4th of July Weekend part 2 (Golden Trout Lake)

Well, this post shouldn't be as long as the last one but here goes.

On Saturday, Sean, Stephanie, Eric, his two corgis, Sam and Dillon, and I started driving towards Big Sky, south of Bozeman. There are many trails along the Gallatin River throughout the Gallatin Canyon. Our hike started up the Portal Creek drainage.

The hike to Golden Trout Lake is about 2.5 miles and probably gains about 1000' vertical, though most of the vertical seemed to be concentrated at the end of the hike (always convenient). My legs and shoulders were still a little sore from the day before but we all made it fine. Along the way we had a number of stream crossings and passed a few people who had been fishing and a group of maybe 20 people on 10-15 4 wheelers. There were a friendly bunch but we could hear those engines from a long ways away when they started up again.


When we got to the lake we admired the view for a little bit and started setting up camp. The weather had been a little rainy all day and isolated thunderstorms were in the forcast for the entire area so we wanted our tents up as soon as possible. With our shelter in place we started on the important task of dinner. We had a variety of good food. Our main course is a Sean specialty: Velveeta Shells and Cheese. Just boil the water, add the shells and squeeze the cheese out of a foil bag. No messing around with water or butter like with Kraft Mac and Cheese. Then we added cut up summer sausage to the mix for some added flavor and protein. mmmmm! We also had a variety of chips and some trail mix. Eric actually went with his own camping staple, Ramen noodles. Even cheaper and easier than Shells and Cheese, though I'm not sure about the taste.

Throughout dinner we were having problems with the fire since most of the wood around was fairly wet. It would be going well and then die down and then some wood would dry out enough and then flare up again. Mostly it was a lot of smoke and ashes coming out. Which did cause a little problem when an ember landed on Stephanie's ThermaRest and made a hole and deflated it (this of course did not make her happy). Luckily the hole was not big and she was able to patch it up with some tape which ended up holding for most of the night. After dinner we cleaned up a bit and then boiled some water for some hot chocolate, it was beginning to become a chilly evening, so this hit the spot. Of course, the butterscotch Schnaps in each cup didn't hurt either!

Pretty much immediately after we finished our hot cocoa rain started falling and we could hear a little thunder in the distance to the west. We started packing all of our food up and put it into bags which we had to hang from a tree. Nearly everywhere in the Montana Rockies is Grizzly bear country, so you have to take precautions with your food so as to not attract bears to the door of your tent. As we were hanging the food the rain started coming down in earnest.

Just as we finish and all head to Sean's tent, the 4 of us and two dogs (luckily small dogs) piled into the three person tent. We were going to have a nice game of cards to wait out the rain before going to sleep. Well, so much for that plan. Not 5 minutes after we got in the tent, the hail started. Just beating the tent relentlessly. We couldn't hear each other without yelling, we could hardly hear the thunder that was getting louder and louder and coming increasingly shortly after bright lightning flashes. For 10 or 15 minutes we basically sat there in stunned silence smiling and laughing at the incredible storm outside. At the high point the thunder didn't wait for the lightning to stop before sounding. A number of the flashes lit up or tent like the noon sun, fully illuminating everyone in the tent for an astonishing moment. The only one of us that didn't enjoy the storm was little Sam, who was panting and trambling like a Quaking Aspen. (sorry, I had to throw that metaphor in since Aspen groves are so prevalent out here) Eric wanted to take Sam on a trip out of Bozeman for the night of the 4th since she hates fireworks, which had been going off every night from 10pm to 1am sometimes. Unfortunately we ended up going through something much closer and louder. Finally as the hail let up and the rain started to fall again and the thunder receded to the east we opened up the tent door to peer ourside. It was a winter wonderland of hail. The ground was completely white, covered an inch deep in 1/4" hail stones. It was flabergasting, but again, we could only laugh at the whole experience. We were just thankful that we had gotten into the tent when we did.

Before too long Steph and I made our way to my tent and quickly got into our sleeping bags, stuffing clothes for tomorrow into the bottom of them, knowing that anything left out in the tent would be frigid by morning. (getting out of a warm sleeping bag into cold air, pulling on cold t-shirts, socks, and/or underwear is not fun, I know this from experience)

The next morning greeted us all with a chill and a mist hanging in the camp site and over the lake. The ground was still covered with white pellets and our thoughts were fully on packing up and getting hiking, which would finally warm us up. None of us thought (stupidly) to bring a stocking hat or gloves (except Sean, he brought gloves). We were all waiting for him to act out the scene from Dumb and Dumber where he peeled off an outer pair of gloves because his hands were too hot and another one of us could be warm. Alas, this was not to be and all of our hands stayed cold as we packed tents and sleeping bags and lashed things to our packs.

The hike back was uneventful and it kept us warm the entire time. The weather did clear up for most of the hike, which was nice, though it started pouring again just as we got into the car. We had a nice ride back to town and unpacked and hung up all of our wet stuff.

Thus ends the 2nd part of my wonderful July 4th weekend of 2004.