From college in the late 1970s through the mid-1990s most of
my vacation trips were backpacking adventures with my friend Buddy Koonce.
Buddy and I had met in 1976 while we both were through hiking the Appalachian
Trail. We joined up the next summer to complete Vermont’s Long Trail, and then
again the following year to through hike New York’s Northville-Lake Placid
Trail. After college we both moved out west and were lucky to keep in touch.
We used those trips to explore many of the great mountain ranges of the US, from the Sierras and Cascades on the Pacific Crest Trail, to rugged Rocky Mountain ranges such as the Wind Rivers, Uintas, and Beartooths, as well as some of the canyon country of southern Utah. We often targeted the state highpoints of the western US for our trips, and were usually gone a week or more on these adventures.
I am using this blog to archive descriptions of some of my
most impactful trips, obviously I was not blogging back in 1991. In 2020, going
back over my notes, maps, and slides from our Beartooth trip, I realized this
was probably the most ambitious of the trips in this series, and that it was
now a good time to make a digital record of it before my memory of these events
faded. The main images I have from the trip are a few old slides, I’ll add
those to the blog if I ever get them digitized. I was able to scan a few prints
that I’d made, so my apologies for the poor image quality of what is posted so
far.
During the 8 day trip we traversed most of the range, were
more often than not off trail, and climbed two of the three highest peaks in
Montana. I was in very good backpacking shape that year. Over the fourth of
July I’d spent four days backpacking in the Spanish Peaks, and had spent a week
earlier in August peakbagging 14ers in Colorado. And most importantly in July I’d
finished my first ultramarathon, the Deadwood Trail 50 miler.
Friday 8-30-91
I left work at the Homestake Mine in Lead, SD at 3:45 and
drove to the Billings, MT airport arriving around 9PM. Buddy, James, and Mary
had just flown in from Tennessee and Tod had just driven over from Gardiner, MT
where he was working at the Jardine Gold Mine. I knew Tod from working with him
a for a few years at Homestake, but had not met James and Mary previously.
However, they had through hiked much of the AT together the previous year while
on leave from their work.
We spent the rest of the evening looking over maps to choose
a route. We had copies of the official 1:100,000 USFS Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness
map, and a set of custom 1:67,000 maps by
Ralph Saunders from Rocky Mountain Surveys that showed off trail paths and
routes. We settled on a shuttle route from Beartooth Pass to Mystic Lake that
would maximize our time on the high alpine plateaus and allow us to try to
climb Granite Peak, Montana’s highest point.
We drove south out of Billings through Red Lodge to the
first USFS campground at Sheridan, and slept there.
Saturday 8-31-91
In the morning we went back into Red Lodge for breakfast,
then I drove Buddy, James, and Mary over Beartooth Pass and dropped them at
around 10:45 off with my extra wilderness map at Hauser Lake Trailhead. Then Tod
and I drove our pickups over to the Mystic Lake Trailhead to spot a car for our
shuttle. The road beyond the end of the pavement into Mystic Lake was very bad
with deep wash boards and lots of dust, but there were about 50 cars already
there. We left my truck there, and headed back to Beartooth Pass. Back at the Hauser
Lake Trailhead Tod was confused about where I had dropped the others off. His
more recent wilderness map did not show trail 614, their intended route. It
turned out that the 1985 version of the map that I was using showed a trail
that had been abandoned, and was not shown on the maps the others were using.
Since it was already about 4:15 we decided to hike to the planned
meeting place at Claw Lake via a shorter route. We parked at Island Lake CG and
hiked in via Trail 620. We saw lots of other hikers on the way in, but not our
partners. Ominously, we also did not even see the spot where their now
abandoned trail should have intersected ours. We got to Claw Lake at about 6 PM
and found no other campers, but with enough time for me to take a bath in the
lake. When it was clear that the others would not be arriving, we decided to
stay put for the night, hoping/assuming that they would arrive the next morning.
Claw Lake ~ 4 miles
Sunday 9-1-91
After breakfast we had still seen no sign of the rest of our
crew, so we split up to go look for them. Tod headed over to Becker Lake, while
I retraced our route back toward the pass. After checking out Beauty Lake, I spotted
Buddy just past the side trail to Becker. They had not been able to find any trace
of the deleted trail, and they were forced to hike cross country almost
immediately from the highway. Without the anchor point of starting on the right
trail, their navigation must have been really tough. They had ended up staying
at Becker Lake, which they had initially thought might be Claw because of the similar
shape. They also had split up this morning to look for us.
We decided that I would go back to Claw Lake and get Tod,
while Buddy returned to Becker for James and Mary. The two groups would then hike
north to meet at the outlet of Jasper Lake. In retrospective, it seems almost
reckless not to have consolidated the group at a known point on trail, but I
guess we figured that with a full day under our belt, both groups had gotten
their bearings. Tod and I headed off from Claw Lake cross country above the
head of Becker, picked up one of the “off trail paths” near Albino Lake, and met
up with Buddy, James, and Mary at Jasper Lake around 1 PM.
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| Our group near Wolf Mountain |
The logistics finally complete, it was finally time to enjoy
the hike. After Claw Lake we had essentially left the forest behind and were
out in the great alpine plateau that makes the Beartooths so special. The
Beartooth Range is known for its alpine scenery and for relatively easy access
to its high country. Most of the trailheads off of the Beartooth Highway at
well above 9,000’ and the hikes through the remaining forest to tree line are shorter
and more gentle than other ranges such as the Wind Rivers. We found the cross
country hiking generally not too difficult, some occasional boulders
complicated things, but often you could walk cross country almost as easily as
on trail. To do so however required constant attention to our maps. The size of
the alpine area was difficult to grasp. The huge deep basins one expects in
glaciated terrain were far apart and it was possible to link together the plateaus
for long hikes through the alpine zone.
We walked together completely off trail to Flat Rock Lake
passing by Lynx Lake on the way. I had a few of the nagging things for the
start of the trip, I’d slightly turned both ankles, and the first roll of film
that I loaded didn’t catch on the sprocket, so I had no slides so far. We
camped just south of Castle Mountain (Montana’s #3) and hoped to climb it the
next day.
Flat Rock Lake, ~8 miles
Monday 9-2
We woke to good weather and were headed for the summit of
Castle Mountain by 8AM. Pat Caffrey’s “Climber Guide to Montana” lists Castle as a scramble up the
southeast ridge. Tod followed the valley floor past Forsaken Lake then
scrambled up some rock to the Summit Plateau. Buddy and I turned up the
southeast ridge even before Forsaken Lake and crested the ridge near a small
saddle, probably where the main route comes in from Omega Lake. James and Mary
went only up to the saddle and turned back, feeling less than 100%.
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| Buddy Climbing Castle Mountain |
The route worked really well, anytime it looked like we
might get blocked by cliffs we’d turn a corner and a clear route would open up.
The footing was solid, we had very little talus. The summit was fantastic, the
north face of Castle is a sheer wall with a few long, steep couloirs dropping
off. Whitetail Peak and the Sundance Pass Trail off to our east were especially
impressive. We briefly talked about attempting a ridge traverse to Whitetail or
Castle Rock Mountain, but it was to cold and windy to seriously consider
anything but heading down. The ascent took 2 hours from camp and the return via
Tod’s route took another 2 hours.
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| Tod, Buddy, and I on the summit of Castle Mountain |
At lunch Tod caught some cutthroat trout and fried them up
for us. We considered staying another night, but realized that moving on might
give us a shot at climbing another peak, or laying over a day if we hit bad
weather. We decided to move downstream on an off trail route past Queer Lake to
Lake Elaine. We had to ford the main creek by Summerville Lake, but otherwise
the going was again pretty easy.
Lake Elaine 12.6 miles
Castle Mountain, 12,612’
Tuesday 9-3
Tod, Buddy, and I were sharing a three man tent that was a
bit small for the three of us. I tried to sleep outside that night to give us
all some space, but a short rainfall after sunset drove me back into the tent.
Sometime later that night Tod was the one feeling crowded, and he moved outside
to sleep.
In the morning, we decided to push on to the northwest to
try and set ourselves up for the climb of Granite Peak (the Montana Highpoint) the
next day. We walked cross country to Jordan Lake and then followed a variety of
routes and paths to a lunch spot at a bridge above Russell Lake on USFS Trail
567. At 8780’ Russell Lake was the low point of our trip to date, and we had
dropped enough to be down in a forested area. We enjoyed the great trail all
the way to Windy Lake. Along the way we passed Bald Knob, which reminded me of
one of those classic rock climbing domes in the Sierra Nevada. From Windy Lake we hiked off trail to Rough
Lake where we camped for the night. I got in early and managed to get in another
swim, noting that the water was warmer vs Flat Rock Lake. Our weather all day
had been perfect, vivid blue sky and temperatures just cool enough to keep us
from overheating on the long climbs.
My journal writing though was seeming inadequate. I emphasized
recording events and the routes taken by the group with a lesser focus on my
feelings and impressions of the experience. Looking back, I can see I’m still
in that same mindset.
Rough Lake ~11 miles
Wednesday 9-4
We rose very early the next morning fearing the reputation
of Granite as a foul weather peak. Tod led at a furious pace through the Skytop
Basin and up and over to the saddle on the east. We decided then to risk a
traverse east to the saddle between Granite and Tempest to avoid losing our
elevation by dropping down to lake level.
Our traverse went well until we rounded a corner and our bench
narrowed into ledge and eventually ended. We were near the steep the head of a walled
cirque that didn’t seem to show on our maps. We knew we didn’t have the time to
return to first saddle and drop down to the lake to join the standard route, so
we looked for any ledges above us that reached the head of the cirque. Tod
found some ledges that looked OK. He led a short chimney with one or two easy
fifth class moves. We then did two short fourth class traverses to bring us to
the talus slope at the head of the cirque. This section was pretty sketchy, we
only had a 6mm rope and any fall probably would have resulted in a pendulum
swing.
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| The traverse below Granite Peak |
We then hopped some huge boulders up to a west ridge that
intersected the main route just below the snow bridge. The snow bridge had
melted to a level below the ridge, so it was just an easy stroll across. Since
we expected the bridge to be the crux of the climb, we were feeling confident. The
day was still crystal clear and there was no wind.
As it turned out, most of the final climb from the snow bridge
saddle was class 3-4 scrambling. At one deep notch Buddy decided to stop rather,
than try to climb about 40’ of a fourth class chimney. The climbing up wasn’t
that bad, but none of would have wanted to downclimb any these areas if the
rock got wet. It turned out there was still another 30 minutes of climbing
ahead, and Tod and I faced one more chimney of similar difficulty. Luckily for
us there were cairns the entire way from the snow bridge to the top.
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| Summit of Granite Peak |
The summit turned out to be a nice flat area with 360 degree
views. The north face is a huge cliff with a 2,000’ drop down to a small
glacier. Nearby Wolf and Whitetail peaks looked especially impressive. We could
see all the way north to the Crazy Mountains and south to Lonesome Mountain. It
was still T-shirt weather with no wind. After a short nap, we signed the summit
register, and Tod realized that it was his birthday.
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| Summit of Granite Peak |
We down climbed back to Buddy and used the rope as a handrail
twice to get down to the snow bridge at 2:45. To save time we decided to
retrace our ascent route (I’m not sure what the other option might have been?).
The traverse and downclimb by the cirque weren’t too bad and we all were happy
to reach the security of the ledges. We had assumed we might have been among
the first to use this convoluted route to the top, but we spotted a small one
person rock shelter near the end of the ledges.
The rest of the descent was exhausting, but mercifully
uneventful. James and Mary had spent the day walking around Rough Lake and
climbing a small spire south of Mount Villard. At dinner they brought out a
pudding cake they had learned to make on the AT. It was a special treat to have
it on Tod’s birthday.
“Climbers Guide to Montana” lists Granite Peak as a technical
climb, meaning that there will be some roped rock climbing involved. The
technical part of the standard route begins at a snow bridge on the east ridge
where a belay is anticipated, giving the route its technical rating. Past the
snow bridge, the final pitches to the top are fourth class, which means to me scrambling
up and very careful scrambling down.
Rough Lake 12.7 miles
Granite Peak 12,799, Montana’s high point
Thursday 9-5
Our overnight excitement was the having a mountain goat wander
through camp. We all heard it making some noise, but all assumed it was one of
us out for an evening stroll. After two tough days we were looking for an easier
day. We took a path down Sky Top Creek to Star Creek. We had some confusion
about the route near the junction of Star and Zimmer Creeks, but got that worked
out by lunch. From Star Creek we passed briefly out of the Wilderness onto to a
jeep road. At this point we were just a few miles north of Cooke City, MT. We
then raced a storm into Goose Lake and barely got camp set up before the rains came. I took another
swim to clean up in between bouts of the rain.
There were lots of people at Goose Lake when we arrived, and
I resented their intrusion We had seen no one since leaving Claw Lake on
Sunday. But we were just inside the wilderness boundary, and the area was relatively
accessible. Looking around for our campsite I’d found “hundreds" of remains
of other campers, many of them likely workers at the old copper mine at the
head of Goose Lake. The ruins looked large enough that I was surprised that the
area had been included in the Wilderness, with all the old mine debris and
access via a trail that was obviously an old road. Still, the scenery here was
fantastic.
Our final two days would take us over the divide near
Grasshopper Glacier, and the mountains to the north looked ominous. On the west
side of the pass was Wolf Mtn., rated as nontechnical in the guidebook, but
looking like nothing but a cliff from all sides. To the east was Sawtooth, the
only peak in the Beartooth besides Granite that required a technical ascent
according to Caffrey. We looked to try Iceberg Peak the next day, it should be
a scramble and was close to the pass. By evening I was warm, dry, well fed, and
not exhausted. All as much as a backpacker could hope for. I was looking
forward to tomorrow, an easy walkup peak, and Grasshopper Glacier. Then it
would all be downhill.
Goose Lake ~8 miles
Friday 9-6
In the morning we took a late start to let the tents and sleeping
bags dry a bit before packing up. We followed a good trail for an hour to reach
the pass below Iceberg Peak. I was exited to try for the summit, but no one
else was, so we passed it up.
The upper Grasshopper area was as forbidding as any we saw
in the Beartooth. There was a mountain goat in the pass as we arrived, and we
soon spotted two others. The glacier is smaller than is shown on the topo maps,
but the moraine areas were much larger than we expected.
Our Saunders map showed a path across the foot of the
glacier leading down to West Rosebud Creek that we planned to take to Silver
Lake. But the entire upper basin above Star Lake was just a sea of huge
boulders. It seemed to take forever as we picked our ways gingerly across the
mess. We soon decided that climbing classifications needed to be revised to
include a category for technical boulder hopping. Several times we had to stop
just because our concentration was wavering, and we were at the point where one
false step would lead to a busted ankle.
We ate lunch beside Point 10,932 just wishing we could get
to Star Lake and thankful that we hadn’t chosen to add the extra side trip to
Iceberg Peak. Eventually we left the boulder field for the steep bushwhack down
to Star Lake. For our considerable efforts we were rewarded with patches of
blueberries and raspberries. Buddy saw two foxes, but luckily no bears. By the
time we made Star Lake it was 3 PM and we were spent. We had yet to see any
sign of our route, but were convinced one would exist between Star and Silver lakes.
In our overconfidence we took time for a swim and clean up in the relatively
balmy water.
The bushwhack to Silver Lake turned out to be horrible. We
found only narrow traces of a path a few times south of the drainage to Eedica
Lake. We learned that the routes in the open alpine country we’d travelled were
much different that the routes in the deep, heavily forested valleys on the
north slope of the range. Often, I felt like a football running back crashing
through the line as I lowered my shoulder to push through another nest of young
spruce. No fun with an external frame pack! Mixed in were cliffs, blowdowns,
and the avalanche debris that was the toughest obstacle. We all got cut up from
the rocks and limbs, and sorry to say we all lost our temper at one time or
another. At least having some company made the walk less intolerable.
Three hours later, after a final spit of rain, we arrived at
a campsite on Silver Lake. James described the day as the toughest hike he’d
ever done. Mary, the smallest one of us, claimed her size had made the trip
relatively easier for her as she just had less brush to push away. None of us
had ever bushwhacked like that with a full backpack.
Once in camp we allowed ourselves the only fire of the trip.
A warm front had come in and I slept out again, bothered only by a few mule
deer who wandered through camp.
Silver Lake, ~ 9 miles
Saturday 9-7
A warm morning at 7800’ allowed us to get the earliest start
of the trip, despite the exertion of the previous day. Luckily for us it was
all maintained trail down to my truck at Mystic Lake. But it didn’t take long
for us to realize that the warmth signaled the arrival of a massive front.
Before reaching Island Lake we had our raincoats on, and kept them on the rest
of the trip. Despite the weather we passed waves of hikers heading in. Ironically,
I missed the junction with the trail up to Froze to Death Plateau, which was
the normal route for those looking to climb Granite Peak.
We did the 8 trail miles out in 3.5 hours of gradual
downhill, with only a short steep climb just below Mystic Lake. The drive out
features 15 miles of horrible washboard. Tod, riding in the pickup bed, was
almost car sick. We stopped in Roscoe at the Grizzly Bar for a great meal. Along
the way we must have dropped Buddy, James, and Mary off at the airport. Tod and
I retrieved his truck from near Beartooth Pass, and we spent the night in
Billings with me driving back to Lead on Sunday.
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| Make sure you always have the latest maps! |
To read about an awe inspiring trip in the Beartooths:
