I don’t remember exactly when or how the idea for this trip came about, but I think Natalie suggested it first, inspired by the movie and book Into the Wild. I started researching locations and buying the gear months ago. Neither of us had any prior experience with backpacking and our only preparation was “reading up” and one overnight trip to Indian Cave State Park a couple hours away in southeastern Nebraska.
We arrived in Jackson last Sunday afternoon, did a little sightseeing around town, had dinner at a nice restaurant (The Bunnery), and spent Sunday night in a motel just north of town across from the National Elk Refuge. Early the next morning, our bulging backpacks behind us in the cab of the pickup and listening to Eddie Vedder's Into the Wild soundtrack, we headed toward the Gros Ventre. On our way, we stopped in at the ranger station in Jackson, as I’d read you should, to “check in,” tell them our plans and ask about current conditions – whether particular trails had been cleared, whether certain streams were too high to cross, etc.
The lady we talked to didn’t seem used to being asked such questions and didn’t have many answers. She told us generally that streams might be high and unsafe to cross, and pointed out the southern approach we were planning to take was all uphill. (“I know that,” I wanted to say. As a mountain man wannabe, I was probably too sensitive to perceived criticism, but her tone seemed to ask, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”) And no, they didn’t have the bear-resistant tubes I had heard they rented; we could get those next door at the visitor’s center. I gathered there was not really a procedure for “checking in” since she hadn’t asked our names or anything else about us.
“Does that help?” she asked, bringing the interview to an end.
“Yes," I lied. "Thanks."
We went next door to the visitor’s center where a man in a ranger uniform confirmed they did indeed have bear-resistant food containers. While he went to get one, another guy in civilian clothes gave us a sales pitch for bear spray. I told him we already had a can of pepper spray – the kind made for fending off muggers. He patiently explained that my little can of pepper spray would only make bears madder; I needed genuine bear spray – basically the same stuff but in a bigger can under higher pressure that projects a 30-foot fog. He was very convincing, and with my daughter standing there, depending on her city-slicker dad to protect her from bears and other dangers, how could I say no? I bought the bear spray, thinking of it as insurance against a highly unlikely event. I would soon know better.
With our bear spray and bear-resistant food tube, and wearing backpacks weighing 30-plus pounds each, Natalie and I headed “into the wild.” Our point of departure was a trailhead just southeast of Jackson on the Cache Creek Trail. For the first three or four miles, the trail was wide enough to accommodate tour groups in covered wagons. Gradually it narrowed to a ribbon of bare dirt and rock shared by hikers and mountain bikers, and then to an even narrower path kept barely intact by infrequent footsteps of humans and animals. 
The first several hours were indeed all uphill. We reached the top of a ridge between Cache Peak to our right and another unnamed peak to our left by early afternoon. As we climbed, the landscape gradually changed from forest to meadows full of tall flowers to snow drifts, huge rock slides, and rocky soil sparsely dotted with small, delicate-looking but hardy mountain flowers.
We had gone from an elevation of about 6,000 feet in Jackson to about 10,000 feet at the top of the ridge. The view was spectacular and we took several pictures. My heart was pounding from the climb and the altitude to which our bodies hadn’t acclimated yet. Natalie’s endurance was about the same as mine so we made good hiking partners.
We decided to go north along a trail that follows Flat Creek. With hindsight, this was not a great choice. The area around Flat Creek was heavily wooded and mosquito-infested. At least we were walking downhill now, going the same direction as the loud, swiftly flowing creek off to our right. Eventually we found a good-sized clearing between the creek on one side and a steep hill on the other and pitched our tent.
While looking for a good tree from which to hang our food for the night (a standard precaution in bear country), I noticed a smallish furry creature rolling around, apparently playing, a couple hundred yards up the hillside. I called Natalie over to look. As my eyes adjusted, the furry creature turned into two furry creatures, and two facts dawned on me: the two fur balls were bear cubs, and their mother could not be far away. By then Natalie had joined me and her eyes instantly found the mama bear a little to the left of the cubs. Mama bear looked right at us, and Natalie would later tell me she heard her make a bellowing noise just before the three of them scurried away.
Suddenly our clearing on Flat Creek didn’t seem like such a great campsite, but it was late and there was no guarantee we could find a better place before dark. I had learned the basics of bear safety, but couldn’t answer all of Natalie’s questions. Would the bears probably keep moving now that they’d seen us? Or did the fact that we’d spotted them here probably mean they lived here? And if one family of bears lived here, were there probably others? Once we’d disappeared into our tent, would they come snooping around looking for food? I don’t remember exactly how I answered these questions, but I couldn’t have sounded very reassuring since I had the same questions myself.
In the end, we decided to stay put. After dinner, with Natalie assisting, I did the best job I could of hanging our food, but I’d never done it for real, only practiced on a tree in our backyard. It turned out to be harder under game conditions than in practice. We also changed out of the clothes we’d cooked and eaten in and hung those too. This is a standard recommendation that I gather most campers don’t actually follow because of the inconvenience of it, but having seen bears 200 yards from out campsite, we were going by the book. After settling into our tent, playing a few hands of cards, and scanning the clearing and hillside several times without seeing the bears again, our nerves were a little calmer, and we turned in for the night.
Nights in the Gros Ventre were cold and that first one was the coldest and most restless. When I got up at first light there was frost covering our tent. I went straight to the tree we'd hung our food from, lowered the bags and bear-resistant tube and was relieved to find them untouched. While Natalie slept, I lit our small camp stove and made coffee and oatmeal. The warm food and drink was great in the cold mountain air. After breakfast, I did a few chores, woke Natalie, lit the stove again and made hot chocolate and oatmeal for her.
With breakfast done and our things packed, we went down to the Flat Creek to replenish our water supply. We purified our water with a battery-operated ultraviolet light. The first couple of times we collected water, we also ran it through a filter to remove any particles, but eventually dropped this step because the water was crystal-clear to begin with and the filter never trapped anything.
On Tuesday, we headed back up Flat Creek the way we'd come the day before. We had decided to hike to Turquoise Lake, a relatively short trek compared to what we'd done on Monday, and make our next camp there. Once again we were climbing, but our legs weren't as fresh and our bodies were still adjusting to the altitude. Around noon, we got back to the place where we'd started our side-trip down Flat Creek and this time headed east toward Turquoise Lake. We soon found ourselves climbing another ridge between two peaks, much as we'd done Monday. But this time we were starting from a higher altitude. This climb was shorter and the slope not as steep. When we reached the top of the ridge we were rewarded with the best, most panoramic views of the trip.
To be continued….
I really enjoyed reading the first installment of your "into the wild" adventure. I am still very excited by the fact you saw bears and survived to tell about it. The pictures are beautiful! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat BEAUTIFUL pictures! You're both much braver than I am.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures are incredible. I would so love to see that kind of natural beauty in person, but am not brave enough to go "into the wild" to do it. What a great father daugther experience - you & Natalie will be looking back on these shared experiences for years to come.
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