Troubles near the Trailhead
What can go wrong, will

We all got up before 6 AM knowing we had some work to do before we could even hit the trail.

Our first order of business was to get breakfast.  The Red Lodge Café was recommended the night before so we decided to give it a shot.  Eggs, sausage, toast and hash browns for a mere $6.95 was the consensus of the group.  This wasn’t nearly as good as the mammoth breakfast burrito we had at Pistol Pete’s in Buffalo the year before, but still very good.

After driving back to the condo we had to stage Reed’s car at the Senia trailhead.  This wasn’t my first choice as it looked like we’d have about 8 or 9 miles to drive on a forest service road of unknown quality, but it seemed to be the perfect spot to come out after 7 nights.

Reed and I took off while the others grabbed one last shower and were quickly greeted by a sign that told us the road would be closed every day except between the hours of 12 and 1 PM.  Not good.  We decided to drive up anyway to see what was going on.  The road wasn’t that bad but we soon discovered that the road wasn’t even open up to the trailhead due to road widening and reconstruction.  We could have left the car at one of the campgrounds, but that would have entailed and extra 4 or 5 miles on the hike out for Ward and Reed  Since I was very familiar with the area due to my obsessive planning I told Reed we’d have to go to the Lake Fork trailhead and adjust he and Ward’s route on the fly.

As it turned out, the road work was a lucky break.  A few days later a massive landslide washed out part of the road and debris covered even more.  Had we left the Versa at the Senia trailhead Reed and Ward would have been unable to drive out due to some serious road blockage.

The Lake Fork road was paved and only about 15 minutes from Red Lodge so we were able to make the car drop with little wasted time and were soon back in Red Lodge to pick  up the others.

Tye, Ward and Brad were ready to roll when we got back so all we needed to do was throw all of the backpacking gear into the truck and take off to Alpine.

We managed to get everything inside and in the roof bag while still leaving room for the passengers.  At one point Reed made a comment about breaking an axle due to all the weight but I knew better:  this was the trusty Santa Fe he was talking about, not a piece of crap!

Speeding merrily along, unless we were climbing a hill in which I struggled to keep my speed above 40 mph, we made our turn off at Roscoe, passing the Grizzly Bar and turning south toward Alpine.  The Beartooths looked imposing from our vantage point and there looked to still be a considerable amount of snow up high.  This was good.

The pavement ended a couple of miles out of Roscoe and we were soon skittering over the sandy, washboard road at a whopping 15 mph when it happened.

The formerly Trusty Santa Fe was DOA just past Roscoe,  victim of a factory recall.

“Thunk”

“That didn’t sound too good” said Ward.

“No it didn’t” I agreed

Funny sound coming from the rear

“You wanna stop and check it out?” queried Ward

“Not really” I thought, but stopped the truck.

I got out and wanted to cry.  The left rear tire was splayed inward.  Fuck.  Not here, not now.  Fuck.

Tye's feeling good about the situation.  If you look closely you can see the fucked up wheel

As soon as everyone got out of the truck the tire straightened out somewhat, giving me a little hope, but it was short-lived after Ward took a look at the underside and spied a busted trailer arm.  We were dead in the water miles from the nearest town of any size. At least the  scenery wasn’t half bad

Fortunately, we were in Montana---land of helpful people---and were soon asked by an elderly couple, Mike and Marion, if we needed  some help. In a few minutes I was riding shotgun on the way back to Roscoe to find a land line.  The Grizzly Bar wasn’t open, but the bed and breakfast across the street was and I was immediately offered the use of their phone after hearing of my plight.  Mike, bless his heart, found the right numbers to call.

First, I got in touch with a towing company that actually knew where I was and promised to send a truckc out right away.  Next, I called the Hyundai dealership up in Billings telling them to expect my piece of shit to arrive later that afternoon and to do whatever they needed to get said piece of shit back to Wisconsin.

That taken care of, Mike and Marion brought me back to the others. I offered Mike $20 for his troubles but he refused to accept it.

“You want to pay me back?” he asked. “The next time you see somebody in need of help you stop and help them”.

Great advice from a wise man I didn’t even know.  What I didn’t tell him was that my first thought after hearing what he had said was that I was being paid back for the few times I had stopped and helped others. 

Tye was fishing (he got a few) so he, by default, wound up staying with me while the others got a lift down to Alpine.  There was a lot of traffic on the road so I wasn’t too worried about being able to hitch the rest of the way.  I figured 2 hours for the tow to arrive, another hour to catch a ride, max, on the trail by 1 PM.

I spent the next hour going through my food bag, getting rid of what I hoped was two days worth of food, and figuring out what I needed to have with me when we got out a week later. All I could come up with was my cell phone so it came along. As it turned out, it came in very handy later on in the hike.

The Santa Fe ready to make its own journey back to Billings.

My timetable was a bit off as help took longer than I had expected. I had managed to get a cell signal (another stroke of luck) and called the tow company who assured me the driver was on his way so I was never worried---except for the thought that he might have gone over to West Rosebud.

Finally arriving around 1:45, it was time for another surprise: the rescue vehicle not a tow truck, rather a pick up and trailer.  I’d have to drive the Santa Fe with a crumpled wheel up onto the trailer.

Once up on the trailer it didn’t take long for the driver, a good ol’ boy from Texas, to tie it down.  I’d already offered him $20 to take us down to the lake, which he agreed to do.  Including the towing fee of $295, I was now $315 in the hole just to get to the trailhead and hoped like hell I wouldn’t get hurt and need a helicopter evacuation.

The driver got us down to the lake in less than a half hour and just like that we were ready to begin hiking.  Now all we had to do was find the others and we’d be set.  Again, fate was on our side as a woman told us our guys were up at the campground.  Cool.

Tye and I shouldered our packs and began walking toward the numerous summer homes that dotted the northeast end of East Rosebud Lake.  Not finding the campground right off, Tye offered to check higher up and was ¼ of a mile away in what seemed like seconds.  Yup, the kid was young and in shape.  At that moment I hated him even though he found Brad.  I walked up, taking longer than seconds, and we were off without even taking a trailhead shot.