My beautiful daughter Everly was born this month. She is perfectly healthy and we are adjusting to another member in our family. On top of that, we are trying to potty train Harlo.
I've been thinking a lot recently in the process I've gone through since having our first daughter. Before we entered parenthood, it seemed that both of us never really had many close friends. There always seemed to be a few people that we liked to spend a lot of time with, but it never seemed to be at a satisfactory spot for us. Throughout my whole life I've never had a lot of friends.
When we had Harlo, we didn't have any close friends with kids...other than some family. This made it very difficult for us, because you know that if you have kids, having people over who don't have kids either doesn't last very long or is very sporadic in the schedule. Unlike when you don't have kids, you can't just set everything aside and play boardgames or video games. You have to work around the schedule of the kids. And often times, this does not go as planned.
One thing we've been actively pursuing over the last year is building more relationships with people around our age who also have young kids. What we found is that there are a lot of young families at Narrate who also feel this gap in their relationships. Don't get me wrong, I like my friends who don't have kids...but for me, it seems easier and less awkward to have people over with kids. Since everyone expects and knows that things could get crazy. This also makes us be very direct and intentional about pursuing people we don't know but who are in a similar spot as us (which was never natural for us). This is difficult to do at Narrate, since building relationships/community is not a priority (their perspective is that this should be done while serving next to each other...but is hard to do with a family that has young kids).
Are we satisfied with where we are at right now (relationships concerned)? Not yet, but we are actively building relationships with other families who are at a similar spot. And we are loving it!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
My Take on Love Wins, by Rob Bell
One evening I was sitting on the recliner, and my daughter Harlo was sitting on my lap. She was rubbing my chest and my face, and with her little eyes she was telling me how much she loved me. She didn’t have to use words, because I knew exactly what she was trying to tell me. That I was her daddy, and that she loved me.
Recently I have been trying to compare my experience as a father to how God is referenced to as our Father. Is there ever a point for my daughter where there is no hope? Is there a point where I would be willing to condemn her to Hell for all of eternity…without any hope for redemption? Absolutely not! And yet this is how I thought God was like?
All of my spiritual conversations up to this point (before Love Wins) have left me with the idea that Scripture is 100% clear in what happens after death. That we basically have this life to live, and if we don’t become a part of the “in crowd” before we die, we are eternally punished with no hope of redemption.
This is what I was told how things work all of my "Christian" life. That this life is our only chance, and once we die, God turns his back on us if we are not a “believer”. Before that point, God is a loving God who is always waiting for us to return home. But after our physical death, he can’t do anything but let us burn in torment and agony for all of eternity…..WITH NO HOPE.
Is this what the Bible says about our God? Is this God good? Is this the message Jesus came to earth to reveal to us? Is this really good news?
These are the questions that Rob Bell goes through with his book Love Wins. I am so grateful that Bell had the courage to publish a book like this, because it challenges how most evangelicals look at heaven and hell.
I’m not here to defend his book or his claims. I think the book does a good job in speaking for itself. But before you call Rob Bell a heretic or a universalist, please read his book. People have already made their Bible point lists in why Rob Bell is wrong, before even reading the book. And you can find people all over the internet disagreeing or agreeing with what he puts in the book.
For me the book has challenged me on so many different levels. I haven’t seen God at work in my life in so many different ways as I do now. My perspective on Who God Is and What He is Like is more real now. I’m so grateful for this book. I just hope everyone will read the book objectively so we can have constructive discussions with each other on Who God Is and What He is Like. Those are the real questions that are worth answering. And this is why I think this book is so important.
Recently I have been trying to compare my experience as a father to how God is referenced to as our Father. Is there ever a point for my daughter where there is no hope? Is there a point where I would be willing to condemn her to Hell for all of eternity…without any hope for redemption? Absolutely not! And yet this is how I thought God was like?
All of my spiritual conversations up to this point (before Love Wins) have left me with the idea that Scripture is 100% clear in what happens after death. That we basically have this life to live, and if we don’t become a part of the “in crowd” before we die, we are eternally punished with no hope of redemption.
This is what I was told how things work all of my "Christian" life. That this life is our only chance, and once we die, God turns his back on us if we are not a “believer”. Before that point, God is a loving God who is always waiting for us to return home. But after our physical death, he can’t do anything but let us burn in torment and agony for all of eternity…..WITH NO HOPE.
Is this what the Bible says about our God? Is this God good? Is this the message Jesus came to earth to reveal to us? Is this really good news?
These are the questions that Rob Bell goes through with his book Love Wins. I am so grateful that Bell had the courage to publish a book like this, because it challenges how most evangelicals look at heaven and hell.
I’m not here to defend his book or his claims. I think the book does a good job in speaking for itself. But before you call Rob Bell a heretic or a universalist, please read his book. People have already made their Bible point lists in why Rob Bell is wrong, before even reading the book. And you can find people all over the internet disagreeing or agreeing with what he puts in the book.
For me the book has challenged me on so many different levels. I haven’t seen God at work in my life in so many different ways as I do now. My perspective on Who God Is and What He is Like is more real now. I’m so grateful for this book. I just hope everyone will read the book objectively so we can have constructive discussions with each other on Who God Is and What He is Like. Those are the real questions that are worth answering. And this is why I think this book is so important.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Pyramid Version 2.0
So this time around, I got my friend Mikey T to help me make a cat jig by connecting pieces of wood. It was very precise and stable, and I think that was part of the reason why this turned out better than the last one.
The last time took a total of about 50 hours. This time, it took a total of about 30 hours, and the sewing is down more accurately this time. I also used heavier thread.
Below are photos of the tent (one of the photos was taken on a different day).
The pole height is 72.5" and is in five separate pieces, that fit into the tent bag. With the stuff sack, poles, tent and stakes, it all weighs 2lbs 9.5oz (or 41.5 ounces). I'm hoping that adding a floor and a perimeter netting will total around 3.5 lbs.
I'm thinking about converting from using trekking poles to using a hiking staff/stick and use this as the center pole. This would save around 9.5 ounces. But I also like having the collapsible pole as an option.
The last time took a total of about 50 hours. This time, it took a total of about 30 hours, and the sewing is down more accurately this time. I also used heavier thread.
Below are photos of the tent (one of the photos was taken on a different day).
The pole height is 72.5" and is in five separate pieces, that fit into the tent bag. With the stuff sack, poles, tent and stakes, it all weighs 2lbs 9.5oz (or 41.5 ounces). I'm hoping that adding a floor and a perimeter netting will total around 3.5 lbs.
I'm thinking about converting from using trekking poles to using a hiking staff/stick and use this as the center pole. This would save around 9.5 ounces. But I also like having the collapsible pole as an option.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
MYOG: 10x10 Pyramid
I’ve wanted a large pyramid for a while. Mainly because when you sleep four guys in one of these, the amount of weight per person beats most other options (including tarp, bivy, etc…). Not only that, but this provides a large area for people to chill in during storms.
I’ve been eyeing Oware and MLD pyramids for a while. But Jerry posted an article on making your own 9x9 pyramid on BPL ( http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/myog_silnylon_floorless_2-person_tent.html ), I immediately became interested. But the lack of experience using a sewing machine or making any kind of gear myself, quickly made this idea take a backseat.
In early January when I started to really think about purchasing a pyramid shelter, it quickly started sinking in how much this would cost to get a shelter, with perimeter netting and a floor.
After much planning and researching, I ordered the 1.1 ounce silnylon from Noah Lamport and all the other hardware from OWF. I think I paid around $175-$200 for 25 yds of silnylon and all of the hardware for the shelter (except for the stakes and the center pole), which included the perimeter netting. This amount of silnylon would cover making two pyramids…which is great for me because I’m going to make this shelter again. I'm also using this to make stuff sacks and a rain skirt.
For the most part, I followed Jerry’s instructions to the T in putting together this shelter. He and others at the BPL forums have been very helpful in giving me tips for this first large project. To see the full forum discussion where I got a lot of help with this, go here.
The first thing I did was I put together the cat curve jig Jerry describes in his article. I cut up a normal cardboard box and stapled/nailed this to two pieces of wood for the 108” diagonal line. I discovered that cutting cardboard is not easy to do when you want precise results. This was probably one of the largest mistakes in this project, because not all eight pieces were the same which made things interesting when we put everything together.
So in any case, I’m going to get to the point. Below are two lists that describe what I think worked extremely well for us, and what didn’t work. This is not to take a shot at Jerry’s article at all. This is meant to provide a perspective from someone who is brand new in using a sewing machine, and is also useful for me when I do this again.
What Worked Really Well
- The massive amount of pins we used to line everything up was tremendously helpful. However, this also was very time consuming. After talking with Jerry on the forums, this is how he was able to sew accurately with just four hand stitches on the whole length. Keep in mind that he probably is able to see the line of the 2nd piece of fabric under the sewing machine (which I wasn’t able to do…more comments on this later).
“Sewing machine needle starts at one of my hand stitched (or you could use pins) aligned points. I hold the next aligned point in my hand, which is maybe 2 feet of sewing from where it currently is. I then select a point that's maybe 6 inches away from where the needle is currently and align the top and bottom and hold firmly between fingers. My two fingers not only contact the fabric, but each other, so the top and bottom fabric don't slip. Then I sew about 6 inches. Repeat...”
NEXT TIME: Following Jerry’s tips above would require much less pins than what we used, and should provide more accurate results.
But just to give you an idea of what I did, here is a photo with how I used pins to line things up. As the sewing machine approached each pin, I pulled out the pin. This worked fine, but it added a lot of time to this project.
“Sewing machine needle starts at one of my hand stitched (or you could use pins) aligned points. I hold the next aligned point in my hand, which is maybe 2 feet of sewing from where it currently is. I then select a point that's maybe 6 inches away from where the needle is currently and align the top and bottom and hold firmly between fingers. My two fingers not only contact the fabric, but each other, so the top and bottom fabric don't slip. Then I sew about 6 inches. Repeat...”
NEXT TIME: Following Jerry’s tips above would require much less pins than what we used, and should provide more accurate results.
But just to give you an idea of what I did, here is a photo with how I used pins to line things up. As the sewing machine approached each pin, I pulled out the pin. This worked fine, but it added a lot of time to this project.
- We put in the zipper a little differently that what is described in Jerry’s article. We did everything that he describes in the article, right through the sewing a 4mm stitch from above where the zipper will go to the bottom. What we did after that is we pinned the zipped up zipper to the fabric, so that each side was connected to that inch or so side of silnylon.
Below is a photo of the zipper from the inside of the tent. The dark fabric is the seam allowance of fabric for that piece.
Below is a photo of the zipper from the inside of the tent. The dark fabric is the seam allowance of fabric for that piece.
What this did was provide a small amount of weather protection on the zipper and made attaching the zipper very easy.
After sewing three stitches on each side of the zipper, we just needed to seam rip the 4mm stitch in the front of the tent. The only mistake we made with this part was that I went too high with the 4mm stitches. But I did end up reinforcing the top of the zipper.
NEXT TIME: With the zipper on the next pyramid I build, I’m going to spend more time in making sure I place the zipper exactly where I want it to go, so the top is cleaner and more re-inforced.
NEXT TIME: With the zipper on the next pyramid I build, I’m going to spend more time in making sure I place the zipper exactly where I want it to go, so the top is cleaner and more re-inforced.
- Using the ladder locks combined with the 0.5 nylon webbing makes it very easy to adjust the shelter. Using 12” of nylon webbing allows for a lot of flexibility.
NEXT TIME: I used the nylon webbing for connecting the ladder lock to the tent. Next time I’m going to use grosgrain ribbon as it is a tad bit lighter and will hopefully be easier to line up when sewing onto the tent.
NEXT TIME: I used the nylon webbing for connecting the ladder lock to the tent. Next time I’m going to use grosgrain ribbon as it is a tad bit lighter and will hopefully be easier to line up when sewing onto the tent.
- Generally speaking, using a sewing machine is not rocket science. This was much easier to pickup than I thought it was, and I’ve very comfortable working with the machine. My wife and I were able to sew the lines together fairly accurately, and I’m very satisfied with the quality of our sewing.
NEXT TIME: Take a closer look at the final results of this tent, I did notice that some of the lines do not appear to be completely straight. I don’t think this effects much, other than looks, but next time I am going to spend more time in making sure things are sewed more straight.
NEXT TIME: Take a closer look at the final results of this tent, I did notice that some of the lines do not appear to be completely straight. I don’t think this effects much, other than looks, but next time I am going to spend more time in making sure things are sewed more straight.
- When working with the flat felled seams, we figured out that if we put in the pins perpendicular to the seam, that we could simply sew right over the pins and pull them out later.
NEXT TIME: I wish I read this article before I finished the first tent. What I did is probably fine, but following the correct technique would have saved time.
NEXT TIME: I wish I read this article before I finished the first tent. What I did is probably fine, but following the correct technique would have saved time.
- The coil zipper #5 works great. I don’t think a larger zipper would be any more beneficial.
- Zipper top and bottom stops probably made things a little cleaner.
NEXT TIME: The long zipper is great, but I think I could save an ounce or two by making it a little shorter. Maybe 6-12” shorter?
NEXT TIME: The long zipper is great, but I think I could save an ounce or two by making it a little shorter. Maybe 6-12” shorter?
What didn’t work Well
- The biggest thing here was that things did not line up. When we got to sewing the two corners together of the whole shelter, we were off by over an inch on each side. Obviously this was a concern when we put the whole tent together, but when I took a close look at the shelter when it was setup, it was very obvious that one of the four corners was slanting way closer to the ground than the other corners.
Here are a few photos of the sides/corners that turned out fine:
Here are a few photos of the sides/corners that turned out fine:
Here are some photos of the corner that did not turn out:
I "think" it was the fact that our cat jig quickly started falling apart the more we were using it when making the lines on the silnylon. It didn’t completely fall apart, but the cardboard did not last very long. I also don’t think our long straight edge that we used for measuring and making things square was completely accurate. All of this combined with human error probably was what made things so far off.
Also, what became clear to me with this project is that it is more important to have all eight pieces be very close to the same as far as the drawn lines are concerned….more than it is to have the cat curve be 100% accurate.
NEXT TIME: I’m going to put more thought into creating a more accurate jig. My current thoughts are to get a buddy who is very handy with wood in helping me put together one large piece that I will use as a template for all of the pieces.
- As I was satisfied from the sewing we did, I found out we could have saved some time if we did the flat felled seam differently:
1. I would have cut the fabric 1 inch from the line and spent more time being more precise with this part. It was difficult to work with fabric that was shorter than that. There are parts in the finish product where we could not hide the raw edge in a few places of the flat felled seam.
NEXT TIME: Spend more time cutting the pieces out so that the whole pieces are more consistent.
2. It would have saved some time if we actually did the flat fell seams correctly. I think they turned out fine, but the 2nd row of stitching should be to the far edge of the seam, and then put in the third row in the middle. This would allow the third row to be put in very quickly and we wouldn’t have had to have the pins in the fabric at this point. See this article: https://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/process?id=K2bWvpMP:69.146.72.74
On top of that, if we didn't rely on pins so much, things would have been faster.
1. I would have cut the fabric 1 inch from the line and spent more time being more precise with this part. It was difficult to work with fabric that was shorter than that. There are parts in the finish product where we could not hide the raw edge in a few places of the flat felled seam.
NEXT TIME: Spend more time cutting the pieces out so that the whole pieces are more consistent.
2. It would have saved some time if we actually did the flat fell seams correctly. I think they turned out fine, but the 2nd row of stitching should be to the far edge of the seam, and then put in the third row in the middle. This would allow the third row to be put in very quickly and we wouldn’t have had to have the pins in the fabric at this point. See this article: https://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/process?id=K2bWvpMP:69.146.72.74
On top of that, if we didn't rely on pins so much, things would have been faster.
- The trekking pole setup I used seems to hold up fine (I used the Black Diamond pole connector to attach two poles). But adjusting the poles to the correct length is too much of a hassle for what I’m looking for. A dedicated pole will be more convenient and reliable.
- A black/red sharpie is visible on dark sylnylon (barely). But why would you use this when a silver sharper will be 3x more visible? If I figured this out earlier, this would have saved a lot of time and headache!
- For whatever reason, the zipper pull was hard to get onto the zipper tape. However, this article was very helpful in getting this on: http://www.questoutfitters.com/zipper_tips.htm
I’m confident that if I had measured the eight pieces more consistently and accurately, that my first MYOG pyramid would have been very usable. Knowing what I know now, I’m going to go through the 2nd pyramid more slowly.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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:
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 |
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 |
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.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
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:
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!
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.
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!
Monday, July 19, 2010
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....
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).
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Here is part 2 of the video I took:
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
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.
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