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Troop 24 - The High Adventure Troop
Bridger or Bust
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Troop 24 - The High Adventure Troop
Bridger or Bust
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The morning of day 9 began with a little dissension. Greg and some of the other guys got up to go fishing. Rather than go quietly and let the rest of us sleep, they made a lot of noise and made sure that everyone was awake. I told them to be back at eight for breakfast. At eight, the fishermen were all gone so I yelled across the lake for them to get back or miss breakfast. At twenty till nine, I told the cooks to tell everyone to put out their bowls for dishing out the granola.
Brian came running up and was able to get his in line in time to get his share. Greg, Bill P., and Adam were all missing and didn't get any granola. They came straggling in about nine. They weren't too happy with me to miss breakfast (although there was plenty of Chicken Noodle soup left).
We finally got packed up and headed out enjoying our fourth sunny morning in a row. It doesn't take long to go down the Baldy Lakes trail to the junction with the Bell Lakes trail (.3 mi.), a short lateral trail between the Highline and the Fremont trails.
After the junction the trail climbs for a couple of hundred feet and starts a long descent. There are a few tricky spots near the top as the trail ends in a very marshy meadow, but if you stay to the high ground to the left, you find the tread again as it leaves the meadow.
The descent to the Highline trail is through open woods and is pretty boring. It doesn't take long however, and abruptly you come upone a couple of trail signs at the junction with the Highline trail. The sign states that Elkhart Park is just 13 miles down the trail. We have come 1.6 miles from our camp at Baldy Lake.
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We take a break for lunch and to fish the Chain Lakes, one of which is just below the trail junction. Soon Cary and Charlie come back and hed for the next lake which is about a half a mile away. Charlie says he wants to try some water that hasn't been fished by Peckinpaugh. Eventually, everyone comes back and heads down to the next lake. There are a lot of bigger fish in the next Chain Lake but they ignore all our offerings. After fishing awhile most of the crew heads out for Pole Creek Lake. Brian, Kyle, Andrew, and Danny stay behind. Brian tries out his fly rod and catches a pretty big one. When we measure it on the rope, we find it is about two inches short. I tell him that we will play a joke on his dad, and tell him that Brian's fish is bigger. I tie a knot about an inch and a half ahead of the knot for Bill's fish. |
We take off and follow the trail the two miles down to Pole Creek Lake. The trail is very easy with no climbs and we are in camp by early afternoon.
Pole Creek Lake is very shallow and is more like a wide spot in Pole Creek. The guys go take a bath and have a big mudfight in the shallow waters near our camp. Brian dons his swimsuit and tells the rest not to throw mud at him, and of course they promise not to until he gets out to them then it really flys.
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The fishing isn't much good. Bill and Charlie head downstream to 1000 Island Lake and don't have much luck their either. Austin finds a bunch of old lures snagged on rocks at the inlet stream. I try my hand at fly fishing in the stream and manage to catch a few fish about 4 to 5 inches long. Soon a card game is going and we are all happy to have an easy day. The campsite appears to be heavilly used, in as much as it is on the main trail. It is a large camp, so we can spread out a little more than the previous three nights. In the evening, the clouds return and we get some more rainstorms. The good weather was welcome while we had it. As we sit around the fire the talk turns to the end of hike burger feast. We have just about had it and are ready to get out.
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(Second Crossing) |
In the morning the clouds are gone and the sun is shining. We hope we have another good day. As we pack up the piles of food and troop gear are getting very small. Our first task is to ford Pole Creek again. By this time we are getting to be old hands and we are over the creek in good time. As we are putting our boots on, a couple of old codgers come up and ask how we are doing. They are from Utah and out for a few days. They're not sure where they are going yet. We say our goodbyes Just beyond the ford is the junction with the Pole Creek Trail. The Highline trail heads up Pole Creek toward the Cook Lakes. We turn right on the Pole Creek Trail and and begin climbing soon after the junction. The clouds began rolling in as we finished breakfast, and it was pretty grey as we climbed up Monument Creek. As we take a break a couple of cowboys from the Baldy Mountain Packers pass by with a pack string.
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The trail crosses Monument Creek and climbs after a few switchbacks up to a plateau with rolling terrain of rocks, trees, and small ponds through which the trail winds its way. It begins to rain hard and Andrew and I take refuge under a convenient pine tree. We watch Charlie, Greg and Adam continue on up the trail in the rain.
In a few minutes it lets up a bit and we go on for about a hundred yards and it starts coming down in bushels this time, along with thunder and lightning which rolls over us from west to east.
After about 10 minutes the rain stops and we head out again. In a few minutes we catch up to the rest of the group who had also taken refuge. By the time we round Mary's Lake(3 miles from Pole Creek crossing), the sun has come out again. The skies are blue by the time we reach Eklund Lake and take a break for lunch.
At Eklund Lake, the Pole Creek trail meets up with the Senaca Lake Trail. It's not far to the cars and most of the boys want to head out today. (When you get the "Out Bug" it is pretty powerful). I tell them that it would be late afternoon when we got out and pretty late before we got the cars switched from Willow Creek. It would mean paying for another night's food and lodging which we had not budgeted for and which some people didn't have the money. There was grudging agreement that we had to stay one more night as planned.
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Down the trail we went. The cutoff to the Sweeney Lakes Trail is just .4 miles down the trail from Eklund Lake. As we regrouped at the trail junction, we met a mother and son coming down from climbing in Titcomb Basin. They were also from Washington state. The trail drops down past Upper Sweeney lake and it isn't long before we are at Middle Sweeney. We find a so-so camp near the upper end of the lake. I send Brian and Jason out to scout the lower end to see if there was a better camp. They came back having found no better sites so we set up for our last night. Jon finds another big log and chops up a good supply of firewood. We get a good fire going as a couple of rain showers sweep over us. Greg gets his rod and tries for the last time to get a golden trout. As in previous golden trout lakes, we don't see any fish rising and he gets no strikes. We have dinner, and sit around the fire talking about burgers and old times. |
