Teton Wilderness - 50 miles of High Country - Aug 2022

[Bob]

After the Yellowstone floods washed out our access to the Beartooth's, Scat had me send him some of the 50M routes I have in my archives...... we settled on a Teton Wilderness route I modified to fit 5 nights.

Day started driving to the Trailhead in rain, should say buckets of rain..... but by the time we started hiking in the rain had stopped (temporary).
But it was generally all downhill to Cub Creek ..... in MUD, the gooey, slimy, sticky kind. At least it was mostly downhill. Scat and I were worn out by then, well me a long way before that.... Then more RAIN .... I called quits at about 8 pm..... we were not going to make the preferred camp before dark. Good thing we stooped, found out my headlamp had turned on and was dead.... so my GPS receiver became my light for the trip. All was good cause I reigned in Scat to stop before dark after that....

Books Lake

Scat contemplating a stream crossing

Rainbow Lake

Did I mention MUD?

Into the burns, pretty much an all downhill day

Scat requested the MUD shot, close to a bog but on the vertical side, about 45 deg

South Fork Buffalo River

View from Night 2 camp

Climb out of the South Fork, an all uphill day, 2600 ft up

Ahhhhhh, finally at the top

Night 3 camp

Unnamed lake South of Marston Pass. Had a church school similar to NOLS camped here

Up and up.

Camp 4, high alpine tundra

Morning visitors, total herd of 30 and two big bulls about 300 yds away

More up and down and up and down ..... 4 to be exact

Camp 5, just shy of 10700 ft just below Cresent Mountain

Last day, headed for our biggest downhill of 1650 ft, but there is always a climb back up (this one was 1150 ft) to Bonneville Pass. We bypassed another uphill and picked the easy, timber and downfall (elk trail luckily). In retrospect the uphill would have been better. Darn that Scat ......... might have been me, can't remember.

Down and down

Headed to the Dundee Creek Meadows

View west from Bonneville Pass.

We could smell the barn from here, less than a mile to go, downhill !!!!!!

Scats impression of the trip, I think this is really close to a smile ( I tricked him)

Did I say I hate MUD? I will never complain about a rocky trail again.
I plead no collaboration with any story Scat posts. what I say may or may not be true, can't remember. A great trip, excellent scenery, excellent company ... Now one of my top three places.

 

[TractorDoc]

Beautiful Pictures and Great Report Bob.

I'd say Hugh has a full blown grin in your last picture. His lips only ever slightly part to allow pop tarts or oatmeal to pass.

 

[Georgia Yankee]

Looks like a great trip (except for the mud)! I think I still have some of that mud on my gear from a trip 20 years ago.

 

[The Trout Whisperer]

Love th pics! Looks like a great adventure once again..notice how th Scatman seems to never fall when wearin th kilt…Is that a rainbow 1 I see in the pics?

 

[marquiri]

I've been looking forward to this trip report. I'm hoping one of you has the gps track. I've been wanting to get into the North Fork of the Yellowstone, but have to keep the days/mileage to something that the rest of my group is willing to tackle.

 

[Rockskipper]

Are you sure Scat approved you posting that first photo of him? It reveals that he may just have a tail, which would explain a few things, also the fact that he actually carries a small refrigerator when hiking. And that Scat in Bog photo looks contrived, probably because he's not wearing a kilt, and we all know he never gets bogged down when off kilter.

Other than all that, great TR and you are to be commended for hiking with Scatman, which we all know can add miles to a hike, even if just psychologically, though you gotta love him anyway. Tell him he needs to get a mule.

 

[Kmatjhwy]

Bob, Great Trip Report and photos. Thanks for posting! Such Great Country!

 

[Bob]

Love th pics! Looks like a great adventure once again..notice how th Scatman seems to never fall when wearin th kilt…Is that a rainbow 1 I see in the pics?

Tarptent Bowfin..... Only made them a few years.

 

[Bob]

I've been looking forward to this trip report. I'm hoping one of you has the gps track. I've been wanting to get into the North Fork of the Yellowstone, but have to keep the days/mileage to something that the rest of my group is willing to tackle.

Yes I do.

 

[Bob]

Are you sure Scat approved you posting that first photo of him? It reveals that he may just have a tail, which would explain a few things, also the fact that he actually carries a small refrigerator when hiking. And that Scat in Bog photo looks contrived, probably because he's not wearing a kilt, and we all know he never gets bogged down when off kilter.

Other than all that, great TR and you are to be commended for hiking with Scatman, which we all know can add miles to a hike, even if just psychologically, though you gotta love him anyway. Tell him he needs to get a mule.

There was an outfitter who just came in at the trailhead..... He was trying to figure out how to relieve him of one of his mules for the trip....

 

[scatman]

Great report @Bob! I believe it captures the overall essence of our journey, though I noticed that there are no pictures of you. Don't worry, I'll take care of that when I do my report.

Also, you forgot to tell everyone what a world class "nasty horse trail finder" you are.

Your effort to try and get me to smile was absolutely Herculean! A weaker man would have given up after the first day.

 

[scatman]

Beautiful Pictures and Great Report Bob.

I'd say Hugh has a full blown grin in your last picture. His lips only ever slightly part to allow pop tarts or oatmeal to pass.

Not true! The wind was blowing so hard that it forced the corners of my mouth up ever so slightly.

 

[scatman]

Love th pics! Looks like a great adventure once again..notice how th Scatman seems to never fall when wearin th kilt…Is that a rainbow 1 I see in the pics?

Oh, I've fallen many times in various kilts.

 

[scatman]

I've been looking forward to this trip report. I'm hoping one of you has the gps track. I've been wanting to get into the North Fork of the Yellowstone, but have to keep the days/mileage to something that the rest of my group is willing to tackle.

Are you sure you want Bob's GPS track? He hasn't revealed the stories of the nasty horse trails yet.

 

[scatman]

Are you sure Scat approved you posting that first photo of him? It reveals that he may just have a tail, which would explain a few things, also the fact that he actually carries a small refrigerator when hiking. And that Scat in Bog photo looks contrived, probably because he's not wearing a kilt, and we all know he never gets bogged down when off kilter.

Other than all that, great TR and you are to be commended for hiking with Scatman, which we all know can add miles to a hike, even if just psychologically, though you gotta love him anyway. Tell him he needs to get a mule.

A Scat tail is a treasured, very sought after item you know.

Scatman Down! That fall off the muddy trail was definitely not contrived. I had to hold on to a thorny gooseberry bush to keep from rolling down the steep hill to the South Buffalo Fork. Touch and go there Skipper.

There is a Scatman (actually called the McGirt's) Coefficient that one must be aware of when total miles of a trip are bandied about. Not just total trip miles, but also daily ones fall under the coefficient. Beware.

 

[Rockskipper]

A Scat tail is a treasured, very sought after item you know.

Scatman Down! That fall off the muddy trail was definitely not contrived. I had to hold on to a thorny gooseberry bush to keep from rolling down the steep hill to the South Buffalo Fork. Touch and go there Skipper.

There is a Scatman (actually called the McGirt's) Coefficient that one must be aware of when total miles of a trip are bandied about. Not just total trip miles, but also daily ones fall under the coefficient. Beware.

What you mean is grab and not go. If you’d gone on down to the river it would’ve been a quick way to get rid of all that mud.

 

[scatman]

What you mean is grab and not go. If you’d gone on down to the river it would’ve been a quick way to get rid of all that mud.

And Scatman too!

 

[Bob]

Bad horse trails ......... .where? I thought they were all good.......... piece of cake, well maybe the MUD sucked.

 

[Jackson]

The greatest place on earth! Loved this, and surprised there was that much mud. I'm guessing because of the recent rain? That burn scar between Cub Creek and Pendergraft Meadow looks almost exactly the same as it did 5 years ago. Love how thick the fireweed grows in there.

I was in Jackson over the weekend and I had hoped to be able to go up to Brooks Lake for part of a day, but we ended up not having enough time. Killed me having to drive by the area without getting to go back in there! I really need to make concrete plans to get back out that way next year.

 

[Absarokanaut]

I had a grizzly shadow me at about 250 yards for 45 minutes or so on Crescent Mountain about 15 Septembers ago. It was a big one, always wondered if it was the same one that about made me about poop my pants just down from the Meadows of Bonneville hiking Austin Peak. The classic camp site on Perry N. Boday is probably my favorite horse packing camp in the world. NOLS took over Dundee Meadows after we'd used it many times over decades. Haven't been back there in 10 years or so but the middle of July 2008 woke up to more than an inch of ice in the wash basin. Skeeters came back with a vengeance that afternoon. Pendergraft Meadow was the shizzle in the mid 70s, at 13 I thought it was the end of the world. Knew the legendary outiftter that stocked Angle Lakes in the the 50s. The stories he could tell. Thanks for igniting a lot of great memories.