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| Pine Creek Lake |
We dropped off Cooper for a day at a Farm Doggie Spa…aka Dog
Sitter and headed to Pine Creek Lake Trailhead in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness area in Gallatin National
Forest.
On the recommendation of TH this
particular hike was penciled in as a ‘must do’ although our original idea was
to actually do the hike with TH.
That
did not happened…we did the hike before he had even arrived in Bozeman.
The weather played a role, but then we could
get someone to watch Cooper for the day so we jumped the gun a tad. Sorry
TH…although as it turned out he may have been grateful not to have gone on this
“little hike.”
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| Yep a holster of bear spray is on the right hip |
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| Thimble berry everywhere...no bears |
The hike is a 5 mile up (plus 5 miles back down)…a 3200 feet
change in elevation on a steep and rocky trail…we were warned many times about
the steepness.
That should have been a
clue that maybe it was going to be a tough one.
We were also warned about bears, to carry bear spray and if the thimble
berries were ripe to yell LOUD while passing through the bushes.
It seems that these berries are HIGHLY sought
prize by the local bear community.
Thankfully most were not ripe enough, but they were tall and thick which
gave us a heavy dose of adrenalin walking through them.
Bear spray remained in the holster…ready for
the next bear hike.
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| Ripe thimble berries |
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| Pine Creek Falls |
The first mile to a waterfall was mostly flat and we
caught up to a couple of guys and their dogs…they soon passed us on the next
section that was pretty steep while leaving the waterfall behind.
The trail continued up over the next 4 miles
crossing the stream a couple more times.
Along the way were alpine meadows with a number of flowers still in
bloom and numerous small waterfalls.
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| The destination...top of the falls...jeez |
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| Heading back down |
The
trail did get pretty rocky which was one of the reasons Coop didn’t make the
trip.
We had been told about some
difficult rock scrambles, but we only noticed a very rocky trail that was well
marked so maybe that’s what was meant by rock scramble.
We did see a rock slide area that we thought
was the scramble thankfully the trail was already in place up the mountainside
as a series of switchbacks otherwise desertions would have occurred. No way could one safely manage an uphill trek through that rock slide...at least not us.
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| Pine Creek Lake |
It took us 4 ½ hours to make it to Pine Creek Lake at the
top…didn’t feel too bad either.
Took a
30 minute break by the upper falls and headed back down.
The first mile or two went pretty quick then
trouble reared its ugly head…the knees decided that too much straight down
wasn’t to their liking.
It ended up
taking 4 hours to make the return trip back to the car.
There were a few moments that crawling seemed
like a good idea.
The good news was
after a day all is well once again.
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| Wild flowers at the top |
After a few calculations it had been determined that this
trail over its 4 mile 3000 foot gain in elevation works out to be about a 14.2%
grade.
That’s STEEP…we now know what our
limit is for future hikes.
A ten miler that
has a grade over 14% is on the ‘do not attempt’ list.
As a side note Cooper enjoyed his day at the spa...reports are that he played with a few dogs, went on a car ride to retrieve kids from vollyball practice and even went to help them run their irrigation system. He was less than helpful in picking beans. Cooper was in much better shape than we were...Wendy didn't work him hard enough evidently.
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| View of Paradise Valley below |
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| Absaroka Mountains |
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