- Joined
- Sep 28, 2018
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- 229
I felt it would only be fitting for me to bring up the rear in terms of the trip reports, coinciding with my typical place on the trail during this trip.
I'm not much of a trip report writer here, or anywhere really, so bear with me. I'm also not accustomed to taking photos to document my trip, so some of the images you see may make you say, hmmmmmm...Some of these were images were taken with my Sony A7R3, and others with my cell phone. I can use my Sony (and most any other DSLR) in my sleep, along with my numerous film cameras, but I've incredibly never really bothered trying to learn how to take pictures with my phone. Nonetheless, here's my accounts of the trip to Rescue Creek with @scatman, @Bob, @Dreamer and scatman's incredibly patient family for putting up with us.
The trip really starts a week prior in Denver. I was returning home from the gym when I noticed scatman's business expanding into the Denver area.
This HAD to be a good omen, no? Morale is high!
Like Uncle Scat, I'm a big proponent of tradition, and love to stop at the Buffalo restaurant in Laramie, WY when I'm headed north. It's a couple hours out from Denver, has good food, and usually is about lunch time when I hit Laramie. I guess I should have noticed by the employees and clientele, that the restaurant had changed. It's still called the Buffalo, but it's now an Indian restaurant. Now, I like - even love Indian food - though I had not taken into account the fact I'd be in a car for the next six hours. Lesson learned. (and it's now apparently called Buffalo Indian restaurant) Morale decreasing...
Upon arriving just east of Grand Teton at my second traditional stop: the Hatchet Campground and setting up my tent, the host asked if I had bear spray and indicated they had "bear issues" already this year. Good omen certainly worn off. I slept in my car...close to morale-less. (though a Nuggets win did keep some morale)
I woke up early to see what Mrs. Nature had setup photography-wise in the Tetons.
Meh 1
Meh 2
Back to the Hatchet for more tradition and a breakfast at the Lodge.
I have a horrible habit of being intrigued by any landmarks with the word artist or inspiration in their titles/names, and have long wanted to hike to Inspiration Point in Grand Teton, so I figured a quickie to warm up the legs would be good prior to meeting up with the gang. The hiking trail around the lake is nice, but reminiscent of walking on 16th St in downtown Denver. Once you reach the point the boat drops off loads of people at the base of Inspiration Point, it's as if you're approaching Ball Arena for Game 5 of the Denver Nuggets Championship Series. Needless to say, the hike to the point was not very inspirational to me, and I didn't find much inspiration at the point itself, which included fifty or so of my best friends.
I did see this little one and its mom along the way. (along with the back of a woman's ear) Morale on the upswing!
I hightailed it out of there to get back to the car, head north to meat up with Dreamer at Bridge Bay campground in Yellowstone...but on the way, I needed to fulfill a promise I made to myself. scatman being the heavy spoon connoisseur he is, I needed to make sure to gift him with a new heavy spoon for his collection for allowing me to tag along. I stopped at the Jenny Lake gift shop looking for a spoon, also picked up a hat for myself, a sweatshirt for the girlfriend, a couple of huckleberry chap sticks and a huckleberry chocolate bar. "$215, please", says the lady checking me out. I was wondering if she was charging me for my trekking poles, or perhaps my backpack as well? I didn't have my glasses on, so truthfully I had no idea what any of the items cost (nor could I tell) and I figured I'd just look at the receipt outside once I reached the car and my glasses. It turns out the sweatshirt was a $145 sweatshirt - more than I've paid for, for any piece of clothing other than a puffy or good rain shell. Ouch! Morale depleted.
the offending sweatshirt, and idiot who purchased it (image courtesy of Dreamer) - apparently it's hand painted or something...
Finally made it to the campground and campsite, met up with Dreamer for some dinner and a fire. When it was time to hit the sack, my neighbor was apparently an extremely loud snorer. Slept in the car...
Headed to the Bridge Bay Ranger's Office for the permit for Slough Creek days following the Rescue Creek trip, but they were having "connection issues" and suggested either waiting fifteen minutes or so, or hitting the station at Tower instead. Tower it was as I was already a bit behind, where the ranger explained we were to bury stool 6 - 8 feet deep, to which I inquired if she was expecting me to poop humans? She giggled sheepishly and said inches, not feet.
Off to the Blacktail Creek TH to meet up with the gang. Made quick introductions as everyone else was close to ready, and off we went.
The ground was just wet enough to see fresh prints on the way to our site, and there were plenty of wolf prints, one BIG set and at least one other smaller set along the way. We never saw or heard from any wolves out there, but they're out there.
I'd been eyeing this ridge for a while, looking for a composition I liked. This worked...
Hairy Clematis is what scat calls these I think - shaped similar to bluebells we have in CO, but much larger, deeper saturation, and fuzzy!
Upon reaching campsite 1A2 scat gathered the troops for a trip to Turkey Pen Peak. My knee was in disagreement with me from my quick out and back yesterday, so I decided to just relax and keep Bob company while Dreamer, Sheila, Katie and Scatman all made the apparently punishing trek through tick-infested lands.
Eventually Bob retired to his tent for a nap and I explored a nearby saddle and what lay on the other side of it. On the way I discovered a bison carcass just off the trail the gang had taken. On the other side of the saddle, I got to hear a couple sandhill cranes do their best pterodactyl impressions, then made my way back to camp. Here's some of what I saw...
not the best image of the carcass, but I was intrigued by the left-rear foot cleaned to the bone. scatman said it was still producing a good amount of scent when he and Katie revisited it the following day. I noticed a bit of scent, but not much. My nose is probably shot.
intrigued by the shades of green
I'm a sucker for lines
dappled light among the trees
I was pretty amazed by the birds in this area. They were actively singing, chanting and overall, likely protesting to my presence through the night, making it seem almost rain-forest like.
The next day, we were up and at em, had a nice breakfast and then it was off for a lovely, short two mile hike to the summit of Mount Everts. The weather on this day was the most temperamental of the days we had out there, going from rain to full-on sunshine in no time. Nonetheless, the weather was not what Bob had prepped us for with huge downpours, and we were all grateful for that.
beautiful country on the way...
On the way, a short period of rain caught us. Bob made his way to under a pine tree to stay dry, I followed...the rest of the group rain geared up, then proceeded off in an unexpected direction. Bob and I were going to take a direct route up, unbeknownst to us, the route we were going to take was not the route to the summit. So I joined up with the group while Bob planned on meeting up with this on the other side of a ridge. As I met up with the group, they were onto a black bear in a marsh, so we stood there watching it explore the marsh. Meanwhile, Bob was somewhere above us on the ridge, when an interesting conversation began.
Bob - "BEAR!"
.
.
.
Bob - "Black bear!"
.
.
.
Bob - "Bout a half mile away!"
.
.
.
Bob - "It's coming toward you!"
.
.
.
Bob - "Bunch of elk on the ridge!"
Eventually, the bear tired of listening to Bob have a conversation with himself and retired away from us and the marsh, and we proceeded up to the summit.
Bob the Bear
We reached the summit as another brief, mellow rain had struck and headed off. Sheila and I concluded this was the longest two mile trek ever, and seriously doubted the calibration of the scatman's GPS.
Moisture does a wonderful job of saturating colors of the landscape, and I noticed the brilliant oranges in a tree stump at the summit, but selfishly decided to eat a peanut butter and honey tortilla, some Cheez-Its and chocolate, and generally loaf around before getting around to taking the picture. At this point, the sun was out and had been for a bit, drying the stump and stripping the wonderful saturation of the oranges. I like to tell myself I won't make that mistake again, but "the lazy" in me has resulted in that mistake over and over and over and over again. Maybe some day my stubbornness will diminish...
everyone leaving cairns...
the man, the myth, the legend (Bob) - likely planning an even more sadistic journey to torture scatman
kilt-wearing wildlife at the summit
Electric Peak - peaking out from the clouds
scatman said that just around a bend of trees was the cliffs and a great view of Mammoth Springs and Osprey Falls. I headed over there, checked out the views, snapped a couple photos that aren't all that different from those already posted, but I did see this compelling view of the clouds over the landscape to the north/northwest.
The trip back was fairly uneventful. We saw our friend, the bear I've dubbed Bob, as well as another pair - a black and cinnamon, as listed in scatman's report. Just after seeing Bob the Bear, I noticed a large tree stump that was riddled with woodpecker holes, and meandered over for an image that I've titled Scream, a la Edvard Munch's famous painting.
Scream
We also saw a couple muleys on the way down. The mosquitos actually became pretty active for a while on the way down and I was tempted to put my head net on one of my hands as I've never been bitten that much on the top of my hands.
We got a bit of rain coming as dinner concluded that evening, and the scat family headed to the tent for an early sleep. Bob, Dreamer and I stayed up so Bob and Dreamer could continue to kid me about my pack weight, bringing too much food, and the weight of each of my items. At this point, a grizzly bear took pity on me and decided to make its presence known just on the other side of where my tent initially was. (I'd moved it the second day as I was closer to the creek than I initially thought)
I woke up early to see what kind of light we'd get, and was pleasantly surprised by a mist covering the valley. I fired off a couple of images before the mist burned off.
the grizz was just on the other side of those trees, (looking south) about to enter the meadow when it noticed us, turned around, and bolted back into the forest
last remnants of mist, looking north
the trip out was uneventful with dreams of more Tony Chocolonely, but I did take particular notice of this tree on the way in and decided to photograph it on the way out.
If you ever have a chance to spend time with scatman, bob or dreamer, it's a fantastic experience. The wealth of knowledge they have of areas in the American West is incredible, and they're good people on top of it all. I thoroughly enjoyed my time all of them along with Sheila and Katie.
Yellowstone holds a very dear place in my heart. When I was little, my family would pack up the car with our camping gear each summer, come out west (sometimes go east) from Chicago, camp for a few weeks and explore many of the National Parks, Monuments, Forests, etc. Yellowstone was always my favorite trip from all of those trips, and likely a primary reason why I so love the natural world. As such, it's a place that reminds me of my parents, and particularly my dad. I feel very close to him whenever I'm here, but this was my first opportunity to get as close to the park as a backcountry trip allows. And this allowed me to feel even closer to my hero. I would have said this at the TH, but then I would have likely gotten emotional, and a weepy ImNotDedYet is not something anyone wants to see. But a profound thanks to scat and his family from the depths of my heart for allowing me to tag along, experience the park even more intimately, get some confidence in the Yellowstone backcountry, and feel closer to my pops. (and for suggesting Slough Creek as a couple days to add onto the experience!)
Morale incredibly high!
I'm not much of a trip report writer here, or anywhere really, so bear with me. I'm also not accustomed to taking photos to document my trip, so some of the images you see may make you say, hmmmmmm...Some of these were images were taken with my Sony A7R3, and others with my cell phone. I can use my Sony (and most any other DSLR) in my sleep, along with my numerous film cameras, but I've incredibly never really bothered trying to learn how to take pictures with my phone. Nonetheless, here's my accounts of the trip to Rescue Creek with @scatman, @Bob, @Dreamer and scatman's incredibly patient family for putting up with us.
The trip really starts a week prior in Denver. I was returning home from the gym when I noticed scatman's business expanding into the Denver area.
This HAD to be a good omen, no? Morale is high!
Like Uncle Scat, I'm a big proponent of tradition, and love to stop at the Buffalo restaurant in Laramie, WY when I'm headed north. It's a couple hours out from Denver, has good food, and usually is about lunch time when I hit Laramie. I guess I should have noticed by the employees and clientele, that the restaurant had changed. It's still called the Buffalo, but it's now an Indian restaurant. Now, I like - even love Indian food - though I had not taken into account the fact I'd be in a car for the next six hours. Lesson learned. (and it's now apparently called Buffalo Indian restaurant) Morale decreasing...
Upon arriving just east of Grand Teton at my second traditional stop: the Hatchet Campground and setting up my tent, the host asked if I had bear spray and indicated they had "bear issues" already this year. Good omen certainly worn off. I slept in my car...close to morale-less. (though a Nuggets win did keep some morale)
I woke up early to see what Mrs. Nature had setup photography-wise in the Tetons.
Meh 1
Meh 2
Back to the Hatchet for more tradition and a breakfast at the Lodge.
I have a horrible habit of being intrigued by any landmarks with the word artist or inspiration in their titles/names, and have long wanted to hike to Inspiration Point in Grand Teton, so I figured a quickie to warm up the legs would be good prior to meeting up with the gang. The hiking trail around the lake is nice, but reminiscent of walking on 16th St in downtown Denver. Once you reach the point the boat drops off loads of people at the base of Inspiration Point, it's as if you're approaching Ball Arena for Game 5 of the Denver Nuggets Championship Series. Needless to say, the hike to the point was not very inspirational to me, and I didn't find much inspiration at the point itself, which included fifty or so of my best friends.
I did see this little one and its mom along the way. (along with the back of a woman's ear) Morale on the upswing!
I hightailed it out of there to get back to the car, head north to meat up with Dreamer at Bridge Bay campground in Yellowstone...but on the way, I needed to fulfill a promise I made to myself. scatman being the heavy spoon connoisseur he is, I needed to make sure to gift him with a new heavy spoon for his collection for allowing me to tag along. I stopped at the Jenny Lake gift shop looking for a spoon, also picked up a hat for myself, a sweatshirt for the girlfriend, a couple of huckleberry chap sticks and a huckleberry chocolate bar. "$215, please", says the lady checking me out. I was wondering if she was charging me for my trekking poles, or perhaps my backpack as well? I didn't have my glasses on, so truthfully I had no idea what any of the items cost (nor could I tell) and I figured I'd just look at the receipt outside once I reached the car and my glasses. It turns out the sweatshirt was a $145 sweatshirt - more than I've paid for, for any piece of clothing other than a puffy or good rain shell. Ouch! Morale depleted.
the offending sweatshirt, and idiot who purchased it (image courtesy of Dreamer) - apparently it's hand painted or something...
Finally made it to the campground and campsite, met up with Dreamer for some dinner and a fire. When it was time to hit the sack, my neighbor was apparently an extremely loud snorer. Slept in the car...
Headed to the Bridge Bay Ranger's Office for the permit for Slough Creek days following the Rescue Creek trip, but they were having "connection issues" and suggested either waiting fifteen minutes or so, or hitting the station at Tower instead. Tower it was as I was already a bit behind, where the ranger explained we were to bury stool 6 - 8 feet deep, to which I inquired if she was expecting me to poop humans? She giggled sheepishly and said inches, not feet.
Off to the Blacktail Creek TH to meet up with the gang. Made quick introductions as everyone else was close to ready, and off we went.
The ground was just wet enough to see fresh prints on the way to our site, and there were plenty of wolf prints, one BIG set and at least one other smaller set along the way. We never saw or heard from any wolves out there, but they're out there.
I'd been eyeing this ridge for a while, looking for a composition I liked. This worked...
Hairy Clematis is what scat calls these I think - shaped similar to bluebells we have in CO, but much larger, deeper saturation, and fuzzy!
Upon reaching campsite 1A2 scat gathered the troops for a trip to Turkey Pen Peak. My knee was in disagreement with me from my quick out and back yesterday, so I decided to just relax and keep Bob company while Dreamer, Sheila, Katie and Scatman all made the apparently punishing trek through tick-infested lands.
Eventually Bob retired to his tent for a nap and I explored a nearby saddle and what lay on the other side of it. On the way I discovered a bison carcass just off the trail the gang had taken. On the other side of the saddle, I got to hear a couple sandhill cranes do their best pterodactyl impressions, then made my way back to camp. Here's some of what I saw...
not the best image of the carcass, but I was intrigued by the left-rear foot cleaned to the bone. scatman said it was still producing a good amount of scent when he and Katie revisited it the following day. I noticed a bit of scent, but not much. My nose is probably shot.
intrigued by the shades of green
I'm a sucker for lines
dappled light among the trees
I was pretty amazed by the birds in this area. They were actively singing, chanting and overall, likely protesting to my presence through the night, making it seem almost rain-forest like.
The next day, we were up and at em, had a nice breakfast and then it was off for a lovely, short two mile hike to the summit of Mount Everts. The weather on this day was the most temperamental of the days we had out there, going from rain to full-on sunshine in no time. Nonetheless, the weather was not what Bob had prepped us for with huge downpours, and we were all grateful for that.
beautiful country on the way...
On the way, a short period of rain caught us. Bob made his way to under a pine tree to stay dry, I followed...the rest of the group rain geared up, then proceeded off in an unexpected direction. Bob and I were going to take a direct route up, unbeknownst to us, the route we were going to take was not the route to the summit. So I joined up with the group while Bob planned on meeting up with this on the other side of a ridge. As I met up with the group, they were onto a black bear in a marsh, so we stood there watching it explore the marsh. Meanwhile, Bob was somewhere above us on the ridge, when an interesting conversation began.
Bob - "BEAR!"
.
.
.
Bob - "Black bear!"
.
.
.
Bob - "Bout a half mile away!"
.
.
.
Bob - "It's coming toward you!"
.
.
.
Bob - "Bunch of elk on the ridge!"
Eventually, the bear tired of listening to Bob have a conversation with himself and retired away from us and the marsh, and we proceeded up to the summit.
Bob the Bear
We reached the summit as another brief, mellow rain had struck and headed off. Sheila and I concluded this was the longest two mile trek ever, and seriously doubted the calibration of the scatman's GPS.
Moisture does a wonderful job of saturating colors of the landscape, and I noticed the brilliant oranges in a tree stump at the summit, but selfishly decided to eat a peanut butter and honey tortilla, some Cheez-Its and chocolate, and generally loaf around before getting around to taking the picture. At this point, the sun was out and had been for a bit, drying the stump and stripping the wonderful saturation of the oranges. I like to tell myself I won't make that mistake again, but "the lazy" in me has resulted in that mistake over and over and over and over again. Maybe some day my stubbornness will diminish...
everyone leaving cairns...
the man, the myth, the legend (Bob) - likely planning an even more sadistic journey to torture scatman
kilt-wearing wildlife at the summit
Electric Peak - peaking out from the clouds
scatman said that just around a bend of trees was the cliffs and a great view of Mammoth Springs and Osprey Falls. I headed over there, checked out the views, snapped a couple photos that aren't all that different from those already posted, but I did see this compelling view of the clouds over the landscape to the north/northwest.
The trip back was fairly uneventful. We saw our friend, the bear I've dubbed Bob, as well as another pair - a black and cinnamon, as listed in scatman's report. Just after seeing Bob the Bear, I noticed a large tree stump that was riddled with woodpecker holes, and meandered over for an image that I've titled Scream, a la Edvard Munch's famous painting.
Scream
We also saw a couple muleys on the way down. The mosquitos actually became pretty active for a while on the way down and I was tempted to put my head net on one of my hands as I've never been bitten that much on the top of my hands.
We got a bit of rain coming as dinner concluded that evening, and the scat family headed to the tent for an early sleep. Bob, Dreamer and I stayed up so Bob and Dreamer could continue to kid me about my pack weight, bringing too much food, and the weight of each of my items. At this point, a grizzly bear took pity on me and decided to make its presence known just on the other side of where my tent initially was. (I'd moved it the second day as I was closer to the creek than I initially thought)
I woke up early to see what kind of light we'd get, and was pleasantly surprised by a mist covering the valley. I fired off a couple of images before the mist burned off.
the grizz was just on the other side of those trees, (looking south) about to enter the meadow when it noticed us, turned around, and bolted back into the forest
last remnants of mist, looking north
the trip out was uneventful with dreams of more Tony Chocolonely, but I did take particular notice of this tree on the way in and decided to photograph it on the way out.
If you ever have a chance to spend time with scatman, bob or dreamer, it's a fantastic experience. The wealth of knowledge they have of areas in the American West is incredible, and they're good people on top of it all. I thoroughly enjoyed my time all of them along with Sheila and Katie.
Yellowstone holds a very dear place in my heart. When I was little, my family would pack up the car with our camping gear each summer, come out west (sometimes go east) from Chicago, camp for a few weeks and explore many of the National Parks, Monuments, Forests, etc. Yellowstone was always my favorite trip from all of those trips, and likely a primary reason why I so love the natural world. As such, it's a place that reminds me of my parents, and particularly my dad. I feel very close to him whenever I'm here, but this was my first opportunity to get as close to the park as a backcountry trip allows. And this allowed me to feel even closer to my hero. I would have said this at the TH, but then I would have likely gotten emotional, and a weepy ImNotDedYet is not something anyone wants to see. But a profound thanks to scat and his family from the depths of my heart for allowing me to tag along, experience the park even more intimately, get some confidence in the Yellowstone backcountry, and feel closer to my pops. (and for suggesting Slough Creek as a couple days to add onto the experience!)
Morale incredibly high!
