Scott Chandler
Wildness is a necessity- John Muir
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2014
- Messages
- 1,099
Over the past few weekends I've been in familiar areas of the Cloud Peak Wilderness doing familiar things. Thus I can't say I have the best of stories to share but I do have some pictures of what everyone sees that are pretty darn pretty.
7/16-17 I spent patrolling and doing trail maintenance up in the 7 Brothers area. I originally had plans to off trail up to the Frozen Lakes on the second day but an odd "might rain, might not rain" weather pattern had settled over the Bighorns which made that an ugly option.
I found the label on this older can a bit ironic.
Surprisingly that weather pattern put some snow high on the mountains over the night of the 17th. Gotta love the high mountains.
Over the next couple days (7/18-19) I spent out patrolling in Circle Park. The first day saw me up to Rainy and Willow Lakes in some rain and the next on a seldom used "backdoor" trail to the oft visited Long and Ringbone Lakes.
Rainy Lake
Willow Lake
Sherd Lake
Then Trail 47
To Long...
...and Ringbone Lakes.
The next weekend saw me on the western side of the CPW. I started out with an overniter up to Mirror Lake and the Lost Twins. It was a gorgeous day, with a little storm while going to Upper Lost Twin to add a few minutes of spice to the trek.
Middle Tensleep Falls
Mirror Lake
Gotta love the meadows up to Lost Twins
Lower Lost Twin
Upper Lost Twin
And Lower again. Sure love the northerly view.
To get some spice in this trip I thought I would follow an old, unmaintained trail known as the Old Yost Trail from Mirror Lake to the trail to Lake Helen. There was a followable trail tread for maybe a 1/4 mile across the ledge, so it was definitely spicy.
And from there it was up to Lake Helen for an evening patrol of the area. I was amazed at the lack of a tent city up there but I'm sure if this tour hadn't been a short one I would have seen the mayoral election. A lot of people were going up as I went out the next day.
Featured image for home page:
7/16-17 I spent patrolling and doing trail maintenance up in the 7 Brothers area. I originally had plans to off trail up to the Frozen Lakes on the second day but an odd "might rain, might not rain" weather pattern had settled over the Bighorns which made that an ugly option.
I found the label on this older can a bit ironic.
Surprisingly that weather pattern put some snow high on the mountains over the night of the 17th. Gotta love the high mountains.
Over the next couple days (7/18-19) I spent out patrolling in Circle Park. The first day saw me up to Rainy and Willow Lakes in some rain and the next on a seldom used "backdoor" trail to the oft visited Long and Ringbone Lakes.
Rainy Lake
Willow Lake
Sherd Lake
Then Trail 47
To Long...
...and Ringbone Lakes.
The next weekend saw me on the western side of the CPW. I started out with an overniter up to Mirror Lake and the Lost Twins. It was a gorgeous day, with a little storm while going to Upper Lost Twin to add a few minutes of spice to the trek.
Middle Tensleep Falls
Mirror Lake
Gotta love the meadows up to Lost Twins
Lower Lost Twin
Upper Lost Twin
And Lower again. Sure love the northerly view.
To get some spice in this trip I thought I would follow an old, unmaintained trail known as the Old Yost Trail from Mirror Lake to the trail to Lake Helen. There was a followable trail tread for maybe a 1/4 mile across the ledge, so it was definitely spicy.
And from there it was up to Lake Helen for an evening patrol of the area. I was amazed at the lack of a tent city up there but I'm sure if this tour hadn't been a short one I would have seen the mayoral election. A lot of people were going up as I went out the next day.
Featured image for home page:
