The moring came cold and cloudy. After about 3 miles of climbing we came to a high pass at the head of Sawmill Creek. Old trail posts and signs, as well as the guidebook and maps all pointed over and down. New trail tread, posts and alterations on the sign pointed up. We followed the new trail as it toured the basin at the very head of Little Sheep creek, then ascended a spur ridge of Garfield Mountain and switchbacked down a series of ridges and basins to the Sawmill Creek trailhead, where it joined up with the old trail. Although it added a mile or two of distance and …
Winds picked up overnight and blew the hazy smoke away, leaving behind bright stars and a dusky milky way. The morning was cold and the sun did not penetrate the narrow canyon holidng Deadman Lake until after we were gone. The trail left the lake and went up, straight up, the east side on a 20% grade, a grind first thing in the morning.
We were back on the divide and rolled on through open high country, dominated by sage. The temps remained cool all day and made for nice walking.
Shortly after leaving Bannack (that’s Bannack with two “a’s”, not to be confused with Bannock pass with an “a” and …
We walked out from the woods which surrounded our campsite to a barren sagebrush land dominated by rolling ridges and cattle.
Walking beneath 18 Mile Peak, a glaciated beauty, we passed Harkness lakes, really just a bunch of treeless cattle ponds. Private lands with a swarm of cattle lie at the head of a couple creeks creating a cow cesspool. We continued along the rolling ridges descending to Bear Creek, where Sandy and the Carrot went in search of a spring in an aspen grove, and found cold fresh water. We crossed Tendoy Creek and then at Nicholia Creek we started back in a general upwards direction.
In the Nicholia creek …
Walked across a washboard of ridges along the base of Baldy Mountain. The change from big basin sage land to glaciated mountain face is sudden and dramatic. We walk in the crease of this transition.
A thick layer of smoke obscures the mountains in the distance. It seems to be from distant fires, so it’s not a worry, but it does change the mood from cheerful to more dreary.
A cold, clear spring emerges from under a tree at the base of a talus slope in the Tex creek valley. Cows are nearby and all over it, but the first few feet haven’t been fouled, so Sandy scoops out the mud and …
The trail conntinues to follow a jeep track as it works it’s way up and down along the divide. These are wide open grasslands, dotted with sage and other dry climate vegetation. This is home to elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope and prairie falcons among other animals, including cows. But this range land is not some flat western basin. This land is buckled and brash, with steep slopes and sudden drops offs. These are rolling rangelands, a vast western landscape all jumbled up – this is vertical rangeland really.
So up and down we went, laboring under the incessant sun. Sometimes on the CDT, it’s possible to imagine what Sisyphus …
