A BEAR-y Rough Start In The Winds – Day 1

Day 1 – NEW GLACIER TRAIL

We spent the night before our journey in Dubois, WY. For those of your who know me, know that I always load up on carbs the night before any big event. You guessed it I headed out for drank, played pool and enjoyed the local bars $6 beer and shot special. By the end of the night it was just me and the gorgeous outfitter left that I had been chatting with most the night. It was time for the bar to close so like the gentleman I believe myself to be I walk the lady to her truck, where we continued our conversation. I was excited that she had a few dogs in the back that I was able to love on as well. The conversation ended and we split ways, it was bed time for me.

I woke up to the sound of my usual work alarm and a thump thump in my head from the events of the night before. Thinking “Damn woman, they are the reason for almost every man’s bad decisions”. We loaded up the car and headed off for the trail head to begin our hike.

Once to the trail head we unloaded all of our gear locked the car and headed off. About a quarter-mile in we came to a dead-end. “Well shit, this aint right”, I said to the other, so we turn around and headed up the correct trail. About another half a mile in Keith, the one that orchestrated this trip, blurts out a not so Christian “GOSH DARNIT”. “What’d you forget” I replied to him. “The damn spot locator”. The Spot Locator is used to send preprogrammed messages to loved ones and emergency crews to let them know our location and if we are okay or not. Thank god he realized the he had left it now, you’ll find out why on day 7 of out trip. Without hesitation I dropped my pack and ran back to the car to grab it. The rest of the morning was just slammed pack with breath-taking views and a great ass, aka gluteus maximus, workout from the incline. We had great morning weather and no mishaps, well at least not until lunch.

For lunch we found a great spot next to a creek to set up our stoves and plant our hinies. I was extremely hungry but mother nature had other plans first. With out hesitation I dropped my pack, grabbed my toilet paper and headed for a secluded place to take care of business. I found the perfect spot to rest my bum and tree to hold on to. I looked back to make sure I couldn’t be seen, then dropped my draws’. There’s a reason I’m telling you all this, I PROMISE. As I squatted down I realized that I most definitely was not out of sight. Everyone could see me and I could see everyone else. The spot was still to perfect not to continue, hoping that they didn’t look back I proceeded on. Then out of no where Melissa, Keith’s step daughter, hollers “come on, really Shawn” I didn’t really know what else to say but sorry. Every one laughed though.

As we were packing up lunch I had noticed that the cap of my bear spray fell off. You will not believe what I had to go through to put that sucker back on. You can read that short but very entertaining story here HERE . Trust me you DO NOT want to miss it.

After the bear spray ordeal we set off for our camp site which was just 2 miles up the trail at Double Lake, At least that’s what all the paper work had read. Around every bend there was no lake just more trail and even more miles. along the way we encountered a couple of hikers that we chitchatted with and the girls just had to tell the about the bear spray ordeal which helped brighten everyone’s mood as they laughed about it. We continued on the trail even though everyone was extremely exhausted but still in good spirits and lots of laughter over the excruciating pain I had endured over lunch. The lake and our camping site for the night was only supposed to be about 9 miles from the start and at this point we were at 12 miles with no signs of Double lake. We made the decision to make camp at 12 miles near Jeffery Lake.

I set up my one man tent as the others set up their 2 man tents before any rain would move in. Everything in and around the camo site was wet but we really wanted to have a fire and warm up a bit. I used my boy scouting skills to find the dryest wood I could and made me a tiny TP to get the fire started. It was not as easy I was hoping, most the wood still had some dampness to it. After a few minutes of struggling to get the fire started Melissa insisted that she took over with here ID, which I was opposed to working. I let her do her thing and dig a hole thinking that would help get it going, she then gave up and I started back at it. It only took a few minutes after that to get the fire goin’. We all surrounded it to warm up out hands and toes. After my fingers had warmed up I broke out the Jetboil to boil water for our food and coffee, while Melissa broke out the much-needed whiskey. It started getting dark after dinner and everyone was tired so we cleaned up and went to hang our food bags to keep the bears away.

It was cold and I was tired, but my easy task of hanging the food became an endeavor. I tied a small log to one end if the rope to throw over a branch. I get the line ready then trow the log, I made it on the first try, lucky me right? I’d think so to, except for the fact that it wrapped around the branch twice and over another twig. Fortunately after 5 minutes I was able to get it untangled, unfortunately I had to start all over. I tried several times this go around and nothing seemed to be going as planned. The line was getting tangled, the log would hit the branch and not go over it, I was Frustrated. I gave up and went to another tree where it worked like a charm. I tied off the bag, headed back to my tent and curled up in my bag and was out for the night.

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