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.