Thorofare: Day Four

At this point of the hike I had taken over 200 pictures and our 256 MB card was nearly full. I had already used up a dinky 16 MB card for some mountain pictures and I only had about 20 pictures available to take. I was hoping to spot a bear or other wildlife so I was hesitant to use up pictures incase we would be lucky enough to view some animals from a distance...

August 2, 2006 - Wednesday - With the knowledge of a long trail back to our pickup point and our slow pace of hiking we decided to leave early in the morning to try to make our campsite from the first night and pick up our tents and then hike several more miles to another campsite. At 5:00 the alarms went off and we started boiling water for our oatmeal breakfast. After cleaning the cabin and putting everything back where we found it, we left a few packages of food for future visitors who will be in the cabin this fall.

At 7:30 we locked up the door and closed up the animal gate to the cabin. As we hiked away from the cabin through the frost covered grasses I glanced back to take one last look at the cabin. The sun was just about to peek over the mountain and the sunlight gleaming from the frosty air made for quite a sight. You can't really see the cabin - the building on the right side is actually the outhouse and shed. The outhouse is a two seater! Not that any of us graced the presence of anyone while conducting 'business' but the possibility was there. The other thing I laugh about is the fact that there are two seats - like this is a busy place that needs more than one outhouse because of the heave traffic and visitors. Ha ha, kind of a funny thought.

As I was turning around to continue down the trail I glanced over at Hawks Rest Mountain and thought I would snap a picture to show everyone where I had climbed. This was taken looking South - the Thorofare River is in the trees running along the bottom (out of the shade) and the Yellowstone River runs into the valley that fades into the background on the right side. You can get a good idea of what the cliffs look like from the one on the right side of the mountain - it basically looks like that the entire way around but it's hard to see with the trees growing all over the mountain.

Let me zoom in on the right side of the mountain and you can follow the path we took to get up this mighty beast! Following the trail, we went up the right side and came down on the left - you can see where we hiked down the mountain and then came to a 30 foot cliff which I decided we couldn't climb down, so we started looking for another way... Keep in mind, we climbed 1,500 verticle feet - up to 9,600 feet elevation - and when we couldn't find a better way down we still had 1,000 feet left to go down to the valley floor. We did finally manage to find a better way, it doesn't appear to be far from the route we took up, but it was a good distance, especially when you consider that there was no trail and we had to climb over downed trees constantly.With our lighter packs for the hike out we managed to cover ground a little faster than we did going in. By lunch time we had hiked 8 miles and we were all ready to eat some more food to make the packs even lighter.

When we arrived at the campsite from our first night, there were two Sandhill Cranes in the meadow and the refused to leave as we collected the tents we had cached several days before. These are not like the Sandhill Cranes you see in Nebraska, actually I take that back, they are BUT they are a lesser species. Don't ask me what the difference is, I am a Geographer - I can tell you what type of rock that is, I can tell you what kind of weather to expect, and I can read a map like a pro, but when it comes to animals I can rarely identify what I am looking at. Heck, even duck hunting is tough for me! ha haAfter we strapped the tents onto our packs we continued hiking. About a mile after the campsite we came across a log across the trail which had been recently overturned. We knew there we no other hikers in the area - we hadn't seen any footprints. The log had been torn apart by claws and it was apparent that a bear had been searching for food. As we looked at the log and talked about how fresh everything looked the bear surprised us with a roar from the trees. Obviously the log was a recent happening and the bear wasn't happy that we were checking out the grubs and goodies that the log had to offer. When the roar passed our ears we all perked up and those of us who were carrying bear spray readied them incase the bear decided to fight.

We decided it was best to just keep on hiking. I took to the back - where I usually hiked - and kept a watch as best I could over my shoulder to make sure the bear wasn't going to make an attempt to follow us and run us off. All the while I had my finger on the trigger of the bear spray and ready for defensive action should such instance occur. Luckily nothing happened, but for awhile the adrinaline was helping us all walk a little faster.

About a mile after the excitment with the bear we arrived at our campsite. The GPS showed us hiking 15 miles for the day and we all agreed that we would sleep without trouble. We had decided not to camp at the same campsite from several days prior due to the large amount of bear sign around the campsite. The new campsite we stayed at had no such indication of bear activity and it was a relief to know the bears didn't frequent the area. Even though we felt a little safer, we still slept with the bear spray next to our head during the night incase a bear would pounce on the tent or start rummaging through our backpacks during the night. Most professionals will tell you to avoid a bear at all costs, but when the bear comes into your camp during the night you should fight it off and keep it away from the camp area. I don't know if that sounds like a good idea or not, but I am glad we didn't have to do anything of that nature...As we layed in our tents and watched the sunlight fade we could hear the wolves howling across the valley. This time we didn't have just one or two wolves howling, it was more in the neighborhood of 8-12 and they were making a lot of noise! John determined they were probably the Delta Pack - the wolfpack that claims the Yellowstone River delta as their territority. As I started drifting off to sleep I thought to myself, even though the far off sound of wolves howling was an amazing experience I am glad they were across the valley and not close by. Sometimes the best way to experience something is from a distance...

Until again

-=Nolan=-