MIGHTY
RIVER
Day
6 started out cold, with fog rising off of Bridger
Lake. Our goal for the next couple of
days was to follow the Yellowstone River upstream to its source. That was 20 miles away, so I was hoping to
cover as much ground as possible on day 6.
We
packed up early and hiked back to the meadow at the Hawks Rest patrol
cabin. We passed by the bridge over the
river, continuing upstream in the shadow of the cliffs of Hawks Rest. This trail gets less use, and it was a bit
overgrown with wet vegetation.
We
enjoyed pleasant, easy walking despite the occasional mud pit. After a couple of miles, I spotted something
moving among the willows close to the river.
It was far away, and all I could see was that it was large and
brown. My first thought was moose, since it was browsing in the willows. Then I got a clearer look, and it was
obviously a bear. Larry and I watched it
for a while, but it was too far way to determine if it
was a black bear or a grizzly.
A
bit later we arrived at a large outfitter camp.
As we walked in, a whole herd (?) of prairie dogs scattered, running
every which way. They all took cover,
but a few popped back up to keep an eye on us.
As
we were passing through the camp, I spotted something odd in a hole in the
ground. At first
I thought it was ice, but it turned out to be a block of salt. Although it is illegal, some outfitters
continue to plant blocks of salt in the Teton Wilderness in
an attempt to draw elk out of Yellowstone National Park. This one was right in the campsite, directly
in front of a tree stand. Sporting, huh?
A
bit later we passed an old overgrown trail heading uphill towards Hawks
Rest. There was even an old sign that
said, “Hawks Rest”. I was surprised, as
I thought the only route up was a bushwhack.
A little farther on, we passed a better trail heading in the same direction. I’m guessing that one or both of those trails
goes up to the top of the butte.
Originally, I had hoped to include that in our agenda, but we didn’t
have enough time. The best strategy
would be to camp along the river near the bottom of those trails and dedicate a
˝ day to the side trip.
We
finally reached the south end of Yellowstone Meadows a bit later. We continued upstream, loosely paralleling
the river. The next stretch of trail was
through a mixture of woods and smaller meadows, generally well above the river.
Late
that morning an outfitter group with clients and horses on a pack string passed
us by. We chatted with the guides
briefly. They were very friendly and
interested in our trip. The clients were
another story. I kept trying to make eye
contact with them, but none of them would look at me. Did they think we were homeless? Maybe they thought we were going to ask them
for money. Or food. Beer? Maybe
whiskey. I definitely
would've taken a beer or whiskey if one of them had offered.
We
had lunch at a nice spot along the river.
While the morning had been cool with pleasant
hiking, the afternoon was a different experience. We spent the rest of the day in heavy timber,
and the trail was in terrible shape. Every
minute or two we had to climb over, crawl under, or find a way around a fallen
tree. Later we found out that it would
have been worse if we had arrived a day earlier. We ran into the outfitters we had met the
next morning, and they told us that they had cut their way through the worst of
the deadfall. As bad as it was, it was
hard to imagine it being that much worse.
Larry
and I were both struggling by late afternoon.
The trail conditions had slowed us to a crawl. To make it worse, the cool morning had
evolved into a miserably hot afternoon.
We finally reached a small meadow at the base of Woodard Canyon. I had originally hoped to go farther, but it
was late and the campsite there was too nice to pass up.
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