Hilgard Basin

Date: August 27th - August 29th, 2010
People on Trip: Jonny, Annie, Klint and Chris
Distance: 20.4 miles with about 5.5 miles of day hiking
Total Climbing Elevation (which includes day hikes): 6,352.50 ft

Wow, what a trip. I knew the first time I went into this area a few years ago, I wanted to come back and explore more of the area. What I didn't know was that I would discover paradise on this trip. In other words, I discovered my most favorite area I have ever been to.

As Jonny and Annie knew, I was concerned that they were not prepared for the trip...and they definitely were struggling througout the whole trip. But to their credit, they made it 10.25 miles to Blue Paradise lake the first day. With that said, I had major foot pain and blister pain I was dealing with as well. Klint, on the other hand, is like a body builder because his pack weighed maybe twice the weight of mine, but he had a lot more energy and was less sore then everyone else. Both him and my dad are clear evidence that being pain free and not sore on these trips has more to do with how physically fit you are and less in how much your pack weighs (for the most part). They are inspiration for me to more seriously work out all year round and figure out all of my pain problems (hip flexors and foot issues).

We were on the trail at 8:30 am on that Friday morning. Like last time, at the top of the ridge near Expedition Pass had great views. The weather was also fantastic on this day and the trail conditions were great. We made it to Blue Paradise lake at about 3:30 pm. At that point we decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to hike into the south basin that day, but that we would do a day hike to the area on Saturday. The rest of that day and that night continued to bring us great weather.

Expedition Lake

We found an excellent camp site near the lake.

One funny story worth sharing was Jonny's butt problems. When he went fishing on the first day at Blue Paradise lake, he mentioned that his "butt was sore from chaffing". What I found amusing was that he just noticed this after we stopped hiking. The only thing that makes sense to me was that there was some paranormal activity at camp that made a manifestation up his ass. This fueled a lot of "butt" comments during the trip, and this was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

That night, most of us didn't sleep that well. But this ended up being the best night of sleep on the whole trip for everybody.

Expedition Lake

The next day we woke up and headed on our day hike mid-morning. I knew that there would be a climb from Blue Paradise lake to the South Basin. What seemed odd to all of us was how the trail on our map ended before the basin....so we weren't even sure you could get into it.

So we made the rather steep ascent up the ridge. Right at the point where the trail ends on the map is when we were blown away. In front us we saw five bodies of water, and at least three peaks near or above 10,000 ft overlooking the basin. We could even see a small waterfall. We also realized why the trail ended. There was a very steep cliff in front of us.

Looking down into part of the South Basin

At this point, Annie and Jonny were hurting pretty bad (I was too, but I was too excited to try to get into the basin to care about the pain). The group decided that Klint and I were going to try to find a path to get into the basin while Jonny and Annie were going to head back to camp.

The weather for that day (Saturday) was completely overcast. We hadn't got any rain at that point in the day, but it definitely looked like it could turn bad at any point.

So Klint and I followed a trail that was very obvious at the ending point of the map. It continued on the ridge and followed the ridgeline. It was a very cool ridge, which felt a lot like a pass. The trail followed the ridge for quite a ways, until we found a spot where it switched backed into the only accessible part of the basin (from where we were), which was far to the west. From the top of the ridge, you dropped from about 10,243 ft in elevation to 9,516 ft at the first lake. At that point, we weren't expecting the basin to drop much down to the other lakes, but our guess is that it drops down another 500 ft or so to a few additional lakes in this basin. I really would really like to explore this area.

At this point I knew this place was going to be spectacular. What I didn't know before I got to the lakes was just how much the area around each lake is different. At Hilgard Lake, it is right at tree line. There are still trees, but it definitely thins out. If you go to the lower lakes (which we didn't get to), the forest appears to be much thicker. We basically walked and fished at the three western most lakes in the basin. We hiked towards the center of the basin, and that is where we were surprised to see the lower lakes still 500 ft below. Not wanting to make the climb out of that area, we decided to head back at that point.

To rewind a little bit...we spent the afternoon fishing the lakes that we came across. I had made one cast into the first lake without any luck...which I wasn't surprised because supposedly there aren't too many fish in that lake. But the second lake we hit I caught 4 fish or so out of the 5 casts that I did on that lake. Klint was using a fly fishing rod and I believe he got one on the line. We came across a very scenic waterfall that fed into a really cool stream for maybe 75 feet before entering the small lake. There were pretty flowers growing in this area, and it would be great to see the flowers bloom at peak season. After we spent some time at that lake (maybe 30-45 minutes), we made the short hike up to Hilgard lake (which is maybe 100 feet from the lake we were at, which was feeding the stream). I was able to catch one fish at this lake, but Klint had much better luck than I did. I believe he caught 6 or so fish. The fish that we were catching in the two lakes were very healthy and ranged from 10" to 13". They were beautiful cutthroat trout.

I think we stayed at Hilgard for 3 or so hours. I was able to start a fire and cook up a fish, and Klint walked around the whole lake fishing. What is unique about this area is that you have views in all directions. What I also found interesting was how the weather passed through the basin. At one point we saw clouds shooting through the basin, and it looked like they were going 50 mph and they were really low. While we were at this spot, it rained/hailed two or three different times. It wasn't a big deal for us, because we took refuge under trees.

At this point I was going out of my way to try to find areas that would be good camping spots. I did find two or three spots that you could probably make work (they were fairly clear), but there were quite a bit of rocks around the Hillgard Lake area, so that might not make the best spot. We did find an area that would work better for tents near the center of the basin...but I'm not convinced there are not better spots lower in the basin. Unfortunately, I was too tired and we were running out of time and we did not get a chance to explore the lower area. When I come back to this area, I probably would try to find the trail that continues near or around the northern part of the basin and do more exploring on the lower end to find a better camping site. But, you could always make due with a base camp in one of the areas we found...as a worst case scenario. From what we found, it doesn't look like a lot of people make it into the south basin, but we did find signs that horsed did get down there (which surprised us with how steep some of the switchbacks were). So I think there is a good chance that there are better camp sites in the area.

We wanted to give ourselves 1.5 hours to get back to camp. I think we started heading back at around 4 PM. It was still overcast at that point, but it slowly started getting worst. About mid way up the exposed ridge that leads out of the south basin, it started to sprinkle. We also started to hear lightning get closer to where we were at. At one point, we saw lighting and within a second heard the thunder and knew that it was not safe. So we sprinted to some bushes that were on the side of one of the switchbacks and ducked for cover. Of course we couldn't be on an exposed ridge without hail! The hail got progressively bigger (up to a dime size) and the wind picked up.

I was in a state of mild panic when it felt like we almost got struck by lightning. I am no weatherologist, but I know being on an exposed ridge during a thunderstorm is not safe. And my legs were starting to get cold. In fact, they started to get really cold to the point where I had very little feeling in both of my legs.

We decided to make a run for it, even though the storm was still raging on. We finished the few remaining switchbacks until we reached the top of the ridge that we would follow and finally start to go down. This was higher than we were before, but there were more trees available to take shelter under.

It is amazing what the body will do when it thinks it is danger. I no longer felt any pain from my blisters or hip flexors, and we were running on the ridge. Moving was the best way from allowing my legs to get any colder. In my head I was thinking of worst case scenarios, and debating on how cold I should allow my legs to get before stopping and starting a fire. In any case we made it to the end of the ridge through all of the rain and hail and started the descent down.

I thought I was through the worst of the hike back. But going down a steep slope when it is raining and cold, combined with wet rocks and mud is not easy. At one point I heard a strange sliding sound. I turned around and noticed a huge mud slide coming down the trail. Of course I jumped off of the steep trail at that point. I'm sure I would have been swept down the mountain if I had stayed on the trail while this mass of mud and rocks was coming down the trail.

We finally made it to our camp. My legs and feet were bitterly cold and I immediately went to work getting the fire going (it was smoldering at that point in the rain). Jonny and Annie were making out in the tent when I got back. After about 15 minutes, the fire finally got going again and I started to warm up. It continued to rain for maybe about 1 hour or so after that. Everyone ended up coming out of their tents when it stopped raining (I just stayed by the fire because I didn't have dry pants to change into).

Jonny and Annie discovered that their tent was leaking really bad and their tent site selection was pooling water. So they ended up moving the tent to a new location after it stopped raining.

We had a period of maybe two hours to dry off and eat dinner. At 8:30 pm it started raining hard very quickly, so we sprinted to our tents and went to bed.

This was the night that I was irritated by my tent location the whole night. You see, I was on a diagonal slope, and of course my tent was not setup to match the slope. So I basically was sliding to the far right corner the whole night. This didn't bother me all that much the first night, because there wasn't that much condensation. But since it rained and it was colder, my sleeping back was touching the side of the tent way too much. So on top of adjusting all night long, I could not get my love handles warm! The rest of my body was fine, but my love handles were freezing. I think part of it might have been because on one side I was touch the trekking pole that was holding my tent up, but I'm not sure.

Even with the little sleep I got, I ended up waking up at 4:30 AM in the morning. I laid there for about an hour before I got up and started a fire. We packed up our wet gear and headed towards the trail head I think around 10:00 AM or so.

The hike out was generally easy....that is until we about 4 miles from the trail head. Up to that point, we encounter a few muddy spots, but nothing that slowed us down too much. At around 4 miles, we started to come across massive amounts of mud on the trail. This wasn't too bad, but then it started getting ridiculous, where we almost lost our shoes in the mud in the spots where we couldn't bush whack around it. This slowed us down a lot to the point where it was very difficult to make good time in the mud. I stopped trying to walk around the mud because I was very sore and my feet were aching all over the place. Jonny was whailing in agony, until Annie rebuked him and he went quiet for a while. I continued to whine out loud as I stood on what felt like popsicle sticks for legs and little girls feet.

We finally got to the trail head at around 3:30. We ate at the grizzly bar which is about ten miles from the trail head and had the best burger of my life (I'm not kidding either).

I think I was more sore after this trip than any of the other trips. Part of it was because I did not do very much conditioning in the 2.5 week period from the last backpacking trip, and my blisters from that trip were not fully healed. I enjoyed all of the trips I went on this year, but this was the only trip where the scenery combined with the fishing seemed to make all the pain and suffering on the trail worth it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the other trips, but this was the most special to me.

This place is so awesome, that I'm already starting to plan another trip to go here next year. I'm thinking about spending two or three nights camping in the South Basin. This is the type of area that is not easily accessible by most people, has great fishing and is incredibly scenic. I have seen all of these come together like I have for this area, and I'm super excited to explore this whole area!

What I learned on this trip:

• It is possible for a ghetto butty to chafe.
• Even when using a tent, choosing where to place the tent is very important.
• Decreasing the weight of your pack in taking stuff that you don't need to take and still be comfortable is important. But what is more important is how hard you condition your body in preparation for a trip. It is okay to take a 60 lb pack if you are in incredible shape. I on the other hand wouldn't have been able to do this last trip with a 60 lb pack. Maybe next year.
• I think decreasing the amount of pain I experience on the trail (blisters, sore feet, sore body) will increase how much I am able to enjoy backpacking trips. I did a better job this year than last year, but I still could do a better job. I think Jonny and Annie would agree that being incredibly sore takes away from the experience.
• Again I realized that having an extra day off after I get back from a backpacking trip, allows me to enjoy the trip a lot more.
• Investing in some kind of water proof pants or something "might" be worth it. I find that this is the case when I am hiking in the rain, as this is when my pants get wet. I may decide not to do this if I get a base layer that sheds moisture from my body, as I find my pants dry out very quickly. But I am not sure.
• An upper and lower thin base layer would help me sleep a lot better, and would make me warmer those times that it is really cold.
• A baclava that is able to cover the top of my nose and cheeks (without having to cover my whole face) would help me sleep a lot better at night.
• A bright colored tent/tarp sucks in the morning when you are trying to sleep, since it is so bright when the sun starts to come out.
• I brought way too much food this time.
• I used my alcohol stove to boil water for some of my meals. I found this to work very well. But I think if I am going to go this route, I could make a much lighter alcohol stove than I have now and save room in my backpack.
• When taking a pack that is more than 25 lbs, my current hiking shoes are not supportive enough and are too small. I need to go up a step or two with the type of trail running shoes I use...which I think would make my feet a lot more comfortable and prevent blisters.

Lake Plateau

Date: August 5th, 2010 - August 10th, 2010
People on Trip: Chris, Doug, Tyler and Grant
Distance: About 41 Miles
Total Climbing Elevation: 8,176 ft.

The original plan with this trip was to try to make it to Pentad Lake on day 1, and then to Asteroid Lake on day 2. Based on my GPS software (which had the trail), it said it was 11.3 miles to Pentad Lake. But it actually ended up being about 12.6 miles to that area. My guess is that the map on the software did not reflect the actual trail route 100% accurately. That combined with Grant having heart issues with the elevation changed the plan by camping at Columbine Lake that night. The good news is that after the first day, Grant did not have any issues with the elevation and was able to keep a decent pace.

With that said, the inaccurate data I was basing the trip off of, made the planned itinerary not realistic for the group. I do think my original itinerary is doable, but combined with my blister problems and half of the group having 50+ lb. packs was probably the main factor in preventing this from happening (besides the altitude sickness). This is not meant as a complaint, because the trip still turned out great. This is more of notes for myself when considering an aggressive itinerary and planning future trips.

The first day I developed fairly bad blisters on my heels. This was quite a shock for me because I had hiked 50 miles backpacking this summer before this trip, and I had never developed blisters on my heels. This was the most limiting factor for me on the trip, as they got more painful as the trip went on.

I can't remember if this happened on the first or second day, but I totally ruined one pair of socks by drying them near the fire. I knew this was risky, but you really don't understand how risky this is until you actually ruin a pair of socks. When you get as much rain as we did, trying to keep one pair of socks dry when you only brought two pairs is very difficult. But if you are going to use a fire, I suggest holding the pair of socks over the fire and moving them around over the heat.

Columbine Lake was a fairly scenic area. As the trail guide suggested, we thought the lake was too shallow to fish, so we did not try to fish this lake. But we had a good campsite. Later in the evening (I think around 7 or so), a massive storm came in and started dumping large amounts of hail on us. It hit us very quickly, and we didn't have much time to prepare. Our feet and hands were cold and it rained/hailed for about an hour. I was able to get a fire going after it stopped for a while, but then it started up again and forced us into our tents for the evening. My shoes/socks got soaked and I went to bed wet...which led to the worst night I've had backpacking so far (cold and lack of sleep).

On day 2, we hiked up to Columbine Pass...which was a bit of a climb, but it wasn't difficult for very long. The real beauty (IMO), was when we started coming down from the pass and seeing the Pentad Lake area. We all talked about regretting not spending a night in this beautiful area. I highly suggest stopping at this lake if you go here.

The hike up to Jordan Pass wasn't extremely difficult, but that changed when it started raining and hailing while we were at the top of the pass. I found it humorous to watch Grant and my dad get into their rain gear...just because it took so long. They were standing out in the middle of a field during a thunderstorm while it was hailing, and it seemed like it took them 10 minutes to get on their gear.

The difficult part about this hike for me was having soaked feet and making the ascent into the Lake Plateau area. We were hiking slow and the rain made everything more difficult. I'm sure this did not help my aching blisters, but at that point the pain did not bother me....I was in survival mode (I just wanted to get to our destination). Looking at the track from my GPS software, it looks like we hiked about 12 miles that day, which made it the most difficult hiking day of the trip.

On day 2 we made it to Lake Pinchot. When Tyler and I were walking around the lake, I took a pretty bad fall when I slipped on a rock. I bruised my knee and my arm when I slipped on a big rock and took a hard hit to the ground.

According to the trail guide, Lake Pinchot was the "crown jewel" of the Lake Plateau area....which is not accurate in my opinion. Maybe this is something that can be claimed as far as the beauty of each lake is concerned in the Lake Plateau area. But Lake Pinchot is very marshy and the Rainbow Lakes area is much more interesting with how many lakes are easily accessible. There was no lake in the Lake Plateau area that was extremely scenic, but there are few areas in Montana that have as many lakes condensed into a small area as this hike. In my opinion, Pentad Lake is the most scenic lake that we saw on this trip.

We finally found an acceptable camp site at Lake Pinchot. Again we were forced into our tents early this night because of the rain. We were thinking about making the hike to Asteroid Lake the next day, but since it was very marshy and hard hiking around Lake Pinchot, we decided that it wasn't worth the risk in going there if it was going to be that marshy on the trail. Not to mention that the trail was very difficult to follow in that area.

On day 3 we made the short hike to Owl Lake to setup a possible base camp for two nights. We found a great camp site that had gorgeous views of the area all around. We discovered that Owl Lake did not have any fish, which was kind of disheartening because this would be the third day on the trip and we hadn't caught a fish yet. We decided to day hike to the lakes in the immediate area (which there were about 4) and were able to catch some fish. Like the previous day, thunderstorms rolled in that afternoon and made things very cold.

That night was the first night we were able to stay up late. We chatted around the camp fire and watched the stars on the clear night. The stars were absolutely amazing....I've never seen so many stars! I also brought out the 1L of brandy I had brought, and we passed that around. This evening was the highlight of the trip for me. Hanging around the campfire, smoking cigars, and watching the stars!

We stayed at the same camp site on day 4. We decided to day hike to Wounded Man lake that morning. We caught a total of 9 fish that day and had them for lunch. This was the only day on the trip where we did not pack up camp, so we had a lot of free time to chill and do whatever. Grant was gracious enough to give me a Cuban cigar, which was very good. Of course it rained during part of the day, but it did not last too long. We did see a full rainbow that day after it stopped raining.

On day 5 it started raining while I got up. We quickly setup camp and were hiking by 8:30 or so. We made the 4 or 5 mile hike to Horseshoe Lake.

That morning was a low point for me in the trip. I was very tired, and my feet were hurting. I also was very home sick at that point. I got depressed with the inaccuracy of my trip planning. I think part of this was caused by me not eating enough food the first half of the day. Looking back on how I planned the trip, I do think I did the best I could with the information I had...but I wish I looked closer at the numbers that were listed in the trail guide. I had noticed the difference between my numbers and the trail guide numbers before the trip, but since my gps software was very accurate with the two other trips I was on (the ones that had trails on the map), I had assumed it was going to be the same way for this trip. Other than my blisters, this was the hardest thing we had to learn on the trip, but we made due and had a great trip.

This Horseshoe Lake area is a fairly scenic area and we found a good campsite. Like the three previous days before this one, the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in. Tyler caught two twelve inch cutthroat trout from this lake, but no one else was able to catch anything.

That evening I went to gut and clean one of the trout Tyler caught. I began cutting up the fish, using my knife. I decided to step down onto a rock closer to the water. Immediately when I took a step, both feet slipped on the rock and I fell into the marshy water. Luckily I only scratched one of my legs and bruised my wrist, so it wasn't a big deal. But it could have turned out really bad since I was holding my open knife!

On day 6, we got up early and headed back to the trail head. It was an easy hike, since most of it was down hill. The interesting thing about this hike was how the landscape changed when going from the high elevation area to the low elevation area. We made it to the trail head right before a big storm came through.

Tyler had noticed mice that had gotten into his truck. They didn't do any damage, but it was annoying. We had a great lunch at a cafe in Big Timber.

Here are a few things I learned on this trip:

• For any trips going forward, I am going to pre-wrap my feet with duct tape in any areas that have showed signs of blisters.
  
• The Platypus gravity filter Grant brought for the group worked very well. Not having to pump for water saved a lot of time and energy. This is one item that would work great for a large group.
• I thought my trail running shoes worked okay on this trip, but I'm beginning to think that a trail runner that is a bit more comfortable and a bit more heavy duty than what I've got would be twice as good. I'm using the lightest trail runners around, and I think using a pair that is one or two steps up from this pair would work out the best.
• During the hike, the group noticed that my feet tended to lean towards the inside. They thought that this could be causing my hip flexor problems. They said I should go see a doctor to possibly get orthotics to correct the problem. This was invaluable information, as this could solve the problem that I have been experiencing for multiple years.
  
• The only thing I forgot on this trip was my gators. On previous trips I did not think they helped that much...until I went on this trip when I didn't have them (and my socks got sooooo dirty). If you use trail runners, these are highly recommended.
  
• Investing in a good, down insulation layer is worth it in this environment. In a thirty minute period, it seemed like it would drop at least 20 or 30 degrees and get very cold when a storm rolled through. Also it got chilly at night. I've never been on a trip where I got as cold as I did on this trip.
  
• Bringing sleeping socks and a sleeping layer (maybe long john's) is worth looking into for managing your temperature at night. I did not sleep very well four out of the five nights on this trip because part of my body was either too warm or cold.
  
• On this trip I only brought a total of two pairs of socks, when I should have brought three pairs.
  
• This was the only backpacking trip where I had wanted rain pants. I'm still not 100% sure this would be worth it, but I am considering it for hikes that are this long when I only have one pair of pants that I wear all the time. Going to bed in wet pants is not fun!
  
• When planning backpacking trips (especially this long), I really need to pressure the group that is going to spend time on their end verifying that my mileage estimates and itinerary is accurate for the group that is going. I know I am not perfect in regards to planning trips, and it would be very helpful if people would double check my claims and make sure I am not taking people into the pit of hell. You can't 100% know for sure of any trail, but the more eyes and minds researching a trip, the more we should be able to create an itinerary we can stick to.
  
  Also, it would be good to not only have one main itinerary, but also one or two alternative itineraries that we can consider as options on the trail if the main plan doesn't work for some reason.
• Especially with a trip this long, I need at least one recovery day before going back to work. This would allow me to enjoy the trip more and not want to come home early. 
• I think it would be awesome to bring a pack raft on these trips. Especially with the lakes that are marshy or shallow near the shore.

I had a great time getting to know people on this trip. I confirmed that the best thing about these trips is experiencing creation and building relationships. Even with as much rain as we got on this trip, I had the most fun on this backpacking trip out of all of the trips I took this year (so far).

Here is a little video I made on the hike. Watch at your own risk:

I will be going to Hilgard Basin in a few weeks, so stay tuned for that trip report!

Jewel Basin

Date: July 15th, 2010 - July 17th, 2010
People on Trip: Chris, Tyler and Mikey
Distance: 22.5 Miles
Total Climbing Elevation: 8,137.3 Feet

DAY #1

We left Billings at 5:30 AM and were on the trail by around 9:00 AM. The general plan was we were going to camp at Black Lake the first night, and then head over to the Lower Big Hawk Lake for the 2nd night. That is not what ended up happening. You see, this area has a ton of trails, and the maps they have do not appear to be 100% accurate. But I digress....

Hike down to Birch Lake

The first part of the trail was fairly easy hiking. We hit some snow drifts, but the snow was easy to walk through. We came to a three way junction, and after debating for about 15 minutes which way to go, based on the map and my GPS, we decided to take a left. I had a route in my GPS, but the trails for this area were sporadic in my GPS software. In other words, the route I had could not be counted on for accuracy in this case (at least as far as following the exact trail).

Birch Lake

We ended up at a Birch Lake after a scenic hike into a large basin. This was not good, because I knew Birch lake was on the way to the Lower Big Hawk lake that we were planning on going to the next day. We decided to continue onto this path and switch the days where we were going to stay. This actually saved about three total miles over the whole trip, and it was a blessing because we gained about 2,000 more feet in elevation than I had anticipated through my GPS software.

The snow for the next three or so miles at this point got up to about 2-3 feet most of the way. It wasn't super difficult hiking, but it did slow us down. We passed by Squaw and Crater lakes at about 12:00 PM. At about 2:00 PM we made it to our camp site.

Crater Lake

If you have ever been on a backpacking trip with Mikey, you know that he is usually the ox that you have to constantly bite at his heels to slow him down so he stays with the group. On this trip, however, he clearly whined the most about the difficulty of the hike. Tyler even seemed to show some wear and tear. The next day I told him he should have left his skirt at home. It didn't help things that Mikey got sun burned pretty badly early on the trip and did not bring sun block (none of us brought any...but Mikey was the only one who got burned). He started using his chap stick as sun block....which was entertaining to watch.

One story worth sharing in regards to hiking this day.....we were on the final stretch within an hour or so of the lake when I came across an animal on the trail. I could only see part of the animals face before it ran off, but it was white and it looked like a horse. And so I thought it was a white horse. A little bit later we saw this white horse, which was a mountain goat who ran about 500 ft above us when we were seen.

Lower Big Hawk Lake

Lower Big Hawk Lake has the shape of an hour glass. It was a fairly scenic lake, and the campsite that was there was awesome. There was pre-cut firewood and it was right in the crest between both sections of the lake. The fishing was good. We caught fish about every other cast. Most of the fish were 6 or so inches, but we did catch some larger 8-12 inchers. Tyler found where they were spawning in part of the lake, and he was able to catch larger ones.

Big Hawk Mountain

Mikey and I ate four fish that evening, and we had a blazing fire going until we went to bed near 12:00 AM that night. Inspired by Don bringing large cigars for everyone the previous hike, I had done the same thing for this hike.

Here is part one of the video I took on this trip (note the first shot does not have sound):

DAY #2

We got packed up and were on the trail by 8:30 AM that morning. We made great time and were back at Birch Lake by 11 AM. When we got to the junction that we were at the previous day, we spent more time studying the map and deciding what we were going to do. We made our decision and went on the trail. Immediately we came across a forest service crew, who we asked if we were going in the right direction. After they pulled out their map, they told us that we were on the wrong trail. Luckily we only had to go back up the trail a few feet before determining which way to go. Come to find out there was a whole intersection that was missing from our map that was farther down the trail that was hidden by the snow. The trail junctions, combined with the snow made this a very difficult area to navigate...not to mention the inaccurate map and GPS we were depending on.

Black Lake

Black Lake

Black Lake

When we were confident we were on the right trail, it was a big relief. We had a fairly steep ascent to get to the top of the ridge before making the drop into Black Lake. Quite a bit of snow appeared back on the trail as we made the long descent. We had hiked about 10 miles that day, which seemed a little easier than the previous day....but it still was a difficult day. It was all worth it when we got to this beautiful lake where we had a 5 star campsite. We arrived at the campsite at about 2 PM that day.

Black Lake

Within a few hours, Tyler was fishing and catching very large and fat cutthroat trout. The largest fish he caught was about 13 inches long and was very fat. The fish here were very healthy.

It was later in the evening when our camp was viscously attacked by a herd of mountain goats. I never thought that mountain goats were deadly, but any kind of large wild life makes me nervous. There were about 7 or so goats that spent hours grazing around our camp...including two kids. It was entertaining for the first hour or so, but by the fourth hour, it got a bit irritating. Apparently they liked to lick up our urine, and Mikey went out of his way in peeing all around our camp.

This was the "alpha" male goat in the herd.

Here is part 2 of the video I took:

DAY #3

It was an easy 3 miles back to the trail head from our campsite. We ended up seeing seven different day hiker groups in the area on that Saturday. When we got to the trail head, we studied the map that was there to see if it had the mysterious three way junction that was missing from our map...and it wasn't there either.

All in all, the Black Lake area is a very scenic location. However, given the fact that this is so close to Kallispell, I would not recommend going here unless you go outside of a weekend....unless you don't mind seeing a lot of people. There were about 25 different vehicles parked at the trail head when we got there....even though there was still a lot of snow on the trail.

WHAT I LEARNED

• After a long day of hiking, it is nice to be able to put on more comfortable footwear. I have these very lightweight mesh shoes that I can also use for creek crossings, but they are not comfortable to walk around camp. On future trips, I think I am going to take my Croc's instead.
  
• I used my wood burning stove for this trip. It worked okay, but it did take a lot of preparation time. On future trips, I'm leaning more toward sharing a canister setup. The added convenience and the energy I save in not having to prepare a hot fire seems worth it to me.
  
• My hip flexors were pretty sore at the end of the first day. I did learn that the runner's stretch does not appear to stretch them out as much as I thought they did....but the hip flexor stretch where you put one leg straight behind you and lean into one knee works the best. When I started to do this stretch on the 2nd day, I immediately found pain relief for the whole day.
  
  This was quite a bit more strenuous hike than the last backpacking trip (in total elevation gain), but I'm less sore this trip.
  
• Most of the fishing lures I brought were silver and gold. I should mix in a few different options just in case the fish aren't biting.
  
• Bring an empty Gatorade bottle to drink out of at camp. This is much more convenient.
  
• Bring different powdered drink mixes. This is especially important on a longer backpacking trip.
  
• The cheesecake mix was fantastic, but the chocolate pudding was too runny. The key is to use less water than you think.
  
• Bring some sort of tool to measure water. Maybe put measurements on a Gatorade bottle?
  
• I need to figure out the best method for sharpening my knife. Maybe see if Tyler can help me with this?
  
• This was definitely a fun trip. But I think having more people would have made this even more fun. I think at least 4 people on a trip is the magic number.
  
• My meal planning was pretty good, but I barely used any of the snacks I brought. I should depend more on fish, especially with how much seasonings I am bringing. I don't need to bring lemon juice, and I brought too much olive oil.
  
• Re-packaging the mountain house meals was not worth the weight savings. I was not a huge fan of the Chili Mac...but the breakfast skillet wrap was pretty good. I don't think it is worth bringing, with the fact that you have to carry tortillas.
  
• Cheese, Pepperoni, and Mayo burrito's is a great lunch option.

The five night/six day backpacking trip is coming up in 2.5 weeks. Stay tuned for that trip report.

Selway-Bitterroot's: Blodgett Canyon

Date: June 25th, 2010 - June 27th, 2010
People on Trip: Doug, Chris, Kyle, Don, Steve and Tyler
Distance: 28.6 miles over three days
Total Climbing Elevation: 6,665 feet

The original plan was to hike to Blodgett Lake and base camp there for both nights. Kyle was able to get a hold of a fish guy at the forest service who said that High Lake was worth going to (which was off of the main trail). So at the last minute, we decided to spend the first night at High Lake. We knew that the hike to High Lake was going to be more difficult than the previous plan...but we were not prepared for the trail conditions.

Here are a few photos of the trail:

The magnificence of this place is hard to describe.

We left for the trail head at about 5:30 AM from Helena, MT and got there near 8:30 AM. I knew my hip flexors were going to be giving me problems, and so I kept a pretty slow pace through the whole hike. At mile six, we came to the trail junction with High Lake. I think it was near 11:30 AM. We figured it wouldn't take us more than 1-1.5 hours to get to high lake, since it was about 2.5 miles from the trail junction.

We first had to wade through a creek, but it wasn't a difficult crossing. I had decided to just walk through it with my trail running shoes and my socks, thinking that they would easily dry off during the hike. This was the biggest mistake I made on this trip. In the future, I am going to use my lightweight mesh shoes to cross creeks, and keep my shoes and socks dry. I ended up getting a blister on my foot that would get large and painful the next day.

After the creek crossing, the trail was difficult to find. Within a few minutes, we found the trail and made the steep ascent up the mountain. Up until about 3/4 of the way there, the trail was very easy to follow. However, it became impossible to follow the trail when we hit the boulder fields and the steep snow fields. This is when things slowed way down because each step was important....if we got it wrong at certain points, it would lead to certain death.

Here are some photos on the hike up to High Lake:

We decided to avoid a snow field in this case.

We quickly realized that we weren't going to go anywhere very fast in this terrain. 

Just above the ridge in this photo is High Lake.

Surprisingly, stopping to stretch my hip flexors on the trail prevented them from getting too sore to where I could't take a step with one leg. I knew that we would be climbing around 2500 ft in elevation for this 2.5 mile stretch of the hike....which was way more difficult than the hike I did before that gave me major problems. Looking back on this, I think taking shorter strides, more breaks and stretching on the trail, along with taking Aleve several weeks before hand, really helped me out.

The views of the High Lake area opened up to see huge mountains that were over 10,000 feet tall. We ended up seeing a huge waterfall spill out of the lake. The scenic value of this hike made all of the pain and suffering worth it.

We could see where the lake was, but it was hard to estimate distance with how huge everything was. I think we ended up getting to the lake at around 3:00-3:30 PM....which means that it took us around 3.5 hours to get hike this 2.5 mile stretch (which included lunch)!

When we got to the lake, it was cold (in the mid 40's) and it was sprinkling. We found an old cabin that people used when at the lake. It was patched up to handle the leaks, and it was by far from luxurious, but it did provide us shelter and place to sleep for the night. All six of us were able to sleep in the cabin. At this point my feet were constantly getting colder from being soaked in the creek earlier that day. I didn't want to get my dry pair of socks wet, because I knew my trail runners were still wet and if the weather was going to stay like it was, I didn't want to have cold feet at night. This prevented me from getting any sleep, while everyone else was able to take a good nap until about 6 PM or so.

The second I noticed that it stopped raining, I got up and started to work on a fire. Don got up as well, and we both immediately started to collect wood for the fire. Don is by far the best wood collector I've ever met! Within 15-20 minutes, we had a raging fire going and I was drying out my wet socks and shoes.

It was obvious the next task was going to be fishing! So most of us grabbed our poles and fished the lake. I believe Kyle caught 2 or 3 fish, Steve caught 2 fish and I caught 4 fish. My dad and I were the only ones to eat the fish. Most of the fish were pretty skinny, but it did provide a decent meal. We had fun hanging around the fire, smoking cigars and chatting. We did hang our food that night.

The following day my dad, Don and I were up early (at around 6 or so). I collected wood to boil water for breakfast and cofee. I don't think anyone else got up until 7:30 or so. I know that night I didn't sleep more than 3-4 hours, because I was nervous about dumping my down bag into a puddle of water that I was sleeping next to in the cabin. Everyone else seemed to get a pretty good night's sleep.

In my infinite wisdom, I did not pull down the bear bag rope's wisely, and so I got them stuck in the tree. Lucky for us we had spiderman on the trip (Kyle), who courageously climbed the tree and saved our rope! I wish I had gotten this on video.

We left High Lake at around 9:30 AM and headed towards Blodgett Lake. Going down was much quicker than coming up, but it also seemed more dangerous. On one of the snow fields, Don had lost his balance and started sliding down the snow field. Luckily he was able to slow himself down enough where he didn't get hurt. This was the closest thing I have ever hiked that was almost rock climbing with a pack.

Look how steep this is!

The views were awesome.

I think we arrived at six mile meadow at around 12:30 PM and maybe nine mile meadow at around 1:30 PM. Six mile meadow was gorgeous, with great views and a cool waterfall.

When we got closer to Blodgett Lake, we came across a group that had tried to get to the lake with horses. The guy said he thought we could get to the lake, but they had stopped because of the three feet of snow they encountered on the trail. This was obviously not a good sign, but we didn't think it was going to prevent us from getting to the lake, so we pressed on. The three foot estimate of snow he had given us was more like 5-6 feet of snow in some parts. When we got near the lake, it was obvious that this was not going to be a great place to camp. We stopped for a break while Kyle and Don made the final small hiking stretch to the lake, to check it out.

At that point we had hiked about 8 miles that day and the last part of the blodgett trail wore us out having to go through the snow. But we decided the best place to camp was going to be at 6 mile meadows (so 6 miles back down the trail). So we got back onto the trail. Another wise decision I had made on the trip was to not eat lunch when everyone else had stopped, and to just eat lunch when we got to Blodgett Lake. Of course this was assuming we setup camp at the lake (which we didn't), and so the only thing I ate was a cliff bar that afternoon. At about 6 or so, I started to feel lightheaded. At about that time, a huge boulder fell down a mountain and made a lot of sound. My dad immediately reacted with a "Ohhh crap!!!" and I thought we were being charged by a bear or a moose. I knew he had his bear spray handy, so my immediate action was to jump off the trail and get behind my dad. When we discovered we weren't going to die, everyone of course laughed at my reaction. Everything seemed to be in slow motion to me at the time...as if I was smoking pot on the trail.

We arrived at six mile meadows near 7 PM. We had hiked about 14 miles that day, and we all were ready to setup camp and eat dinner. I was actually excited to be able to sleep in my tent, instead of the cabin.  The bugs were in full force that evening, but they eventually calmed down and we enjoyed hanging around the fire. I did try to cook cake over the fire, but it was taking too long and so I put it directly on the coals (which of course burned the cake).

If I remember correctly, we headed for the trail head the next morning at 9:30 AM. We made it back to our cars at around 12 PM. We stopped at a restaurant in Hamilton for lunch.

For my reference, these are a few things that did not work well for me:

• Taking a torso pad and putting my legs on my pack at night. I kept on waking up with my legs being very uncomfortable.
• I got a bunch of soot and gunk on the bottom of my pot that I used in my wood stove. I definitely need a separate stuff sack for my pot...and a method for keeping the bottom cleaner.
• My bladder hose was too short.
• Be more conscious and aware of how much water I have and food I eat throughout the day.
• Instead of bringing hand sanitizer, I think soap would be more practical.
• It would make my wood stove setup easier if I shared the system with at least one other person. This would make setting up the fire faster.

A few things that worked well:

• The petroleum jelly cotton balls were fantastic. I'm confident I could start a fire in any circumstance with these things.
• Getting to the trail head early was a smart idea.
• Having the group share 1-2 water filter pumps is the way to go.
• I'm satisfied with how my GPS functioned during the trip. There was a setting that I discovered after the trip that made the route re-calculate after High Lake that gave us problems, but it seemed to be accurate enough for what I was looking for. It is great to be able to see about how far you have left to go for a trail junction or a stopping point.
• I think the videos turned out better than I expected. They aren't great, and the zoom feature is pathetic, but the video quality is good enough and they are fun to watch after a trip. Next time I want to take more video footage.
• I'm very satisfied with the comfort level of my backpack. It transferred enough weight onto my hips that I think it would work fine with loads up to 25-30 lbs.

Thanks Kyle for the photos! If you have any additional photos you want me to include on this page, let me know.