LET IT SLIDE

The plan for our next backpacking trip was a hike up to Slide Lake. We’d spend two nights there, and attempt to summit Lost Eagle Peak on the day between. On the third day, we’d hike back down to the trailhead at Lower Green River Lake. We also planned to include a side trip to Clear Creek Natural Bridge.

We broke camp at the Green River Lakes Campground and drove over to the parking area for the Highline Trail. We finished packing there and headed down the Highline Trail to the lakeshore. We crossed a sturdy bridge over the Green River at the outlet and continued along the east shore of Green River Lake. It was a warm, partly cloudy morning, and the trail featured spectacular views of the peaks beyond the lake.

We continued to the upper end of the lower lake and turned onto the Clear Creek Trail. A short climb brought us into the Clear Creek valley. We passed above Clear Creek Falls, which is a small waterfall in a narrow canyon. I tried to get a look at it, but views are restricted by the vertical canyon walls.

The really spectacular scenery was just ahead. We continued up the trail, and the valley opened up ahead of us. It was perfectly framed by the rugged cliffs of Osborn Mountain and Flat Top Mountain on either side of the valley. The valley is mostly open meadows surrounding the rollicking water of Clear Creek.

We continued up the valley until we reached a junction with the Slide Lake Trail. We stashed our packs in a small stand of scrubby trees and continued up the valley. Our goal was the Clear Creek Natural Bridge, which is less than a mile up the valley beyond the Slide Lake Trail junction.

We enjoyed more great views in the upper valley. Before long, we got a clear view of massive Slide Creek Falls on the far side of the valley. We passed above some marshy areas, and walked right by a hot spring without being aware of it.

Before long a rocky ridge loomed ahead of us. Clear Creek cuts right through it, forming an impressive natural bridge. We checked out both sides of it. Interestingly, the entrance is much larger than the outlet. We had lunch there, and afterwards I explored around a little. A bit farther upstream is a pretty pool that must have a spring at its base. The trail continues beyond the natural bridge, but it is no longer maintained. Apparently, it is still possible to follow the trail all the way to Clear Lake, but it requires a lot of bushwhacking through deadfall.

We backtracked to where we’d left out packs and pondered our next move. There used to be a bridge over Clear Creek, but a flood dislodged the bridge and deposited on the bank downstream. Crossing at the bridge site wasn’t an option due to high water and powerful rapids. I scouted upstream and down, looking for a place to cross. While I was looking downstream, I ran into 2 other backpackers, wearing jeans. They were looking for a place to cross, too. When I first encountered them, they were on the trail ahead of me. I heard one ask the other, “At what elevation do deer turn into elk”. I knew right then that I was going to like those guys. They were brothers from Colorado, but originally from Casper, Wyoming. They were on a family camping trip, but had decided to get away for a few days in the wilderness.

I found possible spots to ford the creek both upstream and downstream from the former bridge site. However, neither spot looked easy. We decided to try the upstream spot. We followed the trail upstream a short distance before dropping down to the stream bank. We switched to water shoes and hoisted our packs. Christy went first, and really got pushed around by the thigh-deep water and powerful current. My pack was much heavier than hers, and I knew I’d never make it. I went a little farther upstream, to a point where the stream was slightly wider and the current was more spread out. I crossed there at an angle, and it was sketchy. I was able to maintain my balance though, and kept my feet. Reaching the far bank was a relief!

Our next challenge was finding the trail. We were in a large, marshy meadow, and there was no sign of an official trail. The map shows the trail running parallel to the creek, but quite a distance away from it, on the far side of the meadow. There was a bit of a beaten path heading the way, so we decided to follow it.

This stretch was tedious, and it was tricky keeping our feet dry. We finally reached the far side of the meadow. We didn’t see an obvious trail there, either, but there was another beaten path. We followed it east all the way to Slide Creek. A scrawny footlog spans the creek, but it looked sketchy. Instead, we hiked downstream a short distance and found a good place to ford. We changed shoes again, waded across, and changed shoes one more time. We finally found an obvious trail on the far side of the footlog. We were just heading out when the guys from Casper appeared. They had survived the Clear Creek crossing, but were eying the footlog with uncertainty. They were young guys, so I figured that they would catch us quickly on the long climb up to Slide Lake.

We followed the trail into the woods and began a long series of switchbacks adjacent to Clear Creek Falls. At one of the lower ones, I dropped my pack and followed a goat path over to the base of the waterfall. Slide Creek Falls is a long, steep, powerful slide. It’s not terribly photogenic, but still worth seeing.

We continued up the switchbacks, eventually passing by the brink of the falls. From there, we continued up the Slide Creek valley, passing a run of cascades. The creek finally calmed down when we reached a large meadow. We enjoyed an easy stroll along the edge of the meadow. Beyond, we re-entered the woods and reached Fishbowl Spring. Most of the creek disappears underground a short distance upstream, only to emerge at the spring. The feature is well-named, as it was full of small trout.

We endured a grueling climb beyond Fishbowl Spring. The elevation gain from the spring to Slide Lake is only around 500’, but it seemed like a lot more. This stretch was actually a lot tougher than the switchbacks leading out of the Clear Creek valley. We passed some impressive cascades shortly before reaching the lake. Finally the lake appeared through the trees. The trail led directly to a fantastic campsite in the timber, with the lakeshore just beyond.

The campsite is in open forest, and features endless options for hanging hammocks. It also provides a spectacular view. I didn’t see any reason to scout for other campsites, because this one was perfect. We dropped our packs and began setting up camp.

The guys from Colorado arrived about 30 minutes later. We chatted for a bit before they continued around the lakeshore. The ended up at a campsite about a hundred yards away.

That evening featured spectacular alpenglow at sunset. Incredibly, there were almost no mosquitoes. The combination made for an incredibly pleasant evening. We went to bed shortly after dark, as we had a big day planned for the next day.

LOST EAGLE

We got up at first light the next morning. I took more photos of the reflections in the lake before making breakfast and coffee. Then we loaded up my pack and headed back down the trail.

The main route to Lost Eagle Peak was pioneered by the legendary Finnis Mitchell on horseback. The trail isn’t official and isn’t on any map I’ve seen, but it exists on the ground. It starts from the meadow below Fishbowl Spring and heads up an unnamed valley west of Slide Lake. Getting to it requires either wading Slide Creek in the meadow or bushwhacking from Fishbowl Spring. We decided to try the bushwhacking route.

We hiked the trail back down to the spring and then started bushwhacking across the hillside above it. We thought this would enable us to avoid the creek crossing, but before long we reached a fair-sized stream that isn’t shown on the map. Apparently when water levels are high, only part of Slide Creek disappears underground. We were able to rock hop this one though. We bushwhacked up and away from the creek. The hiking wasn’t bad, and before long we stumbled upon the old horse trail.

We followed the horse trail on a steady climb. At one point, we crossed a small stream. Just downstream was a neat little low-volume waterfall with a grotto behind it.

We climbed up through woods and meadows. Eventually the valley closed in, and we found ourselves at the base of the final climb to the pass. We worked our way up a rocky gully as the views began to open up all around us. We reached the pass on White Rock Ridge and followed the Knife-edge ridge over to a second pass. From there, spectacular views opened up to the south and southeast. The vista included Squaretop Mountain, Granite Peak, and the rugged mountains and glaciers along the continental divide. In the other direction, we could look down on Slide Lake. Farther up the ridge, views opened up to include Green River Lakes and the mighty Tetons in the distance.

One more climb led to the plateau of Lost Eagle Peak. We continued on to the summit, enjoying incredible views in every direction. From the summit, we circled the plateau. From the north edge, we enjoyed amazing views of Slide Lake and the remote upper portion of Slide Creek. From the east side, we looked down on the beautiful Elbow Lake #2. The tallest peaks and largest glaciers in Wyoming loomed in the distance.

From there, we continued circling the plateau before backtracking down to the pass on the knife-edge ridge. At that point we had a decision to make. Return by the same route, or attempt a “short cut”? Incredibly, Christy wanted to try the short cut. That would take us down a gully to the north, eventually following an unnamed stream that feeds into Slide Lake. I was leery about it, but thought it would work. My only concern was the final descent to Slide Lake. That looked very steep on the map. It would be challenging to avoid the cliffs surrounding the lake.

The initial descent was steep but straight-forward. From there, we enjoyed some relatively easy hiking downstream. Before long, we had a decision to make. What was the best route down to the lake? The creek itself didn’t look like a good option, as it cuts down through a narrow canyon. My initial thought was to angle well east of the creek. However, the bushwhacking in that direction looked nasty. Incredibly, there was a faint trail heading west. And somebody had ridden a horse on it! We decided to follow it.

Well, we tried. The trail was faint, even with the apparent horse use. We crossed a rock slide area, but regained the path. Eventually one faint path devolved into several semi-imaginary trails. We began a descending traverse, angling down to get below the cliffs farther to the west. Eventually that route became unappealing, and we began working our way slowly down the steep slope. It seemed to take forever, but we finally reached a faint path along the lakeshore.

We thought we had it made. We were wrong. The trail around the southwest side of Slide Lake sucks. It’s nothing more than a fisherman’s path, blocked with lots of deadfall. We worked our way slowly around the lake, bushwhacking around and through the deadfall and boulders. We eventually reached the outlet, which is cluttered with driftwood. Christy waded across barefoot, while I picked my way across the logs.

We reached camp by late afternoon, and spent the evening relaxing after a truly spectacular hike.

We hiked back out the next morning. On our return, we tried a different route crossing Clear Creek. Instead of fording Slide Creek, we followed it downstream to the confluence. My theory was that crossing Clear Creek would be easier upstream from the confluence, since Slide Creek adds a lot of water to the combined stream. It seemed like a good idea, but it didn’t work. We didn’t see a reasonable place to ford upstream from the confluence. So we waded Slide Creek and headed downstream. Before long we reached a spot that looked promising. This crossing was tricky, too, but we managed. From the far side, we bushwhacked up through wet meadows to regain the trail.

From there, we enjoyed a pleasant trail hike back to Green River Lakes. That afternoon, we drove back to Pinedale. My original plan had been to car camp at the Scab Creek Trailhead that evening and start our next backpacking trip the next day. However, we both felt like we could use a recovery day. Once we got close to town, I checked on hotels in Pinedale. We had reservations for the Hampton Inn there, but not for another few days. The date of that reservation no longer worked due to the changes we had already made to our trip. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to change it, as the hotel was booked that night. I cancelled our original reservation, and we booked a night in a cheaper hotel. Our new plan was to spend the night there, and take a day off the following day. We’d start our next backpacking trip the day after that.

We rolled into town, checked into the hotel, and took showers. Then we headed over to the Wind River Brewing Company for dinner and beers. We ordered way more food than we could possibly eat, but that was ok. Half of a cold cheeseburger makes for a great lunch!

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