Even
before I’d moved to the Black Hills, I’d been introduced to Wyoming’s Bighorn
Mountains with a five day backpacking trip in1986 that included a climb of
Cloud Peak, highest in the range (Bighorns). The surrounding
Cloud Peak Wilderness has a huge alpine area, great trail system, and lot of
awesome walk up peaks. With so many great climbs in the Bighorn, Hesse Mountain
isn’t a likely candidate for one’s first choice for a peak bagging trip. Hesse
and its counterparts and south of US 16 are smaller, less alpine, and much less
coveted than the high rocky summits to the north in the Wilderness. But Hesse
and the Hazletons poke alluringly above the highway to tempt early season hikers.
North Peak from West Ridge.
During my time in the Black Hills, I was competing in triathlons, combining my running and biking with some easy access to the local YMCA’s swimming pool. My favorite of the standard run-bike-swim races was the Buffalo (WY) Triathlon, held at the base of the Bighorn Mountains in early June. It was too far to drive to Buffalo for just one day, so I tried to stay overnight after the race, and leverage this access to the big mountains for recovery play day in the Bighorns.
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| On Hesse Mountain. |
6-3-89
The
previous year, I drove over to Buffalo with my friends Craig and Stacey. The
Sunday after the 1988 race we’d hiked the spectacular route from West Tensleep
into Lost Twin Lakes. 1989 was a much snowier spring, so getting to the heart
of the Bighorns would have to wait. I’d already tried to hike in solo to Lake
Helen the previous weekend, and only had frustrated myself post holing through
the deep snow. But on the drive in I’d noticed the cluster of smaller summits
south of US 16 centered around Hazleton Peak. These looked like good options
for a moderate, early season trip.
This
year Tod joined me for the trip. We started the weekend with what would be the
second of five consecutive Buffalo Triathlons. I finished 9th
overall in 1:31:10, typical time for me in that race. I started with a slow run
leg in a light rain, but was able to push the pace on the bike. Though some of
the better bikes were still pulling away from me on the descents. I passed Tod
at mile 4 of the bike, when he stopped to retrieve a dropped water bottle. The
swim leg went well, and I even able to finish with a bit of a sprint.
Postrace,
we spent the rest of the afternoon driving through the cloudy Bighorns and through
intermittent snow flurries. There was still enough winter snow to close many of
the USFS roads. Sitting Bull CG was closed, but we found a short nature trail
on the west side and managed to walk it for a ¼ mile. We also walked about a
mile south on the road along the North Fork of the Powder River (FS 29) to
scout Hazleton Peak, which would be our objective on Sunday.
We
ate dinner at the restaurant at Meadowlark Lake, and camped at the Island Park
CG on FS 27 going toward West Tensleep. From the CG I walked about a mile north
up the road looking for the trail shown on the TI Map heading toward East
Tensleep, but never did find it. I ended up turning around by some cabins.
There were only two other groups in the CG that night.
6-4-89
At
the time, Tod and I were working together at Homestake Mine in the Black Hills.
The union workers were voting over the weekend on their next contract, and if
they went on strike we’d need to head back ASAP. We called a friend from work
that morning and got the good news that the contract was accepted, and so we
were free to hike for the day, and could be back on Monday as usual. From our
recon the day before, Hazleton Peak had looked relatively snow free, so we
decided to try and climb it first.
We
parked at a gate on FS 29 near Powder River Pass and walked about three miles
south on the FS Road, passing an old, abandoned car along the way. We then
turned east off the road, walked up a meadow, and eventually reached the
clearcut we had seen from the road. We chose the clear cut because there was
only a thin strip of trees (presumably hiding a belt of deeper snow) between it
and the nearly snow free timberline.
Tod on Hesse.
The
weather was still lousy, cloud line was close to 10,000’, and we couldn’t see
any of the peaks around us. We walked through boulders and snow patches up to
the summit at 10,300’ or so. But, even on a smaller peak, the fresh snow and
clouds left us feeling high and exposed.
Approaching the top of Hesse.
From the top we turned north on the connecting ridge toward an unnamed peak between Hazleton and Hesse, its neighbor to the north. A bit of clearing then gave us bad news. There were no peaks to the north, instead there were two more to the south. We were not on Hazleton Peak, but had climbed Hesse instead. The silver lining was that we now got a nice view of Hazleton Peak sitting smugly to our south. Luckily, there was no GPS or Sat Nav back then to deprive us of the surprise of ending up on the wrong peak.
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| Hazleton Peak from Hesse. |
Stronger climbers would have turned south for Hazleton, determined to make their summit goal, and prepared for a long slog back to the car. But we turned north toward the truck, tails between our legs. We descended the first ridge to our west. We went back through some meadows, and crossed two old logging roads before reaching FS 29. It was a humbling for me, especially after my struggles in the snow the previous weekend. But at least it was a fun climb of a lonely peak. And with two consecutive rough trips behind me, I felt I was due for good luck on my next venture into the Bighorns.
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| Spoiler Alert; Hesse and the Hazletons. |
