Indian Peaks Wilderness, Long Lake and Isabelle Lake @ 10,900ft elevation. 8.75 miles round trip. The scenery was beautiful on every scale! The journey was fairly quiet, although many people were at Isabelle Lake. They began to clear out and Sophia and I went to the far end of the Lake where a questionable trail went in and out of some large rocks and boulders. We had fun rockhopping through the scenery. Sophia and I found ourselves next to a stream flowing straight from the glacier above. This created a welcomed refrigerator effect that seemed to flow down with the stream! Rocky Mountain National Park Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake
We camped at Magnolia Falls TH as lightening lit up the sky, Pine Treetops swayed making rocking chair noises throughout the night. We woke to a cold morning and continued cold through out the day with full blast of sunshine. Perfect!! We packed up and started off toward Magnolia Falls, the trail ended there and we where forced to follow the cliff edge to a place where we lowered our packs down an edge and followed by sliding through the fallen fall leaves on our butts. Eventually we made our way down to the Magnolia Falls drainage, following the creek to Boen Gulf drainage where the fun really began. We navigated huge boulders, taking packs off and lowering them down boulders then scrambling down the boulders ourselves, only to be challenged by lose rock continuously, dancing on this moving surface, then being walled in and crawling up the hillside to higher ground through the woods and eventually finding the Buffalo River. The Buffalo River was surprisingly lively. It was flowing with enough water that we couldn't follow the streambed. A quick look at the surrounding terrain identified the opposite side as the path of least resistance. We found a gametrail that lead us to Whitaker Creek. Then the search was on for the Old Homestead that was marked by a chimney and would be our campsite. Six hours from the start of the day we found the old homestead by following Whitaker Creek. The sun set and starlit skies greeted us with frigid temps that chased us to our tents after dinner. Awakening to a very cold morning, coffee was had as we watched the brilliance of the sun work its way down the cliffside to reach us! We packed our gear and worked our way up Whitaker Creek via and old trail, it quickly vanished but we stayed high on the bluff, seeking benches knowing we needed to stay to the right on lower fork. We eventually identified the confluence of Whitaker Creek and lower fork creek. We scrambled down from the bench we stood on to follow lower fork where our "out" would hopefully present itself while we made our way up the drainage. This "out" was suppose to be a notch wall that kept us from making our way out from the bench just above lower fork. Once again we did some scrambling. Following lower fork we had to make a move when a nonnegotiable boulder blocked our way and left us surrounded by wall to wall water. On hands and knees, grabbing rock and trees we worked our way out of lower fork to a bench. We followed the bench to a drainage that on the map looked like our way out. Heading up stream a 60 ft wall of rock encompassed us. Scanning the wall we saw where the land rose closer to teh edge of the wall. Upon inspection the 10 ft section had some "steps" that we could climb with packs off. We climbed and rested, looking at the map we identified what would be a jeep road to take us out. Walking through the woods we finally found the "road" that took us back to a gravel road. This took us to the Whitaker Point Trailhead where our car was parked. We celebrated in the warmth of sunshined with a beer. The campsite on Whitaker Creek below Whitaker point. Lower Fork Branch
We arrived at Badlands National Park on our second day of travel. We took the tourist pic at the entrance with the sign in the background. As usual, we found a helpful soul to capture our image. Upon entering the park we were greeted by the striations of the hues in the incredibly exposed rock. In our excitement of the new views we stopped at the first trail and hopped out of the car at the door trail where the immensity of the landscape unfolded when we turned the corner to peak behind the nearby "mountains". We did a quick check in at our tiny but nice cabin and made our back out to the trails. We had fun on the Notch Trail, that included a fun latter climb and revealed and grand view. A great place to visit on our way to Montana! glacierguides.com Middle Fork of the Flathead River. Great Whitewater experience. Fun at Big Mountain! Many Glacier: The goal was to complete Iceberg Lake Trail in Many Glacier. We woke to heavy storms blowing through Whitefish, but who knows what the weather is like on the other side of the park. So we geared up and drove going to the sun road in heavy rain and clouds. Visibility was horrible as we ascended the road and as we topped out at Logan's Pass and clouds became incredibly dense. I glanced at the temperature gauge on the dashboard and it read 43 degrees, this should be interesting. We made it to the beginning of the Many Glacier area, and found out we had 11 miles of dirt/ gravel road to navigate. The rain continued to fall and the clouds were so low you wouldn't know mountains towered above. Although Iceberg Lake was the goal, clouds and lightening encouraged us to stay low so we decided to stay low and traverse the Swift Current Trail. The rain eased to a drizzle and we were excited because we heard moose like it in the area we were about to explore. We also noticed that we had the trail to ourselves, no one else was around. I chalked this up to the weather but it was super cool. We ran into two groups of people as we traveled to red rock falls. The lady said, " do you see the moose?" We stepped next to her and witness a female moose making her way towards us, following the shore but still in the water. The moose came within 20-30ft of us, Kelli had wanted to see a moose and Sophia had never seen one before! We continued forward, the rain finally eased and some clouds started to lift revealing mountains topping out high above. We took our time chilling when a couple told us a Bull Moose was around the corner off the trail. We traversed down the way and witnessed the huge Antlers and he lay in the grass chillin'.; We headed back, light of foot as the clouds continue to lift, the weather warmed and people filled the trail heading in as we headed out. We spent two nights at the Whitefish Bike Retreat, making our base in their tiny cabin. It was a nice set up with a porch and a fire ring outside. The people were kind and welcoming with great knowledge of the surrounding trail opportunities. I woke after our first night in the tiny cabin, excited about riding some new trails. The plan was for me to ride and end up in Whitefish were I'd meet my wife and daughter for lunch. I checked in at the office where they had my KONA hardtail ready to roll. "Cricket" helped me out by orienting me to the map, and pointing out a single track option that would allow for exploration and get me to Whitefish, 15 miles one way. I also downloaded an app that pinpointed my location just in case, there are grizzly in the area. The ride was super nice, I ventured by a lake, road mostly single track until I popped out on a gravel road that lead to greenways trail and straight into Whitefish. It was great to refuel with my family and relax before heading back. This was a little climbier so I took the quick route of 9 miles back to the Whitefish Bike Retreat. The setting created an atmosphere were I met some new people and heard about there adventures. https://www.whitefishbikeretreat.com/ Backpacking in Two Medicine:
I arrived at the ranger station to get our backpacking permit for the Two Medicine area but I didn't have a hard copy. No problem, they said, but my name couldn't be found, "sorry"... no permit to be found. So we tried to get a walk-in car camping spot and the last one was gone too, What to do! I drove quite a few miles outside of the park to get cell reception and went through my emails and finally found it! Back to the Ranger Station, the original ranger came over to apologize. 1.5 hours after arriving we finally have a backcountry permit! After sitting through a terrifying ranger required bear video we hit the trail at 3:30pm! We started at the North Shore TH and hiked to Upper Two Medicine Lake. It was about 5 miles total. The first 2-3 miles was pretty easy sailing but Kelli had to grit her teeth a bit over the last 2 miles. BTW When I was at the ranger station actually getting the permit a call came over the ranger's walkie talkie from another ranger stating they needed assistance. One of the rangers at the station said it could be a bear and everyone except the ranger helping me went running out with bear spray drawn. Kelli and Sophia were in the car and saw everyone running out, they peaked around the corner to see the commotion, it was a false alarm. Back to the trail, I think we arrived at camp about 7pm. There was a bear box to store your food, a designated cook area for everyone and 4 camp sites spread out. We were the last to arrive so we took the remaining camp site. It was very nice, next to the water and closest to the cook site (maybe that's why no one else took it). Dinner was short and sweet. The wind was blowing so hard that Kelli had to create a windshield out of the thermarest chair to keep my stove lit. We made chicken noodle soup. I ate mine, and the leftovers from Sophia and Kelli, I was stuffed but we were in Grizzly Country. After dinner we walked the shore of Two Medicine Lake as the wind blew with fury. Sophia followed, filming the shenanigans as kids tend to do these days, inputting her snarky comments along the way. Soon after we retired to the tent to get a break from the wind. Not much sleep was had that night, the wind slammed our tent, would recede, then pick up again. I woke up first and took in the sunrise. The wind had stopped and the clouds moved on....for about 15 minutes. Then we were once again fighting the wind and watching clouds. They started to disperse into cotton balls as we hit the trail. We stopped off at the falls on the way back. We saw many visitors at the falls, since it was a short walk from the boat that delivers people from the main trailhead. Being near the boat ramp we could've waited 30 minutes to take a boat ride back to the TH but why do that when you have only so much time to be on the trail and enjoy the beauty? So I talked my wife and daughter into taking the South Trail around Two Medicine Lake. Well, There were some pretty good inclines along the way and my wife was feeling it, she continued to eat thimbleberries and shoot me a look every once in a while, especially when we saw the boat leaving the boat ramp we were at and taking a smiling crew of visitors to the TH that was our goal. We completed our hike and I retrieved the car. We heard some excitement coming from the parking lot. Some people pointed to the hillside saying there was a bear. One individual had a nice telescope set up on a tripod. He said to take a look and we saw a grizzly from a safe point. We returned to Whitefish and had a nice meal in our smelly backpacking clothes, We seemed to end up at Mckensey's Restaurant a lot. Lost Lake Trail Arkansas River Whitewater through Browns Canyon https://www.noahsark.com/site/rafting.html Hunter-Frying Pan Wilderness Area with a little map and compass detour Granite Mountain Lodge and Outfitters, Fantastic setup! https://www.granitemountainoutfitters.com/
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AuthorI'm your average wanna be adventurist. I spend more time day dreaming about expeditions than actually accomplishing them, but I guess life is the ultimate expedition. |