the wilderness like I had in trips past.  In that respect the trip was a total bust.

Still, we were able to see and appreciate some incredibly scenery.  The East Rosebud trail from Alpine up to Fossil Lake was very nice, if not a long uphill grind.  In particular, the segment between Rainbow and Fossil were outstanding.  I have to believe that some of the lakes above the valley floor would make for a fine return trip someday.

 Without a doubt, the best part of  our route was the High Pass/Sky Pilot Lake/Throop Lake area.  Our camp site at Sky Pilot Lake easily cracked my  all-time Top 5 campsites and the bushwhack down, while demanding, was one of the most enjoyable times I’ve had in the backcountry despite the wet feet, downed trees and more boulder hopping.

And now,  few words about the rest of the crew…

Tye is an awesome outdoorsman. The fact that he was able to survive the week’s weather in his tarp without complaining was impressive, as was his ability to climb like a goat and take shit from the rest of us old guys.  What was even more impressive was how “together” and mature the kid was at such a young age.  A great young man who I’d gladly hike with (behind) again.

Had we a “Coaches Award” to hand out Reed would have been the easy winner for making it the entire 8 days on two skinless heels that looked so bad I wanted to stop hiking.  Though he  pondered a bailout, he sucked it up and finished stong.

If we had a MVP award Reed would also win that  one for keeping us on the road and out of the hospital after striking the deer.  I think I’ll start calling him “Ice” or “Cool Hand Jones” in the future. Seriously, the incident could have easily been a tragic accident if not for his skill and composure.

The Canadian Dude is the Canadian Dude: A great  guy with a great sense of humor who can navigate. He and I didn’t spend much time together on this trip which was a bummer but I have to give him his props for getting us up to High Pass.  Brad also had to suck it up a little bit when he wasn’t feeling real well on day 2

Then there’s the Warden.  Despite being another year older he could still motor through the mountains seemingly forever.  He’s a freak, but he’s also the nicest freak you’d ever want to meet or spend a week in the mountains with and I'm hoping he'll be making the trip next summer.

Several other nice people made this trip possible for me.  Of course, without Yumi's blessing I'd never be able to go on these little trips so she gets the biggest thank you of them all.

My lovely wife isn't the only one who made it all happen.  Lisa and Bob took Kintla in for nearly a week when everyone else was gone from home. Thankfully, the dog behaved himself so well that Lisa didn't want to give him up even though he was in the process of throwing his coat.  Hikerjer, Offtrail and Swimswithtrout all provided route information in some way which was helpful in the planning process.