The Hike Out & Other Fun
"Mental roller coasters and sub-compact shuttles"
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I managed to survive the coldest night I'd ever spent in the backcountry without dying thanks to wearing all of my clothing to bed. Actually, it wasn't all that bad, waking up only once during the night. I guess the trade off for the cold was not having to deal with rain or hail.
Once outside we were bathed in sunshine, which would certainly come in handy for drying the tents, which were now pretty much frozen solid in a frosty glaze. Whether or not we'd stick around long enough to dry the tents completely was another matter.
To a man, we all wanted to get out and spent little time bothering with breakfast or packing up as we normally would. I moved my tent into the sun for an attempted drying but aborted when it was clear the urge to get back to Red Lodge and real food was too much to resist for the others. Wet shelters and all, we were on the trail by 8:10 headed back to Reed's rented Versa.
If past history meant anything, I figured Reed would set a blistering (no pun intended) pace, as he tended to save his fastest hiking for the hike out. The lure of food served on plates at a table sitting on a chair can be a great motivator.
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The Lake Fork trail was turned into an expressway, as the five of us were moving at a pace more like Olympic walkers than backpackers. After a few minutes I was left wondering if I could sustain that pace for the estimated two hours it would take to get back to the trailhead. Not even the hike out from Indian Basin in the Winds back in '07 was at this fast a pace.
Fortunately, the scenic Rock Creek provided a few good photo opportunities, which allowed for short stops. The most noteworthy of these was a look back at Keyser Brown Lake from the outlet stream and a look back at Thunder Mountain.
The rest of the hike back on the very nice trail was unremarkable save the last mile when we entered the area that had seen some sever wind damage a couple of winters ago. Toppled trees were everywhere for nearly a half-mile, which, judging by the amount of cut logs, had kept, trail crews busy for quite some time.
About this time we ran into a backcountry ranger heading out on patrol. He told us it had gotten down to 19* at 10,000' according to another ranger who had radioed that info earlier in the morning. We told this ranger that sounded about right as our guy had it at 26*.
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At 10:20 Tye, Brad and I arrived at the trailhead together, took a few photos and that was it. We found Ward and Reed at the Versa already out of their boots and ready to deal with the logistics of getting us started back home.
It was decided that Reed would take Ward and Tye back into Red Lodge, which was only about a 15 minute drive away, then come back for Brad and I and then we'd get something to eat and figure out what would happen next.
Canadian Dude and I sat in the shade and passed the time by drinking mass quantities of water and rehashing the trip. It had been a good one, but not great---for me anyway.
Like clockwork, Reed pulled up a half hour later and we were soon headed back to Red Lodge and Foster & Logan's Pub for what I hoped would be a mammoth bacon cheeseburger, greasy fries and a cold Coke.
It took us a while to find Ward and Tye. I checked inside the Sylvan Pass outdoor shop without luck but did score a nice Mountain Hardware hat to conceal my hideous looking hair.
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We eventually all met up and got a table at the pub. Phone calls were made to wives and airline ticket counters. Brad was able to get his Sunday flight changed to Friday and I was told by Underriners Motors that my vehicle might be done late that afternoon but if not, Friday. Cool. I could hang out in Billings overnight and still be home by dinnertime on Saturday.
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