Five Springs Again

In the first part of September I made another road trip through Montana and just into Wyoming to Five Springs in the Big Horn mountains. It's an obscure spot, but it's become one of my favorite spots for paragliding and hiking (although I wish it was a little closer!). This is another long one since I'm doing the whole trip in one post.

When I arrived in Havre I took a break in a park. I took a few shots of the fountain, mostly practicing with the new camera.



There were hollyhocks along the fence of a house backing onto the park.



The color attracted me, but I found the insects were also attracted.



The owner of the house came out to see what I was doing and was quite suspicious and almost hostile until I explained I was just taking photographs of the flowers.

As usual I camped in the Bear Paw mountains (more hills) near Havre, and got in a couple of brief warmup paragliding flights off Otis peak. This Woodland Skipper butterfly seemed to like the color of my paraglider.



I saw quite a few pronghorn on the drive. (I also saw lots of hawks, but didn't manage any decent photos of them.)



Of course, I took lots of photographs. For some reason a lot of them were insects this trip. Partly that was because I had my new camera and macro lens.

When I arrived at Five Springs I stopped at the landing zone to put up my wind sock. I found this Mormon cricket beside the road. It was rapidly running away and I didn't have my camera out. I tried to herd it back towards the van, but it wouldn't cooperate. I was pretty sure if I left it to get my camera I'd never find it again. I ended up picking it up and holding it one hand while I got my camera and switched to the macro lens one handed. The long "tail" is its ovipositor (for laying eggs) so it's a female. We have them in Saskatchewan but I'd never seen one till last year.



A few days later I was sitting in the shade of the one tree near the LZ and this male came wandering by. I only had my iPhone but it managed a decent shot. Their color can vary quite a lot from green to black. I've only seen individuals, but at certain times they can swarm like locusts.



My first two days in Five Springs I had a couple of good one hour paragliding flights. I thought those were the warmup for bigger flights, but it turned out they were my best flights of the trip. I had more flights but conditions weren't good enough for me to stay up. But I'm still happy to be here even if the flights are short.

I took two days off from flying to hike from the Five Springs campground up and over Medicine Mountain (10,000 ft) and down to the Wyoming High Country Lodge where I've stayed before. I carried my paraglider hoping to fly off Medicine Mountain either on the way there or the way back. Unfortunately, that didn't work out - the wind was the wrong direction on the way there, and too strong on the way back. It was still a great hike, and staying overnight at the lodge meant I didn't have to carry any camping gear or much food. I basically just took my toothbrush and a spare t-shirt. And my paragliding gear is pretty light.

Unlike last time when it poured with rain at the lodge, this time the weather was great. Normally they would have had frost by now at 9000 ft, but this year they were having a late fall and there were still flowers in the meadow, and lots of different butterflies. I had a good time trying to stalk them from flower to flower.













A small stream runs through the meadow.



People were talking about fishing, but the only trout I saw were less than 6 inches long. Can you spot it?



There were a few butterflies around the campground as well. There was only one kind of bush flowering so they were congregating. I thought these were Aphrodite Fritillaries, but on iNaturalist they were identified as Coronis Fritillaries. I looked them both up and I have a hard time telling them apart.







These wasps took a break from feeding on the flowers to mate:



I had another wasp visit me at the campsite:



And this spider was overlooking my picnic table:



I found this one inside the van. Luckily there's no wood in the van since it's a wood boring beetle.



I think this one is a burying (or sexton) beetle, another interesting critter. It uses its large antenna to locate dead mice or birds. When multiple beetles find the same carcass they fight over it (males against males and females against females). The winning couple lays its eggs on the carcass and buries it, after removing the fur or feathers. They bury it so it isn't found by other scavengers.



When I got back from my hike I threw my sweaty socks on the picnic table and they attracted this colorful fly:





The usual chipmunks and squirrels were also around. The squirrels were busily snipping pine cones off the trees and dropping them all over my campsite. The pinecones had a lot of sap oozing out of them, which the squirrels got all over their faces when they were eating them. And then the dirt stuck to the sap, giving them black faces.





I didn't see any marmots around the campground like other times, but I did come across this one on my hike:



There were lots of grasshoppers around. The most interesting were these Carolina grasshoppers. The males would fly up into the air and hover making loud clicking sounds to attract females. They were hard to photograph because they were so well camouflaged for the dry dusty ground. You'd see them land, but if you took your eyes off them for a second, they'd be almost impossible to locate again. Although there was a lot of clicking going on, sadly I didn't actually see any of them actually attract a female.



A more colorful variety of grasshopper:



The campground is in a great spot to watch the sunsets.





See all 116 photos in this album

Big Bend Outer Loop

First stop, visitors center to get our backcountry permits. We barely told the ranger our plan before she had to tell us, sternly, that "people die out there!" It was all I could do not to roll my eyes. In all the 40 years I've been doing trips and registering for them, I've lost count of how many times I've run into that attitude. I realize that part of their job is to prevent people from killing themselves (and then suing!) But if that was the goal then you'd think they'd ask what experience you had. But they rarely do. It's as if they send the rangers to classes on how to be negative and discourage anyone from leaving the pavement. Occasionally we have tackled more extreme adventures that I can see them being sceptical about. But these days? Not so much. We were registering for what is probably the most common backpacking trip on the park. Granted, it's the desert and water and heat are factors. So ask a few questions and make sure we're prepared. Don't just give some canned melodramatic line. Sheesh!

She seemed even more disapproving when I said we planned to do the loop in the opposite direction from most people, although she didn't offer any reason why. In terms of doing the steep sections with less load of water, it made sense to me. And it’s a loop, so the overall vertical is the same. Plus, if you're antisocial like me, going backwards means you only see people briefly as you pass them going in the opposite direction :-)

Originally we had planned to to take the shuttle to the park (like we did on our last trip). But then we discovered that we needed to cache water for the hike, so we ended up renting a car. (That wasn’t all bad since it let us explore more of the park after the hike.) We dropped off our water in the bear proof box near Homer Wilson ranch. (There’s also a potential spot to cache at the intersection of the Juniper and Dobson trails, but it requires a 4wd high clearance vehicle to access.)

It was nice to finally set out from the car after shuffling gear into the pack and hoping not to forget anything important. It only takes a few hundred yards to lose most of the people. Soon after you leave behind the noise of civilization. You don't really notice it till it's gone. There was a roadrunner in the parking lot to see us off.



Then just the slow steady comfortable tread. Even with the pack it's quite pleasant. I took the ability to hike with a backpack for granted for so many years, now I wonder how many more years I'll be able to do it. I walk a little more carefully these days, not from fear but simply in hopes of making my knees and hips and feet last as long as possible. I use hiking poles, although I don’t really like how they get in the way of taking photos.



I like hiking in the desert with the bizarre cactus and the stark desert terrain. But by definition there's little or no water which means carrying it. Luckily on this hike the most you need to haul is two days worth - about 8 litres (= 8 kg = 18 lbs). Since our packs are light to begin with (maybe 25 lbs) it's not too bad. And you drink it so you're not carrying the full weight for long.



Coming back from the outhouse at our first campsite we spotted a skunk. It seemed to be staying in the same area so I went and got my camera and came back. Sure enough it was still there. I made Shelley a little nervous trying to get close enough for photos. I guess she didn't want to share the tent with someone who got sprayed by a skunk! The skunk appeared to be feeding. It was moving around slowly, stopping every few feet to dig shallow holes in the ground. Presumably finding insects of some sort, although I'm not sure how it knew where to dig. Smell? Sound? If I got too close or made too much noise it would stop and look at me and its tail would go up. But if I froze it would soon resume feeding and its tail would drop again. I expect skunks to have a white stripe but this one's back was pretty much all long white fur. It reminded me of a colobus monkey.



There were also a couple of deer wandering around in the area.



We spent a couple of hours at the Dobson ranch avoiding the sun's worst in the shade of the old building. A large wasp had been buzzing around us at lunch and I tried several times to photograph it but it was too skittish. It landed on my foot but as soon as I reached for my camera it flew away. It landed on the wall but when I approached it left. Finally it stopped in the door frame and I got a few shots, but not great. But when I wandered around the building a bit later I found one (maybe the same one) on the grass, a more natural background, where it cooperated for me. The are quite impressive - large yellow abdomen, long legs that hang down when it flies, about an inch long. We saw them throughout the trip.



The next section was a bit more unpleasant - uphill with two day’s water, in +33c, full sun with no shade. When we reached the junction of the Dobson and Juniper trails we were excited there was a truck at the end of the road - shade! We sat and ate our lunch leaning against the tires.



The last day the weight of my pack fell back below the magic threshold where it ceases to be a painful burden and goes back to being a reasonable load. (I have to admit that threshold has dropped over the years!) I've never been much for big loads, for me 65 lbs is half my body weight!



One of the rules for backcountry camping in Big Bend is that you have to be 100 yards off the trail. That's a standard rule and I'm all for it. I have no desire to camp beside the trail. A volunteer ranger we ran into stressed several times not to use the obvious cleared campsites right beside the trail. But the terrain doesn't agree. Everything here has needles and thorns. 100 yards of bushwhacking off trail is going to leave you bleeding and impaled. And the ground is hilly, with few level spots. And even if you find a spot where it's feasible, then what? Rip up all the cactus and bushes? We searched for spots off the trail, but in the end we disobeyed the rules and camped on one of the already cleared, level spots beside the trail. In terms of our impact it seemed the better choice.





The climb up the Juniper trail is quite long and steep, but the trail is good with well designed switchbacks, and with light packs at the end of the trip it went easily. Once we reached the top it was an easy downhill couple of hours back to the Chisos Lodge where we left our car.



For more photos see all 26 as a slideshow or overview

Backcountry Caffeination

One of the problems with no-cook backpacking trips is that it means no coffee :-(

Although I'm not a huge coffee drinker (one or two cups per day) I still feel the effects of going cold turkey. If you're used to drinking more you probably feel it worse.

Our last trip in Glacier National Park is a good example. Around noon on the second day I was trying to figure out why I had a headache. Was I dehydrated? Was it the sun? Eventually (I can be a little slow!) I realized that it had been a bit more than 24 hours since my last coffee.

I could just tough it out for a few days but wanting to maximize the enjoyment of the trip I usually bring a coffee substitute.

The easiest alternative I've found is caffeinated energy gels (e.g. Clif Shots or PowerGels or GU). You can usually find ones with either 25 or 50 mg of caffeine, sometimes labelled as one or two "shots" (as in shots of espresso). I find two days of 50 mg and then two days of 25 mg is sufficient to ween me off the addiction. Obviously, your mileage may vary.

Another option (although I haven't tried it) would be some kind of instant coffee that you can make with cold water, like Starbucks VIA Caramel.

[Update]
Here's another option: VOKE TAB
If Conrad uses them, they must be good :-)

A Walk in the Park

The "park" being Glacier National Park in Montana (across the border from Waterton National Park in Canada), and the "walk" being a 7 day backpacking trip.

Warning: This is a long post - feel free to skip, skim, or just look at the pictures :-)

We drove to Minot, stopping at Fourth & James Bakery in Lumsden for coffee. Saw some hawks but not much else for wildlife. Stayed overnight at the Grand International, which is neither, but decent and conveniently located across the road from the airport. The long term parking was full of big pickup trucks - odd, until we figured out it's probably oil workers flying home on their off days/weeks.

We were surprised to see a passenger train in the station. The west bound goes through in the morning and the east bound in the evening. It turned out it was the west bound train, seven hours late! We had received warnings from Amtrak about delays but that seemed excessive. Apparently heavy freight (oil?) traffic has been delaying trains. Thankfully our train was only about an hour late.

We could have just driven to Glacier but it was more enjoyable on the train. There is also history in the USA of taking the train to national parks before everyone had cars.

With no wifi and not much else to do I read the whole of The New American Road Trip Mixtape. I enjoyed it.

We had counted on eating in the dining car but the train was so busy that we couldn't get a reservation. We went on a waiting list and they finally called us at 8 pm, just about when we were supposed to arrive. Except the train was still running late so we had time to eat, including dessert :-)



We stayed overnight at East Glacier Park Lodge, across the lawn from the train station. The next day we took the shuttle to Two Medicine Lake where the nearest park ranger station is. Backcountry campsites have to be booked either 30 days in advance by mail (!?) or last minute within 24 hours of starting your hike. We hadn't booked in advance and had no idea what campsites would be available, we were just winging it. We started to get worried when it turned out there was nothing available that night within walking distance and the car campground there was full. But they keep some sites for hikers on foot and we were able to get one of those. After that we managed to link together a six day hike ending up back at the East Glacier Lodge.

After reserving we had most of the day free so we hiked up to Scenic Point (10 km return) - steep uphill but great views. Among the Blackfeet Indians this area is known as "the backbone of the world." We encountered a family of what I think were white-tailed ptarmigan (ptarmigan are a kind of grouse)



That evening at the Two Medicine Campground we had ground squirrels and a rabbit come to visit us.

There are lots of warnings everywhere about bears, in particular grizzly bears. This being America, the land of the right to bear arms, every second person you saw had a big can of bear spray in a holster on their hip. And this is in the car campground, not the backcountry. You don't step out of your RV without strapping on the weaponry. The bear warning signs don't have a picture of a bear on them (like they do in Canada), they have a picture of bear spray. I have a healthy respect for bears, I'm definitely not blasé about them. On the other hand, you're more likely to get killed driving on the highway or by lightning on the golf course. On the positive side if any of these people actually manage to pepper spray bears maybe it will make them more wary of people. (We don't carry bear spray, although it might be worth it.)

Our bear encounter this trip was typical of what I've had in the past - by the time we spotted the bear (a small black bear) it was running away from us, probably just as scared of us as we were of it. The funny part of this encounter (near the pass between Park Creek and Ole Creek) was that I almost missed it because I was too busy taking photographs. Shelley said "What's that noise?" Without really paying attention I said "Maybe a raven." (They can make a wide range of noises.) But what Shelley was hearing was "huffing" - not a raven! She started yelling and clapping and sure enough we could hear crashing through the bush and I caught a glimpse of the bear running away. Unfortunately, he ran in the same direction we were headed, so the rest of the way down from the pass we made lots of noise!

From Two Medicine we decided to take the boat across the lake. It only cut 2 km off our hike and meant a late start (9 am) but it's a historic boat (built in 1924) and a beautiful ride across a glassy lake in the morning sunshine.

From the lake the trail ascends gradually through the forest up to Cobalt Lake. There were lots of beautiful wildflowers.

We would have camped there the first night but it was all booked up, not surprising since it's a beautiful spot. So after a lunch break we headed on. The trail goes up to the broad rocky ridge and along it, with beautiful views off both sides. You go over Chief Lodgepole Peak before descending down, down, down several thousand feet to the Upper Park Creek campground. This area burned in 2003. You'd think that would mean it was open, easy travelling but it's actually the opposite. A mature forest here is fairly open, whereas after a forest fire all the undergrowth goes "wild". There was still a good trail but it was quite overgrown.

spot Shelley

We has wondered why so many of the campsites were all booked up. Were there really that many backpackers? But we found there were only two or three sites at each so it didn't take much to "fill" them. It basically makes it a quota system, although they don't call it that. It makes it tough to book, but once you do it's nice since you know there won't be a lot of people. It probably also helps to spread people out since they can't all go to the "popular" sites.

we saw lots of butterflies (more photos in the full set)

The next day was a short one, less than 4 km (although 1200 ft up) to Lake Isabel. This is a beautiful alpine lake but the fire had also been here so there were no (live) trees, which made for good views but also zero shade, and it was very hot! We cooled off a little washing away some sweat and grime in the lake.

tadpoles

I was surprised to see an abundance of tadpoles in the lake. I would think most alpine lakes would be too cold for frogs. Although the lake was snow fed it didn't seem that cold - perhaps shallow enough to warm up in the summer sun.



From here we hiked 16 km (about 10 miles) to Lower Park campsite. We left the burn area and were grateful for the shade here. But lower down and on the forest we were plagued by flies. Most of them didn't bite, they were just annoying buzzing around your face and landing on your arms and legs (for the sweat?) But you couldn't just ignore them because there were mosquitoes and horseflies in the mix. As far as bugs go, it wasn't really that bad.

When we were reading in the tent later in the day a hummingbird came to visit us several times. We would hear it buzzing around like a giant bee and then it would appear in the doorway of the tent and hover, looking in. Maybe it thought our orange tent was some kind of giant flower.



There were lots of bees around on all the summer flowers. It was fun to watch them fly from flower to flower and gather the pollen. There were some thistles where the bees would have to push their heads deep into the fluffy flowers. All you'd see would be the tip of its tail sticking out. Later, small sparrow like bird came and perched on the thistle and tore out beak fulls of the fluff - digging for the seeds perhaps? On the cool morning there were bees hanging motionless from the flowers, caught by the cool evening and stranded until they could warm up enough to fly again.

It was on the following day, over the pass between Lower Park and Ole Creek, that we had our minor bear encounter. This was a shorter day distance-wise (about 8 km) but about 2000 ft up and then back down. Ole Creek was another nice forest camp. We were glad of the shorter day and the afternoon to relax. And it was peaceful since we were the only ones there. We took the opportunity to wash clothes and ourselves in the creek. (Without soaps since the water is too cold for even biodegradable camping soap to break down.)

From Ole Creek to Ole Lake was another 15 km (9 mile) day with only a small amount of elevation gain. The lake was small and muddy - not a pristine alpine lake like Isabel. We could hear a waterfall at the inlet across the lake so we headed around to get water and wash up. There was no trail though and Shelley wasn't too thrilled with the bushwhacking :-) Thankfully it wasn't too far around and it turned out to be a lovely little waterfall tumbling down over moss covered rocks and logs.

We were happy to have such pure cold running water all along the way. Our last couple of hikes were in Arizona and Utah, in the desert, where water is much more scarce and more often than not a warm dirty pool. (Despite the "clean" water we still filtered and treated with Aquatabs. Either one would likely be sufficient on its own but using both covers anything missed or contaminated.)



As now is usual for us, we're on our no-cook plan i.e. no stove or pots or any food that needs cooking. The gist of it is granola (homemade) for breakfast, trail mix during the day, and bars for supper (including custom designed YouBars). There were lots of huckleberries around which we enjoyed eating along the trail and a couple of days we managed to pick enough to go on our granola for a nice treat.



Normally we'd plan a shorter last day, but with campsite availability dictating our route we ended up with a last day of about 20 km (12 miles). On a flat easy trail that's not too bad, but our day included a steep climb 2000 feet to Firebrand Pass and miles of overgrown jungle where we we were often chest deep in greenery. Luckily it wasn't thorny greenery! Most of the trip we'd been starting early and getting to the next camp before it got too hot. But this day was long enough that we ended up hiking through the heat of the day. (about 30c or 90f). Needless to say we were hot and tired by the time we finally made it back to East Glacier Lodge.



Our legs complained a little about the additional insult of have to climb two flights of stairs to our room but a shower felt great and the huckleberry ice cream that followed tasted even better.

See all 106 (!) photos as a slideshow or overview
(all taken with the Pentax K3 & Tamron 18-250)

See also Shelley's blog post: A Bear With a Belly Full of Huckleberries