Alpine Glow

Friday August 13th, 2010 found Sarah, Lucca and I headed to the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness to get a little backpacking in before the fleeting summer was entirely gone. We agreed that the Sweeney Creek drainage would be a good one as the hike wasn't too long (about 6.5 miles) and it would put our camp in a good position for other exploratory operations.

We left Coeur d'Alene at 0900 and made the 3 hour drive to Florence. The road up to the trailhead was fairly narrow and just kept going up and up...my GPS showed us at 5700 feet when we finally got to the trailhead! Pretty nice to have a lot of the elevation gain accomplished via the use of the truck...because as it turned out, I'm definitely out of backpacking shape!

We were getting our packs ready and preparing for our assault when Lucca caught a whiff of something interesting and took off. Hmmm, wait a minute...it was a pretty intent bee-line she had made so I trailed her so we could get her pack on. When I called her from over a little rise, she popped her head up and, sure enough, had coated both sides of her face and neck in human shit! Right before the hike and us without very much water or towels to clean her up. Let's just say we were fairly upset with our four-legged companion and forced her to sit there while Sarah dumped water on her and I used a towel to clean her as best I could.

With nothing much more we could do for Lucca's "condition" we set off up the initial steep portion of the trail. I had been treating an eye infection at the time and was in my glasses...so, add two miles of uphill hiking, at around 1400 in August, a heavy pack, with an out of shape Tom and that equals sweating uncontrollably and foggy glasses. I tried hiking without my glasses, which was do-able but less than ideal so I had to try and control my poor attitude and just deal with it. Catching Lucca's ripe aroma every once in awhile didn't help.

But, we kept on going and the country kept getting more and more interesting. After two miles, we topped out at a little spring and then began our decent down into Peterson Lake. By the time we got there, Sarah was having issues with her boot digging into her ankle bone and I was rapidly losing energy. The last mile up into Duffy lake was slow and was really one of those "put one foot in front of the other" kinds of things. But, we arrived at last and searched for a campsite...which led me to find that we were actually parked by a puddle just underneath the REAL Duffy Lake which had a dandy camp near it! Glad we didn't settle down right away because that discovery would have been fairly annoying the next day.


Lucca checking out Duffy Lake


Looking southwest toward the basin that holds Holloway Lake


Tucked in amongst the heather and subalpine fir

It was an interesting little camp as there was a large barren area next to an inky black pool / spring with a little old cabin near it (just the walls were left.)


The strange little cabin

We were fairly beat that night and the sun went down within 30 minutes of us setting up the tent so we had a little dinner, watched the fire for a bit, and turned in. It was funny, Lucca kept whining near the fire and looked a bit on edge. Turns out she was just exhausted and wanted us all to retire to the tent! She snored heavily all night. (Even though she was still soaking after her necessary bath in the cold water. Peppermint scented Dr. Bronners was a better smell than the alternative.)

The next morning was fairly cloudy and chilly, so we took our time getting stuff straightened out before our little hike to Holloway and Mills lake. Our original intent was to go up there, hit the ridge and then cruise the two miles over to Lolo Peak. But, with Sarah's boots being the source of a lot of pain she was confined to wearing her sandals...hiking four miles cross-country was out. But, we figured we'd go up to the lakes and have lunch, slow down a bit and get into the wilderness groove, and just relax.

Looking back down toward Duffy lake.

We made it up to Holloway Lake in no time and tried to find a warm spot out of the wind to get some lunch. My typical backpacking lunch, despite the weight, was introduced to me via Zach and I encourage everyone to try it! There is something about bagels, pepperjack cheese, green peppers, and pepperoni that just tastes really good in the woods. Unfortunately, the only bagels I found at the store were pretty "doughy" tasting and it kinda ruined the sandwich, but Lucca liked them.

We decided to mosey over and look at Mills lake for something to do. We found a nice spot on the rocks there which turned out to be pretty warm and out of the wind. Perfect! The 10-inch cutthroat trout kept us entertained and we gazed at the cathedral before us. We were quiet for a bit and I asked Sarah what was going through her mind. She told me and asked the same question back.

All of a sudden I was shaking like an aspen leaf in a tornado! Hmm, that's odd...so I took a drink of water which only seemed to make things worse. That's when I noticed this little box in my hands and figured perhaps THAT was the cause of the hypothermic-type shivering. The only solution was to try and give it away so I turned to Sarah and said, "I was also trying to think of the right time to give you this." I opened the little box which caused an amazing reaction in my body as I couldn't seem to talk coherently, but managed to sob out, "wihil yoob marramarry mm-mmee?"

She whispered, "yes!"

Being out of possession of the box containing a little celtic ring helped me regain my faculties and I politely asked if I could have one more try at it. This time it came out correctly and I got another "yes!" With a happy Labrador and God being the only witnesses, we decided some photos were in order.

The new family

A little closer

Lucca trying to get back in position

I just realized Sarah was displaying her new ring!

Well, Sarah and Lucca hiked while I floated down the mountain back to camp. I then decided to roam around and take some more photos as the sunlight was finally starting to cooperate.

Trout rising at Duffy

Flowers near the pond...anyone know the actual name of these? I like 'em.

Update: Found the name "Mountain Bog Gentian"

Dramatic lighting

Close...

Dark, but interesting

Lucca headed back to camp

We had a bit of time before the sun was to set so Sarah and Lucca relaxed by the lake to read and live in the moment while I went off in search of firewood. I wanted to be up a bit later to catch the tail end of the Perseid meteor shower and was going to be warm that night no matter what! I broke out the little folding saw and collected more wood than we could use.

After dinner we waited until it got pretty dark and layed in a patch of heather next to the dying fire. As our eyes adjusted to the blackness, more and more stars started popping out. We called Lucca to us and she laid ON Sarah, with her head resting on my chest. I didn't have to worry about needing a fire to stay warm, I had all I needed right there. We finally caught sight of a dandy meteor that streaked across the cold sky and Sarah said, "Make a wish."

I said the only thing I was thinking, "It already came true."

Alright, now I need to dry my eyes and collect myself yet again. I've been funny that way lately, I can darn near cry on command. I'm a very lucky and happy man.

Ehhemm. Okay, so, the next day we woke bright and squirrely and had a quick breakfast followed by getting our packs loaded for the trip out. I don't think anyone was really looking forward to putting those things back on. But...we knew what we were in for and Sarah had figured out a way to wrap her foot so the pain was tolerable...off we went! The mile down to Peterson lake was a good warm-up for the steep climb up to the spring.

View from the trail between the lakes

Sarah and Lucca headed out

Having not been doing any cardio for the past couple of months became pretty apparent to me as Sarah was smoking me going up the hill. But once we topped out, I was able to jog along behind the gals and grab some photos of them in their packs. I don't know if you've ever tried to jog on a trail, with foggy glasses, tired legs, while wearing a heavy pack to try and take photos of moving targets...but it's kinda harder than it sounds. I got tired of that and had to ask if they'd both move in slow motion for a minute. THAT got me the shot I wanted.

Pretty section of trail

The girls at the wilderness boundary. Lucca looks HAPPY!

After another hour or so, the glinting of sun off the truck hood was a welcome sight. Not wanting Lucca to take off again we put her on a lead and tied her to the bumper. While we took off our packs and tried not to float away, Lucca disappeared underneath the truck in the shade. Sarah decided to see where she was and poked her head under there only to find the dog in question laying in one of the ONLY puddles in the small parking lot. Awesome.

We made a quick stop in Lolo to share the news with my folks who seemed fairly pleased. I think everyone was just waiting on me, so it wasn't a huge surprise. It was interesting though, talking to Sarah later that Saturday she had said while we were sitting there at Mills lake...one of the things she had been thinking was, "Is he EVER going to ask me to marry him?"

I guess my timing is better than I thought.

(...and no, there isn't a date set yet. But no worries, I'll make sure the entire world knows when that time comes.)

San Juan Float

The annual float trip, the "boys trip"...though delayed till later in the year...finally occurred the last week in July on the famous San Juan River in southern Utah!

Friday morning found me pretty stressed out, I kept feeling like I was going to oversleep and miss my plane...consequently, I didn't sleep really well. I got up, putzed around the house, and finally left for the airport early. Sometimes I just have trouble trusting that my plane e-ticket, that I purchased online, that I don't have in my hand, will have some sort of issue surrounding it. However, that wasn't the case and I got through security and to Denver in no time. I was catching up on sleep on the two-hour plane ride...when one hour into it I got nudged awake by the dude next to me, "Hey, do you want a coke?" I looked at him in sleep-heavy eyes and politely said, "No. I was sleeping." Weird.

Zach picked me up and we ran some errands...a stop at REI and at the liquor store. We got enough booze to last us for months! It ended up being the first float that we had alcohol left over even after giving some away on the river. We ended up back at his house and with his Dad in town, we had a barbecue and stayed up chatting until 0100. The next day, the trip began at 0600!

Our plan was to head down I-70 to Grand Junction and then hang a left to take the scenic route to Bluff, Utah...our launch site. We weren't out of town more than an hour when we thumped a deer on the interstate at 75 mph! The outcome was pretty poor for the deer who went winging across a lane of traffic and then in the ditch. We were lucky that we didn't wreck, the deer didn't hit anyone else, and the truck wasn't damaged! But, it definitely woke us up.

It was a long hot drive until we started really climbing the pass after Ouray on the "Million Dollar Highway" which was basically a paved goat trail. There are mining remnants everywhere up there and I'm amazed at the tenacity of the folks who worked there, at over 10,000 feet, year-round. We stopped and took some photos, but the overcast sky caused some issues with exposure.

Red Mountain gold mine between Ouray and Silverton




Columbine




More Columbine




Exploratory mines

Fireweed

Private basin near Silverton

Silverton's a cool little mountain town

After spending some time around Silverton, we headed out in a rainstorm and passed through Durango. It was weird, Durango seemed to be flooding like Ocean City was...consequently, I wasn't able to really see much of the town. Part of my interest was research...always on the lookout for a nice place to move. We finally broke out of the rain and headed out into the desert. We passed one junction that had a sign saying, "Four Corners." Hmmm, about a mile down the road we both thought, "wait a minute...what's four corners doing up there? I think we were supposed to take that turn!" Back on track, we played leapfrog with an old guy who didn't mind driving 43 mph...but at least he was consistent!

Near Four Corners

Desert

We finally pulled into the launch site after about 13 hours of driving and met up with Paul, Phillip, and Arial (sp?)....leaving promptly to get some dinner. The next morning the guys got their boats ready and we leisurely packed up for the trip. After two days of travel, I was excited to get started.

Classic San Juan photo

Zach floating

Paul knew of a big petroglyph wall, so we stopped there to take some photos.

They're holding hands!

Quite a foot

Bighorn Sheep

He's pretty stoked about the Bighorn

A little ways down the river, there's a spot called "River House" with some ruins. This easily became one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was interesting to crawl around and imagine what life was like back in the day. (I imagine it was pretty much the same as what we were experiencing...HOT...but probably without all the beer.)

Zach screwin' off

River House

River House again

Interesting view from inside

View from River House

Well, we made it to the site of our first camp. I don't have any photos of it...

Let's just say it was kind of a foggy camp. I woke up in the morning with my tent just baking me alive in the sun. I went to put my contacts in and could only find one in the case! My heart started racing when I dug through my gear and figured out that I left all my extra contacts in Zach's truck at the put-in! I had my glasses, but couldn't wear sunglasses with those on...so it was fairly important that I had two contacts. LUCKILY, I found the lost plastic disc on my thermarest...dried to a crisp, but after a little soak I was able to make it work. Panic attack diverted. It was a pretty quiet float that Monday as Paul and I really didn't feel real good...but Zach was doing fine somehow. (High octane beers while dehydrated isn't a good combo. fyi)

Rare photo of floating in shade

Shady lunch spot

After a hotter-than-hell float, we made it to our second camp with ever-clearing heads and just kinda took it easy that evening. The cliff that was beside us was nice because it provided shade when the sun was up, but it held the heat and radiated it back on us all night. It was 88 degrees at 2130, just so you have an idea of what I'm talking about. You'd just lay in your tent and sweat...which became fairly common.

My tent - Camp Two

Camp life - Camp Two

I think this is out of order...

The next morning we got on the river and headed down to Mexican Hat. There's a Shell station about 500 meters from that launch site...so Zach and I walked up there for a cool drink, some ice cream, and a couple bags of ice. I'll tell ya, chugging a quart of powerade never tasted so good!

Mexican Hat

After leaving Mexican Hat we came to a little trail that led up to an old cabin. Paul kept an eye on the boats while Zach and I went up to take some photos. This guy Mendenhall obviously saw more promise in that country than I did...but reading some of the history, it didn't last long. Kind of a neat place for a little house though...but I think I would've mimicked the Indians a little bit more and found a more sheltered spot. That's just me I guess.

Mendenhall Cabin

Bigger view of Mendenhall Cabin

Well, it's going to get pretty hard to write much about the time on the river. It was hot and the water was generally flat. The surrounding country didn't really change too much, and the sun always seemed to be in the wrong spot for photos. Actually, the sun seemed to "stick" in one spot, no matter which way the river turned us. Overall, it was just hot. I compared it to Afghanistan with an 80-degree chocolate milkshake river running through it.

Kinda looks like Afghanistan doesn't it? It's hot enough...

Just a nice photo

We found a nice camp with about a foot of mud/silt that tried to steal your sandals whenever you'd walk around the shore. We stood in the rain and took photos, skipped rocks, played games with rocks and sticks, and...had some cocktails. For some reason, the drinks tasted good again! I personally think it was the salt that made it to the rim of my mug...because I damn near had to keep myself from licking it clean! Who knew that rock salt could taste so good?! Dehydrated much?

Camp Three

Camp Three again...storm brewing

My tent at camp three

I don't know why this photo intrigues me...common sight on the river

Well, something with the mud, the heat earlier that day, and the cocktails had an interesting affect on Zach. After smearing some mud on himself, a comment about the movie "Predator" brought on some interesting antics.

Zach playing in the mud - great pose!


Zach helped me out

Predator camo plus some errr, decoration

Zach cleaning up - I like this photo

Well, that went on for a little bit and then it turned into Zach's turn to have an interesting night. Paul and I stayed up that night and solved all the world's problems while Zach caught some sleep. We all skipped dinner as the heat had stolen our appetites. The heat stayed with us until darn near midnight...so Paul and I did a little late-night skinny dipping. All of a sudden, I had a great idea to swim across the river. I was pretty far downstream making my way back when Paul came around the bend looking for me. I didn't THINK I was gone that long...but...I'm glad he came for me.

That night I couldn't locate my sandals or shorts, so left them till the next morning. Again, another close call as Zach found my sandals below the raft (in the water?) and I found my shorts pretty close to the water's edge. It would've been pretty crappy to have lost my sandals that early in the trip! We all agreed from that point we needed to take it easy...just because you HAVE the alcohol doesn't mean you have to try and drink it all. I was pretty ashamed of myself...I was doing too many stupid things...so decided to reign it in a bit. We had made good time the day before, so we turned Wednesday into a layover day.

Layover day - morning view of camp

I found a little ledge above my tent in the shade, so pretty much stayed there the entire day. Every once in awhile I'd go down to the river and get soaked, letting evaporation keep me cool. Then I had a great idea to take my sleeping pad up there and just relax and read. I'm pretty sure I slept.

Self portrait at my ledge

Just a little bird - kinda sums up the feeling at the time

That night, around 0400, the temperature finally dropped a bit and it was the first time the entire trip that I actually draped PART of my brand new 40-degree bag over me. Our goal that day was the Honaker trail and we made it there quickly and went on a hike to the rim. It was a good trail given the country it was in, but something about being able to see the river out of the corner of my eye...a thousand feet below me...gave me some pretty good vertigo. Zach was bouncing around like the mountain goat he is, jumping gaps and standing with his toes over the cliff edge. Just watching him from 30 yards away made ME lean back from the edge for him. It was funny though, going back down I was fine. Must have gotten used to it...but I was still happy to be back on relatively level ground.

Paul on Honaker Trail

Zach coming up Honaker Trail

Viewpoint on top of the trail (our top)

View off the peninsula

River view from the Honaker Trail

Collared Lizard

We relaxed near the boats for a bit and watched some collared lizards catch bugs...they weren't concerned with us at all! On the river again, we rounded the bend to the camp Paul was gunning for and found it was taken. It was a big camp and the folks that we gave beer to offered to let us share it...but sensing that could be annoying with the most vocal gal in the group, we headed on downriver. Paul found a dandy camp under an overhang....shade and shelter! Perfect!

Just interesting

Just upriver from camp five

Camp five...not too shabby! Shade! Shelter!

My tent under the overhang

Sunrise from camp five

Boats at camp five - early morning

So the next morning, Friday, we pumped some water and had a relatively leisurely morning. We had a reserved campsite that night at Slickhorn, but only had about seven miles to get there. After floating down to our tamerisk and willow-choked camp (that looked oddly like a tiger run at a zoo) we wondered why we left our shady overhang! To avoid the 98-degree heat (in the shade) we spent a couple hours up to our necks in the river. It was getting muddier, if that's possible, and instead of not being able to see your hand two inches under the water, it went to one inch! Slickhorn canyon is famous for having some big rainwater pools in it, so we went on a little hike to try and find a bath. Unfortunately, the pools were pretty scummy, but interesting nonetheless. We did find one little dripping section that we could rinse off in.

Just getting to our reserved site at Slickhorn - Camp six

One of the pools up Slickhorn...not as pristine as we wanted

Tryin' to be artistic at the pool

Headed back to camp

On our walk back, we found a ninja-lizard who ran straight up a wall and then flew into the air to catch a cicada...right as Paul was walking by! It was bizarre...I didn't think lizards would jump and do flips for a bite to eat! That night we made curry and watched the bats catch cicadas as one thunderstorm was passing by. Then all of a sudden, all the bats disappeared as if someone flipped a switch! We sat there and talked about how weird that was, when the SECOND thunderstorm descended on us and released a TORRENT. Everyone scattered to their tents to attach the flies we had so adamently refused to put on this one time. It must have rained an inch in the hour-long storm...causing flash floods and overland flow in and around camp. I had to put my sandals under the corner of my ground cloth to keep the running water going UNDER me. Fairly exciting, but it was still hot in the tent. And I was fairly bummed that I'd be packing wet gear, but at that point...whatever.

My wet tent the morning after the storm

Early morning tent view - camp six

So, the next morning we wanted to get an early start...so everyone was up and at it when I went down to get some coffee. I had left my tent open and took my second cup of coffee up there to pack everything up. I grabbed my sweatshirt (I had been using it as a pillow) when something small fell from it and ran under my glasses case. Curious, I picked up the case and found a 1/4 inch scorpion! None of us had seen a scorpion before, so I called the guys up...we all got a look, but no photos. (Doing some research later, we agree that it was an Arizona Bark Scorpion...which is one of the most poisonous ones down there! One hit from this little bastard would have caused "severe swelling and pain / numbness / frothing at the mouth / respiratory difficulties / muscle twitching / and convulsions." Hmmm, how long was he in my tent? Dodged a bullet on THAT one!) Google it...fairly interesting.

Well, we had about 17 miles to go that final day so made it on the river by 1000. It was HOT. The river was FLAT. It was quite a trick finding the main current / channel to avoid getting hung up on the sand. When we did have to pull off a sandbar, it was weird to find the water only mid-calf deep!

Classic photo of the final day

Uhm...again

Grand Gulch...what IS that to the lower right?

Ahh, it's Grand Gulch flooding...that ledge is a designated camp!

With the recent storm, a lot of the side channels were actually carrying water. We found one tucked up a canyon (that we could actually row up to) with an impressive waterfall. Perfect spot for lunch!

Entrance to our falls / lunch spot

Parking available!

At least it LOOKED clean!

Interesting mud below the falls

Well, did I mention it was HOT? The float seemed to take forever. At one point we could see the clay hills near the take-out...but they were four miles out! With our speed averaging 3 mph, it was a brutal end to the day...being able to see where we needed to be, but not getting there for over an hour.

Kinda the view the whole last day

Hills are getting lower

We made it to Clay Hills and had the whole she-bang taken down and loaded in an hour and a half. All of a sudden, the float was over.

Take out at Clay Hills

View north from Clay Hills

Paul hauled Zach and I back to Zach's truck at Bluff and went on his way. We went back to the same restaraunt and had a late dinner, set up our tents, and called it a day. It got cool again that night, but when I woke up I was getting rained on! Sonofabitch! We packed up all our gear in the rain at about 0600 and headed back towards Denver. Taking the route up through Moab made it quite a bit quicker than through the San Juan mountains, about 8 hours total, but we ran into stop-and-go traffic right past the Eisenhower tunnel. THAT was annoying! So close, but so far!

We got back to Zach's house with some time to spare before my flight. We took showers and I made some phone calls to let everyone know I survived. Zach left me at the airport and security went smoothly. I got on the plane and was stoked to find out that the middle seat next to me was empty! And they were closing the doors! How did I luck out!? Hmm, too soon. Two parents and their child came running on the plane and pretty quick (after some seat shuffling) I had her and her noisy daughter next to me the whole time. Pretty much negated any sort of sleeping as they decided to talk, whine, and EAT the entire two hours we were in the air. Ugh, I was DONE with people by the time I got to Spokane.

The drive home seemed to fly by, and I was glad to not sweat while I slept.

I think I can speak for the guys...this trip really didn't do it for us. All our attention was on the heat. I think Paul summed it up the very best, "I don't really want to be done with this float, I just want to be comfortable."

Amen.