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- Dec 23, 2013
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Alright everybody, you're getting the full monty on this trip report, so you might not want to let the kids have a peek. 
Let's see here: I finished up my backpacking trip with @TractorDoc, drove home, got an MRI on my right knee, then headed straight back up to Yellowstone for a four day trip that included setting up a base camp at campsite 4D2 at Ice Lake for three nights with day hikes to Wolf Lake and Little Gibbon Falls on Saturday, and to Cygnet Lakes on Sunday.
Overview map - The route into 4D2 at Ice Lake and our first day hike to Wolf Lake.
Overview map of our second day hike to Cygnet Lakes
Day 1 - Drive to West Yellowstone, Pickup our Backcountry Permit, Drive to the Ice Lake Trailhead, Hike in 1.2 Miles to Campsite 4D2
We left Salt Lake early in the morning on the 19th and drove up to Layton to meet at Sills Cafe for breakfast which is a tradition for this group. I had the mini-ham and cheese omelet with hashbrowns and toast along with a glass of orange juice. After eating our breakfasts, we hopped into three separate vehicles to make the drive up to West Yellowstone.
Now on our way to West Jelly, I had two passengers in the Subaru. One we will call Schneller, and the other we will call Chicken Man (CM). At one time, Chicken Man, Schneller and I all worked together. But Chicken Man decided that he had had enough of us and moved on to the Forest Service and now finds himself down in Albuquerque, NM. So Schneller and CM were giving each other a hard time about each one never returning text messages from the other. So CM goes back into his text history on his phone and finds the last text conversation (is that what you call it?) they had and brings it up to prove that he had indeed responded to Schneller's text. So Chicken Man had texted Schneller the following a few months back:
Now maybe you guys have seen this before, but I was confused about all of this, so CM read me the text. Once he got to step 7, I was in stitches. I couldn't control my laughter. I was laughing so hard that I was almost crying. So of course the Brazilian Jiu Jitzsu followed us into the backcountry. Got your bear spray? Don't need it with the Brazilian Jiu Jitzsu and on and on.
We pulled into the Visitors' Center at West just after 11:30 am and hoped that the person manning the backcountry office hadn't gone to lunch yet. We were in luck, the ranger was there and ready to help us.
I see a bear video in somebody's future. Interesting that there is no Jiu Jitsu sign on the wall, or mentioned in the video.
After snagging the permit, we headed over to Ernie's for a sandwich.
And then it was on to the Ice Lake Trailhead and a 1.2 mile walk to camp.
The Rough Riders themselves. Oh what a ragtag bunch of degenerates! From (L-R) we have Brent, T3, Mr. Vanderbilt or Lord of
Lord Business, Chris, Chicken Man (Beer Brewer Extraordinaire), Schneller (Where the Hell is Schneller!), Man of the Hour - Danny
Petersen, and the one and only Scatman with his 60 pound pack of goodies.
Now I might mention that this is a very sarcastic group of individuals, and one needs to choose their words carefully when mingling with said bunch.
And we are off. Hi Ho, Hi Ho it's off to camp we go. Looks like a lot of uneven packs on this trip.
Oh goodie, our first sign. I guess we will take a left.
Ice Lake - view to the east
Fall colors to greet us
Arriving at the trail that heads south to 4D2
Arriving at 4D2. I, for some unknown reason was slower than everybody else. Anybody notice something about this shot? I mean
besides the 60 + 217 pounds of solid crap.
Lord Business was not happy at all. Unfortunately I forgot to bring Squatch. Oh no!
Out tent set up at 4D2 - Except for Brent who went off into the downfall for some reason.
Lively banter around the campfire.
Some sun going down shots at Ice Lake
A lone loon would keep us company for our four days at the lake
Day 2 - A day hike to Wolf Lake, roughly six miles roundtrip, and a side trip to Little Gibbon Falls
Morning on Ice Lake - view to the west
These three were up especially early for some reason. Don't they know that they need rest?
More fall shrub colors as we start off for Wolf Lake, Some kind of Vaccinium?
First crossing of the mighty Gibbon River
Man, the trees are getting taller since the 1988 fires. I did this back in 2003 and you
had a view back then.
A little bit of a view as we passed through a small opening in the trees
Love fall
Back at the Gibbon
Our Second crossing of the Gibbon River
Shark fin
First sighting of Wolf Lake with Observation Peak in the distance
Observation Peak and the fire lookout on the west side
Arriving at Wolf Lake. The ones you see in the picture took a walk around the lake while Schneller and I stayed at campsite 4G7
Closeup of the lake and its lily pads
The outlet at Wolf Lake - this is the beginning of the Gibbon River
And a BCP greeting to everyone from Wolf Lake
The walkers around the lake had to eventually ford the outlet.
Our funny pose
Okay, so there was an osprey that caught a fish out of the lake and as it was flying away, this bald eagle swooped in and made it
drop its fish so that it could have it. I popped on the 55-250mm lens to capture this shot of the eagle on the west side of the lake
eating the fish that it stole.
A gorgeous aspen amongst the spruce on our way back
A hiked up to this spring a number of years ago and tasted the water. One of the three
best tasting water sources in Yellowstone if you ask me.
There were some sinkholes along the trail. I think that this are might have once been thermally active?
Let's go checkout the falls.
This reminded me of a totem pole for some reason
The Gibbon River just before the falls. I'll be sneaking my way around the left side of
the river to get to the base of the falls.
View form the top
And view from the bottom
Love these shrubs
Back at camp with beaucoup parler. Most of it BS quite frankly.
East shore of Ice Lake
That's not Jameson's Irish Whiskey is it?
Man of the hour
Photo bombed while doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu! Notice the flexibility in that right knee. Brought to you by the makers of Jameson,
Makers Mark, and what I call Driftwood (something called Woodford Reserve, which is apparently big at the Kentucky Derby).
Where the Hell is Schneller! @Rockskipper, do you think I could get these whiskey makers to sponsor me and my bison riding
skills? Where the Hell is Schneller?
After practicing Jiu Jitzu, one must limber up a bit with some downward dog right leg raised poses.
T3 brought Circus Peanuts! No buffalo pies to make the tossing game more interesting though.
Where the Hell is Schneller! Oh wait, there he is. He's giving the Scatman the Johnny Cash treatment! I feel some Jiu Jitsu coming
on.
Sunset on day two at Ice Lake.
Day 3 - Day hike to Cygnet Lakes
We hiked back out to the Ice Lake Trailhead and then drove to the Cygnet Lakes Trailhead. Three of us hike to Cygnet Lakes while the others off-trailed it to the thermals by Otter Creek that I had been to the previous week.
Bison across the road from the Cygnet Lakes Trailhead
The two on the right are going with me. The rest of them, grizzly fodder.
Dry ponds along the trail
Needs some work
A relatively new burn area that I wasn't expecting
Love the yellows and oranges
Only a couple of more miles to go
Mount Washburn from the Cygnet Lakes Trailhead
Bear track
Nearing the meadows
Reaching the meadows of Cygnet Lakes
Cinquefoil
Reaching Cygnet Lakes
Cygnet Lakes
Lunch time at the lakes
Group shot. By the way, where the Hell is Schneller!
The uneven ground around the lakes really made my right knee flare up, so it was a slow limp back to the trailhead for me.
More red
Storm clouds moving in
Mount Holmes through the snags
And Electric Peak
Observation Peak again
And Wasburn again
More fall colors
Looking down on the meadows at the head of Otter Creek
Solfatara Lake on our way back with Observation Peak in the distance
Work needed
Who or what turned this log onto the trail?
Back at the Sube. This shot brings back memories of a geoduck. Ask if you are interested in a story.
Heading back to Ice Lake
Homemade chili for Mr. Vanderbilt and T3
Day 4 - Back to the Ice Lake Trailhead
It rained throughout the night, but stopped around 7:30 am. I'm using the dry spot for my gear until I can pack it away.
Not quite 60 pounds anymore
Hard to leave this behind
Back at Hanks for lunch
Me an my bestie.
Another wonderful Yellowstone trip completed. While this was supposed to be Danny's last backpacking trip, he did hint that if we returned to Ice Lake then he might give 'er one more go.
The day after I returned home from this trip I went to see the doctor to go over my MRI results. Unfortunately, I have completely torn my lateral meniscus root in my right knee. I'll be having surgery next Monday to re-attach the meniscus. That means I'll be on crutches for the next six weeks after surgery, and then a four month recovery period after I ditch the crutches. The doc also said due to my age, the surgery might not be a successful one. So we will see how it goes from here. Cheerio!
The End.
Let's see here: I finished up my backpacking trip with @TractorDoc, drove home, got an MRI on my right knee, then headed straight back up to Yellowstone for a four day trip that included setting up a base camp at campsite 4D2 at Ice Lake for three nights with day hikes to Wolf Lake and Little Gibbon Falls on Saturday, and to Cygnet Lakes on Sunday.
Overview map - The route into 4D2 at Ice Lake and our first day hike to Wolf Lake.
Overview map of our second day hike to Cygnet Lakes
Day 1 - Drive to West Yellowstone, Pickup our Backcountry Permit, Drive to the Ice Lake Trailhead, Hike in 1.2 Miles to Campsite 4D2
We left Salt Lake early in the morning on the 19th and drove up to Layton to meet at Sills Cafe for breakfast which is a tradition for this group. I had the mini-ham and cheese omelet with hashbrowns and toast along with a glass of orange juice. After eating our breakfasts, we hopped into three separate vehicles to make the drive up to West Yellowstone.
Now on our way to West Jelly, I had two passengers in the Subaru. One we will call Schneller, and the other we will call Chicken Man (CM). At one time, Chicken Man, Schneller and I all worked together. But Chicken Man decided that he had had enough of us and moved on to the Forest Service and now finds himself down in Albuquerque, NM. So Schneller and CM were giving each other a hard time about each one never returning text messages from the other. So CM goes back into his text history on his phone and finds the last text conversation (is that what you call it?) they had and brings it up to prove that he had indeed responded to Schneller's text. So Chicken Man had texted Schneller the following a few months back:
Now maybe you guys have seen this before, but I was confused about all of this, so CM read me the text. Once he got to step 7, I was in stitches. I couldn't control my laughter. I was laughing so hard that I was almost crying. So of course the Brazilian Jiu Jitzsu followed us into the backcountry. Got your bear spray? Don't need it with the Brazilian Jiu Jitzsu and on and on.
We pulled into the Visitors' Center at West just after 11:30 am and hoped that the person manning the backcountry office hadn't gone to lunch yet. We were in luck, the ranger was there and ready to help us.
I see a bear video in somebody's future. Interesting that there is no Jiu Jitsu sign on the wall, or mentioned in the video.
After snagging the permit, we headed over to Ernie's for a sandwich.
And then it was on to the Ice Lake Trailhead and a 1.2 mile walk to camp.
The Rough Riders themselves. Oh what a ragtag bunch of degenerates! From (L-R) we have Brent, T3, Mr. Vanderbilt or Lord of
Lord Business, Chris, Chicken Man (Beer Brewer Extraordinaire), Schneller (Where the Hell is Schneller!), Man of the Hour - Danny
Petersen, and the one and only Scatman with his 60 pound pack of goodies.
Now I might mention that this is a very sarcastic group of individuals, and one needs to choose their words carefully when mingling with said bunch.
And we are off. Hi Ho, Hi Ho it's off to camp we go. Looks like a lot of uneven packs on this trip.
Oh goodie, our first sign. I guess we will take a left.
Ice Lake - view to the east
Fall colors to greet us
Arriving at the trail that heads south to 4D2
Arriving at 4D2. I, for some unknown reason was slower than everybody else. Anybody notice something about this shot? I mean
besides the 60 + 217 pounds of solid crap.
Lord Business was not happy at all. Unfortunately I forgot to bring Squatch. Oh no!
Out tent set up at 4D2 - Except for Brent who went off into the downfall for some reason.
Lively banter around the campfire.
Some sun going down shots at Ice Lake
A lone loon would keep us company for our four days at the lake
Day 2 - A day hike to Wolf Lake, roughly six miles roundtrip, and a side trip to Little Gibbon Falls
Morning on Ice Lake - view to the west
These three were up especially early for some reason. Don't they know that they need rest?
More fall shrub colors as we start off for Wolf Lake, Some kind of Vaccinium?
First crossing of the mighty Gibbon River
Man, the trees are getting taller since the 1988 fires. I did this back in 2003 and you
had a view back then.
A little bit of a view as we passed through a small opening in the trees
Love fall
Back at the Gibbon
Our Second crossing of the Gibbon River
Shark fin
First sighting of Wolf Lake with Observation Peak in the distance
Observation Peak and the fire lookout on the west side
Arriving at Wolf Lake. The ones you see in the picture took a walk around the lake while Schneller and I stayed at campsite 4G7
Closeup of the lake and its lily pads
The outlet at Wolf Lake - this is the beginning of the Gibbon River
And a BCP greeting to everyone from Wolf Lake
The walkers around the lake had to eventually ford the outlet.
Our funny pose
Okay, so there was an osprey that caught a fish out of the lake and as it was flying away, this bald eagle swooped in and made it
drop its fish so that it could have it. I popped on the 55-250mm lens to capture this shot of the eagle on the west side of the lake
eating the fish that it stole.
A gorgeous aspen amongst the spruce on our way back
A hiked up to this spring a number of years ago and tasted the water. One of the three
best tasting water sources in Yellowstone if you ask me.
There were some sinkholes along the trail. I think that this are might have once been thermally active?
Let's go checkout the falls.
This reminded me of a totem pole for some reason
The Gibbon River just before the falls. I'll be sneaking my way around the left side of
the river to get to the base of the falls.
View form the top
And view from the bottom
Love these shrubs
Back at camp with beaucoup parler. Most of it BS quite frankly.
East shore of Ice Lake
That's not Jameson's Irish Whiskey is it?
Man of the hour
Photo bombed while doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu! Notice the flexibility in that right knee. Brought to you by the makers of Jameson,
Makers Mark, and what I call Driftwood (something called Woodford Reserve, which is apparently big at the Kentucky Derby).
Where the Hell is Schneller!
@Rockskipper, do you think I could get these whiskey makers to sponsor me and my bison ridingskills? Where the Hell is Schneller?
After practicing Jiu Jitzu, one must limber up a bit with some downward dog right leg raised poses.
T3 brought Circus Peanuts! No buffalo pies to make the tossing game more interesting though.
Where the Hell is Schneller! Oh wait, there he is. He's giving the Scatman the Johnny Cash treatment! I feel some Jiu Jitsu coming
on.
Sunset on day two at Ice Lake.
Day 3 - Day hike to Cygnet Lakes
We hiked back out to the Ice Lake Trailhead and then drove to the Cygnet Lakes Trailhead. Three of us hike to Cygnet Lakes while the others off-trailed it to the thermals by Otter Creek that I had been to the previous week.
Bison across the road from the Cygnet Lakes Trailhead
The two on the right are going with me. The rest of them, grizzly fodder.
Dry ponds along the trail
Needs some work
A relatively new burn area that I wasn't expecting
Love the yellows and oranges
Only a couple of more miles to go
Mount Washburn from the Cygnet Lakes Trailhead
Bear track
Nearing the meadows
Reaching the meadows of Cygnet Lakes
Cinquefoil
Reaching Cygnet Lakes
Cygnet Lakes
Lunch time at the lakes
Group shot. By the way, where the Hell is Schneller!
The uneven ground around the lakes really made my right knee flare up, so it was a slow limp back to the trailhead for me.
More red
Storm clouds moving in
Mount Holmes through the snags
And Electric Peak
Observation Peak again
And Wasburn again
More fall colors
Looking down on the meadows at the head of Otter Creek
Solfatara Lake on our way back with Observation Peak in the distance
Work needed
Who or what turned this log onto the trail?
Back at the Sube. This shot brings back memories of a geoduck. Ask if you are interested in a story.
Heading back to Ice Lake
Homemade chili for Mr. Vanderbilt and T3
Day 4 - Back to the Ice Lake Trailhead
It rained throughout the night, but stopped around 7:30 am. I'm using the dry spot for my gear until I can pack it away.
Not quite 60 pounds anymore
Hard to leave this behind
Back at Hanks for lunch
Me an my bestie.
Another wonderful Yellowstone trip completed. While this was supposed to be Danny's last backpacking trip, he did hint that if we returned to Ice Lake then he might give 'er one more go.
The day after I returned home from this trip I went to see the doctor to go over my MRI results. Unfortunately, I have completely torn my lateral meniscus root in my right knee. I'll be having surgery next Monday to re-attach the meniscus. That means I'll be on crutches for the next six weeks after surgery, and then a four month recovery period after I ditch the crutches. The doc also said due to my age, the surgery might not be a successful one. So we will see how it goes from here. Cheerio!
The End.
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