Backcountry Trails
Yikes, I thought I’d already written about my week on spike,
but given the craziness of my return and immediate departure—I can see how I
failed to do that. Okay, so here goes—I spent a week at OA3 with seven students
and another crew leader doing backcountry trailwork. On Monday we hiked in
(roughly 4.25 miles), set up camp, did RE, and then didn’t have enough time to
go to our worksite and start any projects so we basically killed time at camp
until we made supper. On Tuesday, the students started installing check dams,
water bars, cleaning drains, and brushing the trail corridor. (Brushing = using
loppers and saws to make the corridor 8 ft by 10 ft. This task I happened to be
good at leading without much instruction from my co-leader Jillian…thanks Dad.)
Installing checks and waterbars is another story though because the last ones
of those I had done were the first week during staff training. Little rusty. Tuesday
morning, one of our students couldn’t find their eye pro, so I had to hike out
and get a spare pair from the burb and then hike back in to the worksite while
he used mine. Nine and a quarter miles…just for eye pro. Darn kids. And all
along the way, people kept asking me when Lone Star Geyser was supposed to
erupt. I DON’T KNOW! There was a family there on bicycles (it’s one of the few
bike trails in the park) and I really, really, really wanted to ask them if I
could borrow one of their bikes for 20 minutes. It would’ve saved me almost two
dang hours of hiking. :P But I didn’t. On the way back, I passed Lone Star when
it was about 5-10 minutes away from erupting, but I couldn’t justify standing
around there waiting while my crew was out on the trail by Grant’s Pass
working. So continued I did.
On Tuesday afternoon, Schmitty and Bill Hopkins, the guy in
charge of trails in Yellowstone, came out to check-in and see how we were
doing. They said it would be ideal if we finished the trail by the end of the
week so that another group wouldn’t have to come back next year for a one or
two-day project. At that point in time we had 23 checks and about a dozen
waterbars and drains to go. (Aka not going to happen.) They also told us that
we were getting packed out on Thursday morning, so we’d only be doing brushing
on Thursday so that we didn’t have to hike out all our trail work tools.
Backing up—everything had been packed in for the crew last week and we were
just supposed to hike out whatever we could physically carry…not fun. So
although it was great that we were going to be semi-packed out, it also meant
we were going to lose a day of trailwork. A normal amount of trail features to
complete in a M-F week is 12-15 checks and 3 waterbars. Our students were
supposed to double that in a day. Odds of that happening were not good.
Well, Wednesday rolled around and they definitely killed it
all day. They worked so hard! They ended up finishing 11 checks, 3 waterbars, and clearing 5 drains.
All in one day! On Wednesday night, Jillian and I packed everything but
brushing tools, one set of trail tools, and only the essential camp gear.
Everything else got loaded into the panniers as evenly as possible. On
Thursday, all but two students were brushing. The others were installing a
couple more waterbars before lunch and then after lunch they rotated out and
another two students installed some checks. While they did that, I cleaned a
bunch of drains in the area and Jillian cleaned some drains at the top of the
trail area where the students were brushing.
The problem with this area all week was the number of rocks
that had to be dug through in order to install the checks and waterbars deep
enough. It doesn’t matter how tough you are or how good you are with a pick
mattock—some of those are just too dang big to dig through. Which sucks.
Because then you’ve wasted your time digging a partial hole that you can’t
finish and then you have to either move it about a foot or two one way or the
other or you just fill it in. Time-consuming and draining. Our poor students.
:(
By the end of the week, our totals were: 18 checks, 12 drains, 5 waterbars, and 2/3 mile brushing.
^That’s absolutely unheard of for a backcountry crew because
they lose two days of trailwork—Monday and Friday due to hiking in and hiking
out. So our students did fantastic!
Also, I’m extremely grateful that the mules were able to
pack out at least part of our gear because my pack was so loaded down with
tools and gear that I was insanely happy that we only had a ~4.25 mile hike out
(to a different trailhead because Schmitty had to move it so it was more
accessible to the packers.)
The only thing our students complained about all week was
the food. They did such a phenomenal job on the worksite—but they had terrible
attitudes off the worksite—and it was all food-related. It wasn’t that they
didn’t like the food; it was that they didn’t have enough of it. Last week
Jillian was on this same project with another crew and they barely ate any of
the food that was packed, so both crew leaders and youth leaders had to eat so
many helpings of the leftovers that they got sick. On mac and cheese night, they
had to take a break, go walk around, go poop, and come back to finish the mac
and cheese. So when we planned our menu, Jillian cut back on all the quantities
of food. Alicia talked to me ahead of time and said that when the rec rangers
packed our food for the week, she didn’t think we had enough…but what was I
supposed to do—I was just the tagalong rec ranger turned crew leader for the
week?!? Tricky position. So I said we’d make it work. Bad choice. The students
were super hungry. I was super hungry. Jillian was fine—she’s tiny and doesn’t
eat much. By the end of the week, we had run out of almost everything (which is
actually what’s supposed to happen on a backcountry spike…just not a day
early), so Bill sent some peanut butter in with the packers when they took our
stuff out. I ate a miniature portion of oatmeal for Thursday supper, Friday
breakfast, and Friday lunch because there wasn’t enough other food for 9
portions…just 8, so I took one for the team. By the time we all got back to
camp on Friday afternoon, the kids and I ate a ton of Ana’s lasagna and cake
for supper to the point of almost getting sick. :D
For Friday feedback, they had nothing but positive things to
say to me, so I’m going to consider it an overall win. Go team.
Avery’s hilarious comment of the week: “All hail the pot!”
while trying to decide whether or not to keep our giant pot or have it packed
out.
Luke: “So I’m not good at math or geography or spelling or
words, but I can jump kinda far.”
Great group of students! YL Avery, Aubrey, Iris, Ethan,
Wyatt, Fabian, and Luke.
Backpacking Trip—East Sky Rim
Unluckily for me, I was on Spike 2, which meant that my
spike week rolled right into backpacking weekend…which equals zero free time
for an extended period of time. Friday after supper I had to pack all of my
food and supplies for my backpacking trip because we were leaving early in the
morning to try to get a jumpstart on the day. I promised everyone in my group
that I’d make them pancakes for a 0630 breakfast (normal Saturday breakfast is
at 0800) because we had about 14 miles to cover that day, including two peaks.
So it was going to be a long day and we needed to get going. Alicia helped me
pack my food so we had chicken alfredo for supper, marshmallows w/chocolate,
and breakfast burritos for lunch—along with copious amounts of granola bars and
then water and snacks in the car for when we got back to the trailhead. Much
better food planning than last time. I brought spoons. You live and you learn.
What I hadn’t factored in was the amount that the packs
(instead of daypacks) was going to affect us while gaining all that altitude
from the Black Butte trailhead up to Bighorn Peak. Those miles took a lot of
energy out of a lot of people and ate up a ton of our time. And they drained most
people’s water supply. I brought four liters, which was going to be plenty for
me—probably enough for both days if I rationed it. I made the students bring at
least two but encouraged them to bring more. Once you’re up on the Sky Rim
trail, there’s no water to be had, so you’re kind of out of luck. I gave away
an entire liter before lunch time. Yikes. I ended up sharing about another
liter with various people, as they tried to balance consuming enough water to
sustain themselves on this challenging hike with saving water for later.
Tricky. We finally got to the top of Bighorn Peak around 1300 (we started around
0930). Holy canola oil. So we all sat down/laid down to eat lunch while we
looked around at the still amazing view, despite all the haze from the
wildfires. Then I made the dumb mistake of sitting down too long—the icing on
the cake of the stressful past week, skipping second breakfast in the midst of
being concerned about all of my students that morning, and a late lunch. Idiot.
Absolutely idiotic. I could barely stand as we got up to leave from lunch, let
alone put my pack on or hike anywhere. Elijah, even though he had already taken
a ton of extra weight from another student who was cramping up really badly and
barely making it, asked if I needed him to help me carry mine. A genuine offer
from a fantastic youth leader—but I could never let him do that. So he helped
me stand up and put it on, and then I struggled along from there. Elijah and I
switched spots and he took the lead and I followed behind, struggling along at
my own stupidly slow pace along the trickiest section of the entire hike, which
of course we hit immediately after lunch. It’s super narrow and requires really
careful footings—which a person that’s experiencing an episode of HYPP does not
have…even a little. (If you read about my Vogelsang adventure last summer in
Yosemite, it wasn’t quite that bad because I didn’t have to physically pick up
my legs, but in another way it was so much worse because I was responsible for
five students at the time, which I was clearly incapable of doing at that
moment. I felt absolutely awful. It doesn’t matter how understanding they were
or how fantastic of a youth leader Elijah is—my inability to use my muscles
normally at that point in time affected each and every one of them and that’s
something I’m extremely sorry for and feel really guilty about. Such
irresponsible management of my own dang disease that I’ve been dealing with
forever. Idiot.)
Anyways, so we maneuvered along the Sky Rim trail to Shelf
Lake, which we were super excited to get to because we could set up our gravity
filter to get people more water while we went up Sheep Mountain. …except that
by the time we got there, people were so tired that some of them didn’t want to
go to the top of Sheep Mountain anymore. They all agreed that they would
definitely do it if they could leave their packs down at the lake though, so I
came up with a plan to make that happen. (We were in bear country…you can’t
just leave your packs lying around.) I went and talked to the people staying at
a campsite near the lake and asked if they’d be around for the next few hours
and if they’d be willing to let us stash our packs near their campsite. Long
story short, the family was visiting from a foreign country (possibly Eastern
European) and they had a guide with them from the area. They were all
fantastic, we had a wonderful conversation, and they watched our packs for us
while we scrambled to the top of Sheep Mountain. Problem solved. I love talking
to people I meet on backcountry trails. They’re not usually the touron type
that you see populating all the frontcountry locations.
Anyways, the mile or so to the top of Sheep Mountain was a
fairly steep scramble at first from Shelf Lake, but then flattened out once we
got to the top of the ridge again. Sheep Mountain is the one with that funky
looking rectangle that can be seen from extremely far away, so it was nice to
finally be able to see it in-person. It was massive! A whole lot bigger than I
was expecting, honestly. Despite the haze, the view was incredible. We also saw
mountain goats down on the Forest Service side which was pretty neat since
they’re kind of rare.
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| Luke, Elijah, Marta, Morgan, and Aubrey at the top of Sheep Mountain |
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| View south from Sheep Mountain |
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| YL Elijah and I on Sheep Mountain |
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| MOUNTAIN GOATS! |
We got back down, got our water filter—which had only
produced about two liters of water in those two hours, and went and got our
packs from the awesome family. Elijah and I were discussing our water situation
while we were grabbing our packs and the family overheard us and offered to
fill them for us with the water they had already filtered. What delightful
people! We didn’t take them up on it though because…well, just because. We only
had a couple more miles to go to WE4 and we knew we could set up our gravity
filter then and boil water if we needed to. Plus the hike out for tomorrow was
only about 5 miles and it was all flat. We got to camp at 2000, over 10 hours
from when we started the day. Absolutely nuts. We got our food going, our water
filtering, our tents set up, and we were good-to-go. I could not have been more
proud of those students for all that they accomplished that day. Their
attitudes were fantastic even when they were tired and struggling. They kept
their heads up and I appreciate each and every one of them. I told them that
via the compliment box that gets read during Sunday meeting. I don’t know if
they realize how much that means, but the youth leaders know that compliments
from Bethany mean a lot. I don’t throw words around that I don’t mean. Those
students should be proud of themselves.
The next morning we were headed out and we pass this couple
who says, “Oh, you’re so lucky today. There’s two bull moose not more than a
quarter-mile up the trail on your left, drinking from the stream.” And away we
went after thanking them! I measure distances by my time and pace, so after a
certain number of minutes I figured it had been a quarter mile, I tell the
student behind me to keep his eyes peeled, and then from the back of the line
we hear Elijah, “Guys come back, it’s right here!” So sure enough, we scoot back
a few feet and there it is through the trees—a bull moose! How amazing is that.
Unbelievable. Two peaks, mountain goats, and a bull moose. Wowzers. Pardon my
picture, it’s not very good.
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| Bull moose at Specimen Creek |
We wrapped up our backpacking trip by drinking copious
amounts of water after we got back to the burb, and then stopping in West
Yellowstone to get homemade ice cream and eat our lunches at a park. Great
weekend! Tiring, but great.
The Adventures of Bethany and Sam: Glacier National Park
So my friend Sam (Samantha Frundle) was visiting a couple
people in Montana that had just moved out from Iowa and was going to stop in
Yellowstone for a couple days on the way to visit her sister in Colorado.
However, it happened to be the days that I was planning on going to Glacier, so
I asked Sam if she wanted to come along. Obviously the answer here is yes
because otherwise that lead-in was pointless. So on Monday morning, I met Sam
in Bozeman so we could carpool up to Glacier. (I had Monday off because of
spike the previous week.) We had a couple ideas of what we wanted to do, but
all in all were ready to be extremely flexible with plans and basically
everything. After a solid 6-hour drive, we got to the Apgar area around 1700,
bought a map, and talked to an interp ranger at the visitor center. He gave us
a few more ideas of what to do and gave us a recommendation on where to stay on
Forest Service land (because it’s free). After that we explored the Lake
MacDonald area and marveled at how clear all of the water is. It’s so
spectacular! We ended up staying in the Hungry Horse area, north of the
reservoir off South Fork Rd. For free along one of the gravel roads in a
tent-like area. Hurray hurray.
The next morning (Tuesday) we got up super early and were at
the Apgar Backcountry Office by 0600 to stand in line to wait for a permit for
Wednesday night. We went in with no preferences so that we were super easy to
please and flexible. The ranger who was helping us (William something) said
that there was one opening left at his favorite lake in the park if we wanted
to go there—to which I replied, “Sure,” and Sam replied, “How far is it?” ;)
Red Eagle Lake is about 7.5 miles one way from the St. Mary area, so that was
doable for a Wednesday afternoon in and Thursday morning out trip. When I
filled out the form, I had used my Yellowstone address, so William and I were
talking about working for the NPS, and he waived our fee and let us have our
permit for free. Rangers are the coolest. :D
So after that on Tuesday, we planned to do the Highline
Trail from the Loop to Logan’s Pass and then catch the shuttle to Siyeh Bend
and hike to Sunrift Gorge—all in all about a 22ish mile day. But Sam’s in-shape
so I wasn’t too concerned. Now, if you know anything about the Highline Trail
you’ll be wondering why I said we were starting at the Loop instead of at
Logan’s Pass. The answer to that is the shuttle system. Why try to catch three
shuttles when you can hike it from west to east and only have to catch one? Well…ascending
the entire Highline Trail might be enough to make most people try to catch
three shuttles. In fact, I don’t know if we saw anyone else the entire day
going the direction we were going. But here’s to being different! *clink*
After the first few miles of steep ascent, it became
apparent that we were going to need to revise our afternoon plans. Sam may be
in-shape, but Iowa’s at 800 ft elevation…not the 4500-7500 range we were in.
Altitude plays a huge role while hiking, so I should’ve realized that and
factored it in. My bad. I apologized to Sam five billion times while we stopped
so she could actually breathe. Whoops.
Along the Highline Trail, you get views of lots of things,
even if it’s super hazy. High on top of a mountain sits Granite Park Chalet,
which is kind of like a High Sierra Camp in Yosemite.
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| Granite Park Chalet (ft. Sam) |
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| Heaven's Peak through the haze from Granite Park Chalet |
Not too far from there is the Grinnell Glacier Overlook up
on the Garden Wall, which is only .6 miles…but it gains 920 feet of elevation.
Direct quote from Sam on the way up, “Just leave me here and take a picture!”
She’s a bit overdramatic sometimes. Hahaha it was hilarious. But after we
finally got to the top and were eating lunch, she was extremely happy that I
made her do it. It was so absolutely beautiful.
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| View from the Highline Trail |
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| Sam and our marmot friend |
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| Grinnell Glacier from the Garden Wall |
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| Grinnell Glacier from the Garden Wall |
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| Grinnell Glacier (and Bethany) |
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| Bethany and Sam at the overlook |
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| Sam named the marmot... |
From there, we had about 7 miles left to go, some of which
were still uphill. Luckily, the last mile or so was a gradual descent, so at
least there’s that? I’m lucky Sam’s my friend so she didn’t kill me. :)
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| Highline Trail |
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| Sam dropped her phone down the side of the trail haha |
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| Highline Trail with Going-to-the-Sun Road |
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| View from the Highline Trail |
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| We started from the right... :D |
We finally, finally, finally got to Logan’s Pass, which is
the highest point on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, went to the visitor center, and
then caught the shuttle back down to the Loop. From there we got my car and
went back to Apgar to get ice cream. Because everybody knows that the proper
way to end your hiking day is ice cream. :)
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| Hence why we could barely see sometimes on the drive there... |
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| Ice cream is mandatory after hiking :) |
We went back out to USFS land and camped for the night,
revising our hiking plans for the next day to accommodate for sore muscles.
On Wednesday, we hiked to Avalanche Lake in the morning, a
really short 5-mile RT hike full of tourists. It was gorgeous nonetheless. The
waterfalls that flow into Avalanche Lake are fed by Sperry Glacier, which you
can’t see from the lake. The first part of the trail is on the Trail of Cedars,
which is where I vowed to get better at tree id, so I texted my dad and asked
him to put a tree field guide on my Christmas list. I don’t know how the
daughter of “plant guy” is so bad at identifying all types of plants—trees,
flowers, shrubs—you name it…because I can’t. I’ll get better. All of you
reading this better hold me accountable.
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| Avalanche Lake |
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| Sam and Bethany at Avalanche Lake |
Then we continued along Going-to-the-Sun Road and went
stopped at the Jackson Glacier Overlook. It was pretty far away and hard to
see, so that was kind of disappointing. Also disappointing is how much the
glaciers are receding—which is discussed all over the park, so that aspect is
actually really neat. Honors thesis info at work again.
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| Jackson Glacier from Going-to-the-Sun Overlook |
We stopped at another overlook for St. Mary’s Lake, which is
absolutely gargantuan and beautiful before we headed to Many Glacier to see
that area before we started our backpacking trip for the night.
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| St. Mary Lake |
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| Swiftcurrent Lake |
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| Garden Wall/Grinnell Lake Overlook from Many Glacier area |
Then the worst part of the trip happened between Many
Glacier and the Red Eagle Lake trailhead. :( A semi hurled a giant rock at my
windshield and cracked it immediately. The crack has spread over a foot and I’m
sad. At least it wasn’t worse though and no one was hurt. :(
We left the Red Eagle Lake Trailhead around 1515, which is
pretty late in the day, especially since William warned us that it would be
pretty warm in that area. Warm indeed. I was sweating my butt off and it was
insanely dry! Not a quarter of a mile past the trailhead, I saw a black bear in
the bushes about 50 yards to the left of the trail, called Sam back because she
walked right past it (super observant), and then it scampered off up the hill
where it stared at us for a while and then went a way. Cute little thing. Some
more people rounded the corner so I told them about it just so they were aware.
It took us a few hours, but we made it to Red Eagle Lake
around 1800 finally. Then we ate supper by the lake and Sam went to sleep.
Typical night. Sam falling asleep before 2000. ;) She also has a habit of
waking up, talking to me in her sleep, and then falling back asleep
immediately. So this particular night was Sam waking up, me asking how it was
going, and her saying, “My legs hurt. I’m sorry,” and falling back asleep. So
after the princess’ 10 hours of beauty sleep, we got up the next morning and
hiked out.
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| Sun slowly rising as we leave Red Eagle Lake |
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| Storm rolling in on Thursday morning |
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| THREE MOOSE! |
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| MEESE!!! |
Unfortunately, after we got back to the trailhead, we had to
leave Glacier and head back to Bozeman. From Bozeman we parted ways and Sam
headed back to Iowa and I returned to Yellowstone. Until next time Glacier,
until next time. :(
YNP Mileage Count: 452.4
