This
was my fourth year heading over to the Bighorns for an early season trip. Again,
I would race in the Buffalo Triathlon, and then day hike as a recovery from the
race. I finished the race in 1:29:02, narrowly my best time for that course,
and good enough for 6th place out of 24 soloists.
Hazleton Pyramid and Hazleton Peak from the east.
6-8-91
I
drove over on Friday night and stayed at the Bighorn Motel. Unfortunately, the
room was close to the highway with lots of truck noise. I’d raced hard the
previous weekend at the Caputa Biathlon, and had a poor week of training since
then, so I was a bit worried about my fitness. The course was a 4.2 mile road
run, a 20K road bike leg, and a half mile swim in the pool. My stomach was
tight all through the run, but was better by the bike leg where I was able to
hold my position. The swim leg was “awful”, and I was tired enough to bail out
of several of the flip turns. I felt like I was moving at the pace of
continental drift. But when it was over I’d I had new personal records in all
three stages, and my highest overall place.
My
options for the rest of the weekend were limited. I’d called the Sports Lure
and they had told me there was still lots of snow, and that any travel was best
suited for snowshoes. After failing in 1989 on the Hazletons, I thought I might
try them again, hoping that the lower elevation would mean much less snow. I
drove west on US 16 up into the mountains. My notes are incomplete, and I
didn’t mark my access route on a map, but the notes say I drove 4.1 miles down
the Poison Creek Road to the head of the North Fork of Crazy Woman Creek. This
probably meant taking the Hazleton Road (FS 32, then County 3) south from US
16, then mostly likely FS 486 west from the old Hazleton town site. This gave
me a short route from the east side of the peak.
I
had intended to just camp at the trailhead and climb the next day, but the
peaks looked close, the weather was good, and it was only 2PM. Basically my
plan was to hike west through an old clear cut, then up a steep wooded slope,
hoping to hit the east ridge of the peak. Unfortunately, there was a fair
amount of snow in this section, and I was reminded of the joys of post holing.
I was able to break out on the ridge on track and made it to the summit after
only 1:15 of hiking. I found the USGS marker and took some pictures. It felt
good to have made the summit, especially after ending up on Hesse by mistake
two years ago. The main part of the Bighorns was still snow covered, but the
tower on much closer Sheep Mtn. caught my eye.
From
Hazleton I headed for Hazleton Pyramid, the southernmost mountain in the group.
The descent off the Hazleton Peak was very steep, but typical Bighorns rock
hopping. The col between the two looked to be campable. I didn’t see any sign
of grazing here. The climb up the Pyramid was easier than the descent to it.
But I was too tired by then to really enjoy the top. It was just an excuse to
take a break.
The
Pyramid has an indistinct north ridge
which looked to lead me down to Crazy Woman Creek and my pickup. I
managed to keep out of most of the trees and deeper snow on the descent. Just
before the knobs shown in the E1/2 of Section 25 I ran out of open ridge, but
this was at about 8,800’ which was about snowline. I did one swim through about 25 yards of deep mush, but that
was as bad as it got. From the knobs it was a great walk through open woods to
the middle fork, and then across the clear cut back to the pickup for a total
of 7 miles and 2100’ of climb. There was one guy parked near where I started. I
spotted a crossing a creek near the highway.
I
spent the night at the Bighorn NF Lost Cabin Campground and slept like a rock.
The Hazletons and Hesse Mountain.
6-9-91
After
all my work the day before, I needed an easier day and decided to hike up the
road (FS 28) to the tower on Sheep Mountain. It took an hour to reach Merle
Creek, and 1:30 to reach where SMB Trail J branched east. The top at 9,610’ was
only another ten minutes farther, and maybe a total of 5 miles from the
highway. The road was clear of snow to 9,400’. I took pictures Hesse and the
Hazletons, but the views north into the wilderness were disappointing. The
tower had a stone base and wooden top.
On
the return hike I noticed SMB Trail K leaving to the east, about 0.5 mile from
the highway, and SMB Trail J entering from the west just a tenth or two from
the road. I talked with a couple with Lawernce County SD plates who said they
had driven almost all the way to the top.
The
next year would be my last race at Buffalo. 1992 was an earlier spring, so I
was able to hike into Lake Helen after the race, and did not make any more visits to the
Hazleton-Hesse-Sheep Mtn Group.
The road up Sheep Mountain.
