Castle Lake
Perhaps Reed can Power through Perpetual Pain and Possibly Persevere?
After spending a frigid night it was easy to get up shortly after 7 AM to move around and generate some warmth. Each of us had condensation issues in our shelters to deal with but the skies were clear and sunny. The tents and sleeping bags would dry quickly.
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I opted for an easy breakfast of granola bars and water rather than fiddle around with the stove, and it appeared to me, about halfway through the hike, that I would once again be carrying unneeded food over and through the mountains.
As we were settling into the morning routine Reed announced he was going to try to finish the hike and asked, as predicted, if I’d had any more moleskin.
“Don’t walk around with your shoes untied”---Brad
I have no idea what this means but Brad uttered these words of wisdom sometime in the morning.
By 8:40 we left our camp and began a minor 250’ climb back up above the tree line to a area dotted with small tarns. Reed was moving slowly and having troubles keeping up but at least he was moving and not lagging that far behind. It was a beautiful day with just a few clouds in the sky. Below, a convoluted Z Lake lay still, reflecting the nearby knobs on her surface.
Once we got up to the tarns we decided to take a little sit down and let Reed catch up. With the group again, Reed said needed to tend to his heels. And found a large rock to sit on and do what he could. We were now close to the point of no return for him. To turn back at this point could have meant another night in the back country for Reed so I took a look at his trashed heels and told him to just to put the moleskin directly on the blister without trying to engineer a donut hole-like patch. Dubious, he agreed to give it a try that way.
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The fix seemed to work---and I was once again the slowest hiker in the group.
We made our way east over the Beartooth Plateau, passing numerous tarns, some large snowfields and even a snow bridge crossing an unnamed stream while en route to our next critical landmark, Desolation Lake. Once at Desolation the rest of the route would require very little route finding skills as we’d simply follow the water all the way over to Donelson Lake.
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Desolation Lake was probably second to only Dewey Lake in terms of scenery thus far. Still harboring a few smaller icebergs, we skirted the southern shore past the main body of the lake and a couple smaller unnamed tarns to the east. Before we could even think about what came next we were making the easy descent down to Big Butte Lake
We’d need to cross the inlet stream which proved to be a little more difficult than it first appeared but everyone made it over to the other side without too much trouble.
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We were now near the point where last year we had veered south to Anchor and Jordan Lakes but would now have to make the 250’ climb up to the next drainage we would follow.
This climb would turn out to be the most brutal of any on the trip not because of the grade or the fact we were hopping rocks again. It was the mosquitoes on the grassy hillside.
Yikes! I’d never experienced a swarm like that in my life. At any given time there were probably 30-50 of the little bastards on my legs alone looking for a meal. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that the hillside was rather steep and somewhat slippery. Nasty stuff but we all lived even though the 15 minute climb seemed like it took an hour.
Once to the top we had the familiar view of Big Butte, Desolation Lake from the very site Ward had taken his epic nap last year. We could also see clouds building to the west which meant we couldn’t dally for lunch too long up here.
It was an enjoyable break. Sitting on lush grass enjoying the view we were soon treated to a flyover by a Bald Eagle.
Once back in hiking mode it took only a few minutes for us to arrive at Gravel Lake. The previous year we had hiked/rock hopped and walked on snow along the north shore after coming down from Hermit Lake. This time we were forced to try the south end but still found the going slow as we were again hopping from one large boulder to another. There was certainly less snow than was up there the year before which didn’t help us much.
Making it to Till Lake we began to notice the clouds, once a good ways off to the west, were gaining on us and it became clear that we’d either have to find a placee to set up camp or find some sort of suitable shelter to ride out what was starting to look like a significant storm.
Taking an occasional look back we pushed past Till and Robbie Lakes before Tye spied the perfect storm shelter between Robbie and Erratic Lakes. A huge boulder, large enough for all 5 of us to sit behind comfortably, had split in the perfect way. Not only were we sheltered from the oncoming wind, but we also had some overhang which provided a nifty roof.
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Since we didn’t know how long we’d be stuck and wanting to be comfortable I pulled out my Z-Lite sleeping pad and waited for whatever the mountain gods had in store for us this time. Judging from the darkness of the sky, I figured more hail was on the menu for sure.
As things turned out, we could see the rain coming down all around us but we only got a few drops.
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When we were certain we weren’t being tricked into leaving so that we could get dumped on we started off for Erratic Lake which was a mere 10 minutes away.
By now the clouds had broken up and we were enjoying some blue skies---just in time to look down into the beautiful drainage containing Flat Rock, Crystal, Alp, Summerville and the Pleiades Lakes 500’ below.
I’d wanted to camp close enough to the location we’d dubbed “heaven” last year, at the confluence of Sierra Creek and the Summerville Lake outlet stream, so that the Kid could see this little gem with his own eyes. To that end, I figured camping just north of Castle Lake would allow for an easy 2-mile after dinner hike.
But first we had to navigate our way down to the basin---through more grass. Luckily, there were very few blood-sucking mosquitoes and we were able to pick our way down to a lush wet meadow without much trouble.
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Once down it was clear we wouldn’t be able to make our way through the maze of small streams without getting wet feet so we switched into our water shoes. Not wanting to bother with drying my feet and putting the boots back on I just left my Crocs on and hiked the quarter mile to what would turn out to be a very scenic camp situated between Castle Lake and Sierra Creek.
The respite from the clouds proved to be a short one and we once again had to prepare ourselves for yet another storm. Great.
Tye and Ward were having none of it, however and walked down to the lake to try to catch some fish, each having a little bit of luck before deciding to come back up to camp
To celebrate the oncoming crappy weather I, on the other hand, decided to dine on a tuna melt with bacon and sun dried tomato’s for dinner. This proved to be quite tasty and I even managed to get everything cleaned up and put away before the sprinkles began around 5:30.
After a couple of hours of light rain we left our tents and were greeted by a resident deer poking around our perimeter, in particular the small patch of earth on which Tye had relieved himself earlier in the evening.
Having had some experience with nuisance deer in the past (Glacier, 2005) I told the others that they’d best make sure that they didn’t leave any clothing, boots or trekking poles outside of their tents overnight or the deer could pilfer said items in a quest for salt.
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For a while it was kind of fun to have some wildlife to look at, but after a while it was becoming clear that this girl had no fear of us and might not ever leave.
Thus, it was time to deploy some aversive training techniques I’d gleaned over the years.
My first attempt was a bluff charge and yell--- and it failed, though I did manage to move her about 50’.
Next, I went with a small rock lobbed in her direction which did nothing but turn her head. Epic fail. Yeah, she was a tough nut to crack, all right.
Hmmm. Perhaps a more direct assault was in order in the form of another rock but this time going for a hit. I got her in the ribs on my first try but, again, she didn’t budge.
Time to call out the heavy artillery. Now I decided to chase her, while wearing crocs, as far as I could. The bitch ran into the woods, popping her head out a few minutes later as if to taunt me.
Knowing I was in over my head, Tye and Ward came to the rescue and we devised a three prong attack which chased her away rather effectively until we found her atop a small knob above her camp. Damn, now she had the high ground on us.
She stood there for a few minutes, obviously scared of us, and we decided to leave her alone as it was now dark and no deer, no matter how annoying, was worth tripping and smashing one of our heads open over.
The three of us stayed out and talked for a while longer before turning in around 10:30. Another spectacular day in the Beartooths was in the books.
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