East Tensleep Lake, The Bighorns

We saw the silver car from Minnesota arrive and we soon had the salmon that Jenny had brought grilling over the open wood fire..It didn't take long after dinner was over and the maps came out as we started planning the next days hike to East Tensleep Lake.

Now we had already decided to hike up from the trail head to Lake Helen but East Tenslepp was tantalizing as we had never been there. Added to that, the campground host Cindy had suggested it as an easy(?) hike and said it was only two and a half miles one way. We really weren't concerned about the distance  as much as the elevation gain of 1600 feet but we figured it was a good warm up before we tackled the longer hike from West Tenspee,(We started at 8000 feet and the lake was 9600).
The next morning we packed our day packs and of course I packed mine to heavy. Besides the necessary goretex suit I put in a first aid kit, a water purification pump, emergency fire starter, my fly box, fly rod, a heavy duty knife for building a shelter, and of course lunch and water. Hmmmm, had I forgot anything?
The pack seemed fairly heavy as we started up the trail and we slogged along, ever upward as it seemed the trail was really a series of rocks over which atvs had scraped their way after leaving bits of metal and even the occasional transmission fluid.
We walked among the lodge pole pines, long and straight and they told of a old fire as we could see some blackened stumps from years ago. We walked and talked and rested as we really wanted to take it easy on Jenny, after all she had driven from Minneapolis and had come from 600 feet above sea level. Strangely the altitude didn't seem to bother her 30 year old body as much as it bothered us but we continued ever upward and onward.
I think it was Beverly Johson, the first female climber to solo EL Capitan, who said  climbing a mountain was just like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. So ever since I have always remembered what she said and have tried to concentrate on each step and not the whole journey.
We really couldn't see much, but we just kept slogging and finally we reached a opening where we could see the summit of Mount Darton. The tail forked and we knew we were near the lake! We took the left fork and then the right until the only hurdle left was the terminal moraine that dammed the lower lake of East Tensleep.

Scrambling up through gooseberry and raspberry bushes, darn it we had just missed their peak, Lower Tensleep Lake came into view. We stopped for pictures and to admire the high country and then hiked along the southern shore where water flowed from Upper East Tensleep lake. We had left the lodgepoles and were now among a forest of sub alpine furs and I was quickly reminded about their sap as I touched a branch and was rewarded with a gooey mess on my hands.

A fly fisherman looked at me funny as I asked him what fly was working and he grudgingly told me to use a black ant. We found a good rock on the shoreline and watched him catch several cutthroats as we talked and ate lunch. Jenny was soon napping and taking some rays and I left them as pika appeared among the rock piles.
A few casts later and I had a nice fish one. It jumper twice before tossing my fly and I missed several more before I eased a small but pretty cutthroat into my wet hand. Not really wanting to keep any fish I released it and continued to cast. Several more fish lost and I realized that my hook was damaged but it didn't really matter, it was simply a quick release.
Returning to Renita and Jenny we lazed away the afternoon before deciding to head down. I entertained them with my story of climbing Darton Peak from the east face, and told them about the close encounter we had had with lightening. That day an unseen storm had caught us unaware as we reached the peak, and my climbing friend Mark actually sounded like a transformer as his climbing gear literally buzzed from the electricity. It felt like worms were crawling in our hair ad we raced down from the peak, barely escaping from the bolt of lightening that crashed down above us.
There were no storms today and so we headed back down the trail. Renita cranked her way down the mountain trail and I found that I was the one lagging behind. now there is an unwritten rule for being in the mountains and it is that you only go as fast as the slowest member. Of course it means that everyone should be in shape for the hike, but it doesn't always happen that way and so its the responsibility of the party to keep together in case of an emergency.

So we kept together, with Jenny getting ahead and then waiting patiently for her two wards to reach her spot. Now I had felt great going up, yeah short on breath when I pushed it, but good none the less, and so I was surprised at the problems I began having going back downhill. My planer fascia started to give me problems and my hamstring ached and so I stopped to stretch.
The stretching helped and we continued down what seemed like a never ending journey. It really wasn't, of course, and we reached the truck about an hour and a half after we had left the high country lakes. Congratulating ourselves on making the hike we picked up firewood before returning to our fifth wheel which was parked at Sitting Bull Campground. I felt blessed to have had the day, hiking with Renita and Jenny. Clear skies.