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Geezer Trek 2006 Trail Day #3 (Thursday)
We were up at 6:30 AM in the early light (note the meadow to the northeast of where Colby is striking his tent), and like the seasoned pros we were, we got up, got our duds on, dropped our bear bags and started packing up and getting ready to head out. We had
decided the evening before to get breakfast on the trail in order to get
an early start- it's something we first did on Geezer Trek 2004 and we
liked taking breakfast and a As Tom was dealing with a nosebleed (hmmm, did Colby finally wig out and slug him? Gotta love those fights between room mates), we all heard a bull elk faintly bugle from up in Fawn Pass, where we were headed. Ross led us in prayer and we hit the trail at 7:39 AM. We knew we had a moderately strong climb (but not too bad) immediately ahead of us, but since we were carrying much less food- and that after cresting the pass we'd be heading mostly downhill- we anticipated no problems other than the weather and everyone stopping to take photos. (Karl later asked if we were Japanese. But then, he was the only one that wasn't carrying a camera.)
We hit the trail that was right next to our camp and headed west, away from our paradise. We passed beside the ranger's log cabin to our left and as we hiked through the timber it was a quiet group of geezers. Everyone's thoughts were on the fantastic experience we had had so far at Yellowstone and the humbling nature of an experience such as this. From the
time we left the campsite until we got almost to Fawn Pass we were hiking
in the heavily burned area from the 1988 fire, but with the heavy clouds
and the early morning it was great hiking- in the mid-40's and no wind.
(See Tom, Tony, Dave & Colby- above). After a good, steady climb we hit Tuesday's switchbacks, this time heading uphill, and made just a few short stops (about a minute or two for each) for a quick gulp of water to stay hydrated in the dry mountain air. Tom did the right thing and stopped us just as the trail was about to curve around and out of site of our campsite- truly a little bit of paradise we all hoped we'd get to see again some day. By now we were used to the heavily burned timber from the 18-year-old fire, and since it was cloudy and the early morning, it was great hiking. As we hiked in the increasing clouds and heavier timber, we had some very light freezing rain, but didn't need to put on our raingear because we already were wearing nylon trail gear.
We were impressed that we had gotten much more acclimatized to the high altitude, plus the heavy day of hiking and the day of rest, so the climb out was strenuous but not murderous. Dave remarked how easy it is to do hikes like this when everyone gets in shape, and the 45-minute morning climb from base camp into Fawn Pass certainly showed how right he was. As you can see from the photo, the fall colors were showing in the smaller plants, and the trail here was hard-packed dirt with only occasional horse pucks along the trail. NICE hiking. So as we
headed downhill we crossed a tiny stream below the pass where we had
decided to get our final water for the trip (since the Park Service had
warned us not to drink even
In no time at all we came back to the trail junction between Fan Creek (where we had come in the day before) and our new route out- along Specimen Creek. A quick drink of water and one last crossing of Fan Creek, then we headed uphill again.
But
this section of the trail was hardly used, and because it was a connecting
trail between the High Lake Trail and the Fan Creek Trail (and the horse
packers seemed to use one or the other) it had NO "gifts" from the mules
we had to walk around or smell. It was a really pretty stretch of
trail in mature timber, and had about a mile of mostly gentle uphill mixed
with some downhill stretches, heading mostly north to northwest. As
we headed along this lightly used trail, we saw our first and only grizzly
bear track of the trip. It wasn't a fresh track, but it was another We really enjoyed this section of the hike, even though we had some off and on again very light rain as the dark clouds rolled over us, heading east. The trail began a marked and more sharp downhill pitch in some sections now, which was gentle enough to make it very enjoyable- not so steep as to hurt the knees due to the loads we were carrying; more like a reward for all the effort we had put into the hike Tuesday as well as the climb up into the pass. As you can see from the photo above, our big worry of the morning was the weather; Tom was pushing things just a bit in case we got a major blow that came through. The clear blue skies of the last two days were gone.
After only hiking 1.3 miles from the Fan Creek trail junction, we hit our second trail junction of the day, this time turning us southwest down the Specimen Creek trail; you can see from the photo that it was pretty dark, thanks to heavy clouds and the deep forest cover around us. Now we would be following Specimen Creek in earnest, so we decided to take a good long pack break here. We all dropped our packs, watered up, ate our granola bars or raisins and took a good, long break from 10 until 10:15. It felt good to be headed downhill, and even better knowing that we were pretty close to the halfway point of our hike out. As you can see from this photo, the National Park service does a GREAT job of marking the trails- their signs at every junction, combined with the orange flag markers up in the trees make it pretty easy to stay on track. After
watering up and the usual clowning around, we hit the trail again at 10:17
and started As you will see from the warning sign (below), the Park Service had used a selective poison to kill off all fish in Specimen Creek so that they could re-stock with native species only. Unfortunately for us, it meant that we had to purify water at Fawn Pass and pack water the rest of the way out. Not that big of a deal- only about 3 quarts per person-- but when you're thinking about ounces you're trying not to carry, that extra water seems a little heavier than normal.
The creek was small at first, and as you can see from the photo, our first nice view of it was as it meandered through an open meadow before re-entering the forest as a rushing mountain stream. The Park Service gets major kudos for the way their trail crews have used timbers to build hiker bridges along this entire trail- from this point on we didn't even get our feet wet (!!) unless we were stepping through some small feeder streams or mushy meadows along the way. About two
minutes after taking this view in, we made our first crossing of the
creek, this one over a bridge (hooray for the Park Service!) made out of
two split pine logs that were neatly pinned into each bank of the creek.
Specimen Creek was At this point we were cruising. The drizzle stopped, the weather was co-operating, the hiking was virtually all downhill and the trail was hard-packed dirt with very few rocks, roots and horse pucks to impede progress. Very smooth, very enjoyable hiking, and we began to average about 2.4-2.6 miles per hour of fairly fast hiking.
Some interesting wildlife along here; several grouse were along the trail, including two males that were fighting it out as we happened along. There were some fairly steep downhill sections here that were tough on the knees, but not too many and not too long. We took
some very brief water breaks and kept on hiking- and why not?
Everyone was feeling good. As we dropped along the creek we came to another heavily scarred section from fire, this one covering many square miles of hillside- but fortunately, we didn't have to hike in too much of the scarred landscape. It was identical to the other areas of Yellowstone we had seen that had been through the fire, with standing dead timber, much downed timber- but the newly emerging pines coming up through the downed as a reminder that you can't have a mature forest without having a new forest first. After another half hour of hiking we came across another interesting feature- Grizzly bear scat on the trail. As we dropped downhill, hiking mostly above Specimen Creek, which rushed downhill next to the trail, we were hiking so quickly and steadily along that the miles seemed to be rolling by. Because the Park Service had placed mile markers at half-mile intervals (most of the time) we were easily able to gauge our pace, which was, for the most part, about a half mile every 13 minutes.
At noon we crossed Specimen Creek just above mile marker 2, and we crossed another one of the very well-made bridges made by the park service. The bridges alone made this trail a real pleasure- all were high, well-made and well above the high water mark. Of all of our years in the back country, we were all very impressed with the quality of bridges along Specimen Creek, as well as some of the raised earth berms over some of back-country bogs in the meadows.
And knowing we had already hiked 9 miles today, feeling fine, and with the bad weather clearly coming in from the west but continuing to hold, we figured we only had about 45 minutes to go after lunch, and all of it along the creek. Lots of smiles, no blisters and feeling just fine, even after nine miles of fast hiking. Not bad for guys that were all in the 50's. We hit the trail after about a half hour break, and as soon as we did, right around the next bend we had our third and last trail junction, indicating our last two miles to the trailhead!
Most of this stretch was just plain fun. As we hiked into a strong headwind, the mountainside to the immediate right of us and Specimen Creek to the left of us, the dark clouds continued to bring sprinkles of rain and the wind kicked up dust in our faces a few times. But when you're this close to the end things just seem easier. You can see from the photo that we were in a broad valley leading to the southwest and that we were mostly in the edge of tree cover hiking along this clearly marked trail. ("Just follow the horse poop, fellers. Close your eyes and let your nose take ya home.") After
about half an hour after lunch we heard our first trucks on US 191 (the
main drag between West Yellowstone and Billings, Montana, which just
barely crosses into the western edge of Yellowstone Park. Shortly
thereafter, we began to hear cars- and only forty minutes
Sure enough, at 1:45 PM we hit the trailhead and dropped our packs. Yowza! By this time, it had sunk in to most of us that the hike was over- and it had also sunk in that unlike some hikes we had done in the past, we really didn't want it to be! As you can see from the smiles on Karl, Colby, Tom, David and Ross as Tony took our picture at the trail head, we were proud to have hiked hard and well. And we
were already looking forward to a hot shower or two, a nap at the hotel
and a STEAK dinner in West Yellowstone. Our two drivers, Doc and
Tom, jumped into Tom's rental car and headed south along US 191 to pick up
Dave's rental car; after a short bit, they were back, we l Sure felt great to wash the grime from the trail off and to relax a bit. Ross called home and found out that his daughter was in labor with his second grandchild (Clara Joy, or "CJ" was born at 4:45 PM Montana time, in time to celebrate over dinner with the guys). So after dropping our packs and hosing off under some great hot water, we decided to hit Bullwinkle's for some dead burned cow. We celebrated Tony, Karl and C.J.'s birthday in style (after we finally got a seat in the joint, it was pretty busy that night). The food was great, the service was super and the Geezer jokes were flying fast and furious. As you can see, Tony and Tom were all smiles. Tomorrow was a drive back through Yellowstone to Jackson, where we caught the flight back to our families in Atlanta. A great end to a great trip.
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Thursday
morning we were a bit worried. Dark clouds had formed over the night
to the west and were bringing rain, and we decided to push it a bit for
safety's sake. 
long pack break at the same time.
We did
GREAT. Tom had a great, very steady pace as always, and before we
left we all peeled off our
jackets, knowing we'd be warm from the exertion shortly.
But
in no time at all we were not only at Fawn Pass, but over the pass and
heading downhill like a skateboard on a mountain church parking lot.
Amazing. 
treated water in Specimen Creek due to their
using a fish killer). We dropped our packs, and Doc and Tony treated
water for us- until Doc's filter broke. (That's why you carry two!
Breakfast was a brief affair- no one was tired and we were feeling great.
reminder of what the Backcountry Office had told us about bears using the
trail heavily at night and the caution we had to use back in bear country.
When
you see the high mountain meadows set among the tall trees, you can more
easily understand why the deer, bison and elk loved coming into this
country during the Summer. 
our decent down Specimen Creek.
beginning to get significantly bigger- the photo to the right (below)
shows just how bigger it was within a short span of time. You can
also see how clear and pristine it is as well. 
In
no time at all we hit the 6 mile marker (only 6 miles to go), and we all
started doing the mental arithmetic as to how long it would take us to get
to the trail head. The weather cooperated well, with mostly dark
clouds and very light sprinkles, with little wind or other "issues" to
impede our mostly gentle downhill drop along the creek.
On
the other side of the creek
was a broad gravel bank up above the creek and a great place to stop for
lunch at noon. Taking our packs off for the first time in almost two
hours, we had a nice stream-side lunch of beef sticks, cheese, Clif bars
and other delights.
Ah,
the final stretch! 
after
leaving our lunch site next to the creek, we saw the road up ahead. 
oaded
up and we headed south for West Yellowstone.
