Joey
walking somewhere
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- Apr 1, 2014
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I did this 3 day backpacking trip back in July. I figured I would post a report in light of the recent bear attack that happened somewhere in the Cub Creek drainage a few weeks ago. But on this trip, horses would create more problems than bears. Trip map can be found here: http://caltopo.com/map?id=5G1D Full trip video below:
Brooks Lake
I had just gotten down to Wyoming, after spending the previous month up in Glacier, and was anxious to get out on the trail with my good friend Ryan. Over a few beers, we ambitiously decided on what appeared to be an easy loop trip in the Teton Wilderness. Cub Mountain was someplace neither of us had been before. Our maps don't show miles, and looking back, it was probably comical to watch us gauge the mileage using our fingers, based on past trips involving the Teton Wilderness map.
Getting started at the Brooks Lake Trailhead
We started on a Friday evening, getting to the Brooks Lake trailhead around 6pm. Brooks Lake, if you haven't seen it, is spectacular. Its a few miles east of Togwotee Pass, in the Shoshone National Forest. Recently, pine bark beetles have killed many of the trees in this area, and as of now the campground on the lake is closed.
View as we rounded Brooks Lake
The mosquitos were in their prime, and we hustled through open meadows, following the creek from Brooks Lake to Upper Brooks Lake.
Me about to ford the creek running between the lakes
Hiking past Upper Brooks Lake
Shortly after, we reached Bear Cub Pass, and entered into the Teton Wilderness. We took a short cut off trail towards Cub Creek, and set up camp in the dark. The skies cleared, a nearly full moon appeared, and we enjoyed a fire. It had taken us just over 2 hours to hike what we figured was around 5 miles. We stayed up late, thinking the next few days were going to be easy, even speculating on doing some side trips with our extra time.
Meadows in the cub Creek drainage
Me at our campfire
Me at our first campsite the following morning
The next morning, we quickly reached cub creek, and followed it up to its headwaters.
Photos along Cub Creek
We found wolf tracks, black bear tracks, and several fresh sets of grizzly tracks that included cubs. Lots of scat as well. Some areas were thick with brush, other sections were open meadows.
A large wolf track, and a bear track
Grizzly scat along cub creek
Me using a log to cross cub creek
Hiking along cub creek.
Hiking through open meadows and wildflowers
As we got near the pass, which I will call Cub Creek Pass, thunderstorms surrounded us and hail began to fall.
Cub Creek Pass (unofficially)
A video from the pass. I'm much more worried about the weather than Ryan.
It soon turned to rain, and would soak us the rest of the day. We dropped down into a beautiful, open valley, and soon were following the South Buffalo Fork river.
The view dropping down from the pass
Hail falling as we make our way down
Continuing down the drainage
We had to cross the creek a few times, which was difficult. It then began to dawn on us that we had several more crossings, farther down river, that were definitely faster and deeper. We had a large bull elk pass by pretty close to the trail. We encountered a few sections of recent fire burn, as we rounded around Cub Mountain, and made our way west.
Elk
Hiking in beautiful meadows along the South Buffalo
Looking back up the South Buffalo
We reached a series of river crossings, which the map showed 7 over the course of a few miles. I knew right away it wasn't doable. We couldn't see the bottom in places, and the water was way too fast. We decided to bush whack along the southern side of the river. This proved difficult, and several times we had to climb up several hundred feet to continue on. By the time we reached the trail again, it was close to dark. We found a meadow to camp along, and set up camp in the rain.
The South Buffalo Fork
Following the river edge, avoiding having to cross
Dropping back down to the trail from a fire burned ridge
It finally quit raining right before dark, and we started cooking dinner next to a tree in the meadows. We noticed horses grazing, and smoke burning at the other end. The horses started moving towards us, and it soon became obvious they were intrigued by our presence. I walked away for a few minutes, and when I came back, was surprised to see them only 20 feet away. Ryan was standing up, and asked "do horses attack?" We laughed, but quickly retreated. The horses stormed our food, ripping apart my food bag, chewing on everything, destroying a few of my cooking items. Thinking back, I don't remember why I wasn't filming.
A view of camp from our food prep tree. Shortly before the horses showed up.
I don't know much about horses, but there was definitely 2 horses that were the leaders. They kept growling at us, pacing back and forth starring us down, in front of the other horses who were eating our dinner behind them. A few times they gave us that old "EEEEEE" while standing up on their back legs. We weren't really sure what to do. We left, and eventually they retreated. We came back later in the dark using our headlamps to gather up what was left of our food, and hang it from a tree.
Horses across the meadow we camped on
My tent drenched in the rain
I've spent countless nights in grizzly country, laying awake listening to every noise intently, worried about bears. But this was the first time I worried about horses. They hung around our tent, frequently letting out a low growling sound. Once they stampeded off, causing both of us to jump up inside the tent. Eventually, the horses went to sleep.
In the morning, we set off for Brooks Lake. According to Ryan's phone, which tracks your steps, we had hiked 20 miles the previous day. And it looked to be about the same back to our car. We ran into the outfitter who owned the horses, and he showed us a short cut route that wasn't on the maps. We weren't to sure we trusted him, since the outfitters in the Teton Wilderness tend to not always like hikers/backpackers. We followed the trail to several beautiful lakes, which included Rainbow, Golden, Bertha, and Mackinaw Lakes. We saw several trout swimming around, and Ryan rigged up his go pro to his trekking pole with cord, to film them swimming by.
Setting off along the trail on day 3
Trout swimming in Mackinaw Lake
Bertha Lake
Bertha Lake
Golden Lake. We had to cross the lake to follow our "short cut" trail
Mackinaw Lake
At Golden Lake, we followed the drainage up to Mackinaw Lake, and continued along the "short cut" trail our outfitter buddy had told us about. It was actually in great shape, and ended up cutting some time off our day. We reached the Angle Lakes Trail, and followed that around the western side of Cub Mountain. At first we were mostly hiking through fire burn, but later encountered open vistas and beautiful meadows. The prettiest spot of the trail is right were it drops down to Cub Creek.
Meadows along the trail
Ryan crossing Trail Creek
Where the trail drops down into the Cub Creek drainage
Overlooking the Cub Creek drainage
Another video from along the trail dropping into the drainage
Me crossing Cub Creek, using my tripod for support
We continued on back up to Bear Cub Pass, and then down past the Brooks Lake chain, making it to the car just before 8pm. I was completely exhausted, and had no energy to fight off the mosquitos. According to Ryan's phone, our trip was just over 46 miles.
Looking down at Upper Brooks Lake
Reaching Upper Brooks Lake, just outside the wilderness boundary
View as we hiked out
Me somehow managing to smile near the end of the trip
The end!
Featured image for home page:
Brooks Lake
I had just gotten down to Wyoming, after spending the previous month up in Glacier, and was anxious to get out on the trail with my good friend Ryan. Over a few beers, we ambitiously decided on what appeared to be an easy loop trip in the Teton Wilderness. Cub Mountain was someplace neither of us had been before. Our maps don't show miles, and looking back, it was probably comical to watch us gauge the mileage using our fingers, based on past trips involving the Teton Wilderness map.
Getting started at the Brooks Lake Trailhead
We started on a Friday evening, getting to the Brooks Lake trailhead around 6pm. Brooks Lake, if you haven't seen it, is spectacular. Its a few miles east of Togwotee Pass, in the Shoshone National Forest. Recently, pine bark beetles have killed many of the trees in this area, and as of now the campground on the lake is closed.
View as we rounded Brooks Lake
The mosquitos were in their prime, and we hustled through open meadows, following the creek from Brooks Lake to Upper Brooks Lake.
Me about to ford the creek running between the lakes
Hiking past Upper Brooks Lake
Shortly after, we reached Bear Cub Pass, and entered into the Teton Wilderness. We took a short cut off trail towards Cub Creek, and set up camp in the dark. The skies cleared, a nearly full moon appeared, and we enjoyed a fire. It had taken us just over 2 hours to hike what we figured was around 5 miles. We stayed up late, thinking the next few days were going to be easy, even speculating on doing some side trips with our extra time.
Meadows in the cub Creek drainage
Me at our campfire
Me at our first campsite the following morning
The next morning, we quickly reached cub creek, and followed it up to its headwaters.
Photos along Cub Creek
We found wolf tracks, black bear tracks, and several fresh sets of grizzly tracks that included cubs. Lots of scat as well. Some areas were thick with brush, other sections were open meadows.
A large wolf track, and a bear track
Grizzly scat along cub creek
Me using a log to cross cub creek
Hiking along cub creek.
Hiking through open meadows and wildflowers
As we got near the pass, which I will call Cub Creek Pass, thunderstorms surrounded us and hail began to fall.
Cub Creek Pass (unofficially)
A video from the pass. I'm much more worried about the weather than Ryan.
It soon turned to rain, and would soak us the rest of the day. We dropped down into a beautiful, open valley, and soon were following the South Buffalo Fork river.
The view dropping down from the pass
Hail falling as we make our way down
Continuing down the drainage
We had to cross the creek a few times, which was difficult. It then began to dawn on us that we had several more crossings, farther down river, that were definitely faster and deeper. We had a large bull elk pass by pretty close to the trail. We encountered a few sections of recent fire burn, as we rounded around Cub Mountain, and made our way west.
Elk
Hiking in beautiful meadows along the South Buffalo
Looking back up the South Buffalo
We reached a series of river crossings, which the map showed 7 over the course of a few miles. I knew right away it wasn't doable. We couldn't see the bottom in places, and the water was way too fast. We decided to bush whack along the southern side of the river. This proved difficult, and several times we had to climb up several hundred feet to continue on. By the time we reached the trail again, it was close to dark. We found a meadow to camp along, and set up camp in the rain.
The South Buffalo Fork
Following the river edge, avoiding having to cross
Dropping back down to the trail from a fire burned ridge
It finally quit raining right before dark, and we started cooking dinner next to a tree in the meadows. We noticed horses grazing, and smoke burning at the other end. The horses started moving towards us, and it soon became obvious they were intrigued by our presence. I walked away for a few minutes, and when I came back, was surprised to see them only 20 feet away. Ryan was standing up, and asked "do horses attack?" We laughed, but quickly retreated. The horses stormed our food, ripping apart my food bag, chewing on everything, destroying a few of my cooking items. Thinking back, I don't remember why I wasn't filming.
A view of camp from our food prep tree. Shortly before the horses showed up.
I don't know much about horses, but there was definitely 2 horses that were the leaders. They kept growling at us, pacing back and forth starring us down, in front of the other horses who were eating our dinner behind them. A few times they gave us that old "EEEEEE" while standing up on their back legs. We weren't really sure what to do. We left, and eventually they retreated. We came back later in the dark using our headlamps to gather up what was left of our food, and hang it from a tree.
Horses across the meadow we camped on
My tent drenched in the rain
I've spent countless nights in grizzly country, laying awake listening to every noise intently, worried about bears. But this was the first time I worried about horses. They hung around our tent, frequently letting out a low growling sound. Once they stampeded off, causing both of us to jump up inside the tent. Eventually, the horses went to sleep.
In the morning, we set off for Brooks Lake. According to Ryan's phone, which tracks your steps, we had hiked 20 miles the previous day. And it looked to be about the same back to our car. We ran into the outfitter who owned the horses, and he showed us a short cut route that wasn't on the maps. We weren't to sure we trusted him, since the outfitters in the Teton Wilderness tend to not always like hikers/backpackers. We followed the trail to several beautiful lakes, which included Rainbow, Golden, Bertha, and Mackinaw Lakes. We saw several trout swimming around, and Ryan rigged up his go pro to his trekking pole with cord, to film them swimming by.
Setting off along the trail on day 3
Trout swimming in Mackinaw Lake
Bertha Lake
Bertha Lake
Golden Lake. We had to cross the lake to follow our "short cut" trail
Mackinaw Lake
At Golden Lake, we followed the drainage up to Mackinaw Lake, and continued along the "short cut" trail our outfitter buddy had told us about. It was actually in great shape, and ended up cutting some time off our day. We reached the Angle Lakes Trail, and followed that around the western side of Cub Mountain. At first we were mostly hiking through fire burn, but later encountered open vistas and beautiful meadows. The prettiest spot of the trail is right were it drops down to Cub Creek.
Meadows along the trail
Ryan crossing Trail Creek
Where the trail drops down into the Cub Creek drainage
Overlooking the Cub Creek drainage
Another video from along the trail dropping into the drainage
Me crossing Cub Creek, using my tripod for support
We continued on back up to Bear Cub Pass, and then down past the Brooks Lake chain, making it to the car just before 8pm. I was completely exhausted, and had no energy to fight off the mosquitos. According to Ryan's phone, our trip was just over 46 miles.
Looking down at Upper Brooks Lake
Reaching Upper Brooks Lake, just outside the wilderness boundary
View as we hiked out
Me somehow managing to smile near the end of the trip
The end!
Featured image for home page:
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Seriously though, I might be able to work it in on a Columbus Day trip in the future.
