Pete and I decided to go on a little backpacking adventure this last weekend. We went to the Sawtooths in Idaho. We arrived in Stanley Idaho Friday afternoon and caught a shuttle across Red Fish Lake. The boat ride cost us 30$ but it was well worth it because it cut 4 miles off of the hike both ways. The lake was really pretty and the water was so clear. The hike to our campsite was just 3 miles +/-. The first 2 miles were nice and easy but after crossing the river on a bunch of wobbling tree trunks the hike got substantially harder. 
The last mile was all up hill and seemed like it would never end. Not to mention the fact that I made matters considerably worse by demanding breaks every 50 feet or so :) (Thanks Pete) When we finally got to where we were headed we found the perfect camp site on a rock right next to the lake. 
We set up camp and had dinner. 
After Dinner Pete read the regulations on the camping permit we had picked up on our way in and it turns out that our perfect campsite was prohibited. We had to be at least 100 feet away from any lake...so we had to pack everything up and move to another spot which ultimately turned out to be just as nice of a campsite if not better. Saturday morning we woke up early and headed out to climb the Mountaineer's Route on Elephant's Perch. This little piece of paper was the only thing that kept us going in the right directions. Pete stopped frequently while climbing to look at this topo and make sure he was headed in the right direction.
The climbing was great and we had a lot of fun. There were 7 pitches total and then a little bit of hiking/scrambling to reach the summit. 
I made Pete lead all of the pitches because I'm not feeling confident on lead yet. 
Here we are at the 1st belay station. 
The 3rd pitch was one of my favorite pitches. Mostly because it was so pretty but also because their was some fun climbing too. The 3rd pitch started under this amazing roof. Luckily we didn't have to climb over it. Instead we did a fun traverse out left.
The 6th pitch was another one of my favorite pitches. I liked it because there was this super sweet crack that I could fit my whole leg into. I was practically bear hugging the rock. 
And then of course the 7th and final pitch was great because it meant we had made it!!!
Here we are at the top of the climb... 
and of course I can't forget about the most important picture...our shoes!!! 
And then more at the top of the climb pictures...We were so excited to be at the top...can't you tell. 
From here we still had a little bit of hiking and some scrambling to do before we finally reached the summit which was marked by a cairn (pile of rocks). Here I am at the top...
and of course here we are at the top. 
The view from the top was absolutely amazing! 
The hike back down to our camp was pretty steep at times and the ground was not very stable. At one point Pete accused me of kicking rocks down at him but I swear I couldn't help it. I was glad we weren't hiking down in the dark.
After a full day of climbing I knew I was going to get some great sleep Saturday night but at midnight Pete woke me up because he was hearing things outside of the tent. 
At first I shrugged it off because Pete has a habit of hearing things when we go camping but as we lay there silent in our tent there was the unmistakable sound of splashing in the lakes just a hundred feet away. We shot each other silent glances and then Pete slowly slipped his head out of the tent to see what he could see. When he came back he said there was something BIG and BLACK in the water. My heart began to race. I didn't say a word I just lay silently picturing this large grizzly bear splashing in the water a mere 100 feet away. And then as if my heart wasn't racing fast enough already I started to hear something wondering around our campground and then it came right up to the tent and began to sniff at the tent door. I was frozen in terror. Thoughts of a giant bear claw ripping through the thin tent fabric and dragging me away were racing through my mind. Pete held my hand tightly and I buried myself into his side as far away from the tent wall as I could get and prayed over and over and over again that we would be safe. Eventually the sniffing stopped and all was quite but that didn't last too long. After about 10 min I heard the sniffing again. This time I asked Pete if it was right behind me. he couldn't see any shadows or anything and eventually the sniffing stopped. From midnight to 3am we both lay quietly, anxiously analyzing every sound until we were certain that whatever was outside of our tent had left. 
Then at 3am I was finally able to calm down and drift back to sleep. When I woke up at 7am I was anxious to pack up camp and get out but Pete insisted that we stay in the tent until after the sun came up because the most dangerous time to be out hiking with a hungry bear who may not have found anything for dinner would be at dawn. 
So we sat and talked about the night before. Turns out Pete never saw anything in the water...He said he couldn't see anything at all really because he didn't have his glasses on and he can't really see much without them. I don't understand why he put his head outside of the tent if he couldn't see??? What he did saw was this it was big...which he had decided must be true because of the amount of noise it had made in the water. 
As for it being black...I guess that was from my own imagination. Needless to say, with the morning came the reassurance that all would be fine and also the uncertainty that any predator had ever been present. Much of what I had heard that night (the animal wondering around our campsite, the sniffing) could have easily been attributed to and was most likely due to the rustling of our tent in the wind. What we will never know is what was making all that noise in the water....Was it a bear? Some other animal? Or simply a larger gust of whine? Who knows??? Regardless, I was happy we were leaving. The hike out was much easier than the hike in but I was still glad when we reached Red Fish Lake and were able to sit and wait for the shuttle boat that would be taking us the remaining 4 miles back to our car.
The last mile was all up hill and seemed like it would never end. Not to mention the fact that I made matters considerably worse by demanding breaks every 50 feet or so :) (Thanks Pete) When we finally got to where we were headed we found the perfect camp site on a rock right next to the lake. We set up camp and had dinner. After Dinner Pete read the regulations on the camping permit we had picked up on our way in and it turns out that our perfect campsite was prohibited. We had to be at least 100 feet away from any lake...so we had to pack everything up and move to another spot which ultimately turned out to be just as nice of a campsite if not better. Saturday morning we woke up early and headed out to climb the Mountaineer's Route on Elephant's Perch. This little piece of paper was the only thing that kept us going in the right directions. Pete stopped frequently while climbing to look at this topo and make sure he was headed in the right direction.The climbing was great and we had a lot of fun. There were 7 pitches total and then a little bit of hiking/scrambling to reach the summit. I made Pete lead all of the pitches because I'm not feeling confident on lead yet. Here we are at the 1st belay station. The 3rd pitch was one of my favorite pitches. Mostly because it was so pretty but also because their was some fun climbing too. The 3rd pitch started under this amazing roof. Luckily we didn't have to climb over it. Instead we did a fun traverse out left.The 6th pitch was another one of my favorite pitches. I liked it because there was this super sweet crack that I could fit my whole leg into. I was practically bear hugging the rock. And then of course the 7th and final pitch was great because it meant we had made it!!!Here we are at the top of the climb... and of course I can't forget about the most important picture...our shoes!!! And then more at the top of the climb pictures...We were so excited to be at the top...can't you tell. From here we still had a little bit of hiking and some scrambling to do before we finally reached the summit which was marked by a cairn (pile of rocks). Here I am at the top...and of course here we are at the top. The view from the top was absolutely amazing! The hike back down to our camp was pretty steep at times and the ground was not very stable. At one point Pete accused me of kicking rocks down at him but I swear I couldn't help it. I was glad we weren't hiking down in the dark.
After a full day of climbing I knew I was going to get some great sleep Saturday night but at midnight Pete woke me up because he was hearing things outside of the tent. At first I shrugged it off because Pete has a habit of hearing things when we go camping but as we lay there silent in our tent there was the unmistakable sound of splashing in the lakes just a hundred feet away. We shot each other silent glances and then Pete slowly slipped his head out of the tent to see what he could see. When he came back he said there was something BIG and BLACK in the water. My heart began to race. I didn't say a word I just lay silently picturing this large grizzly bear splashing in the water a mere 100 feet away. And then as if my heart wasn't racing fast enough already I started to hear something wondering around our campground and then it came right up to the tent and began to sniff at the tent door. I was frozen in terror. Thoughts of a giant bear claw ripping through the thin tent fabric and dragging me away were racing through my mind. Pete held my hand tightly and I buried myself into his side as far away from the tent wall as I could get and prayed over and over and over again that we would be safe. Eventually the sniffing stopped and all was quite but that didn't last too long. After about 10 min I heard the sniffing again. This time I asked Pete if it was right behind me. he couldn't see any shadows or anything and eventually the sniffing stopped. From midnight to 3am we both lay quietly, anxiously analyzing every sound until we were certain that whatever was outside of our tent had left. Then at 3am I was finally able to calm down and drift back to sleep. When I woke up at 7am I was anxious to pack up camp and get out but Pete insisted that we stay in the tent until after the sun came up because the most dangerous time to be out hiking with a hungry bear who may not have found anything for dinner would be at dawn. So we sat and talked about the night before. Turns out Pete never saw anything in the water...He said he couldn't see anything at all really because he didn't have his glasses on and he can't really see much without them. I don't understand why he put his head outside of the tent if he couldn't see??? What he did saw was this it was big...which he had decided must be true because of the amount of noise it had made in the water. As for it being black...I guess that was from my own imagination. Needless to say, with the morning came the reassurance that all would be fine and also the uncertainty that any predator had ever been present. Much of what I had heard that night (the animal wondering around our campsite, the sniffing) could have easily been attributed to and was most likely due to the rustling of our tent in the wind. What we will never know is what was making all that noise in the water....Was it a bear? Some other animal? Or simply a larger gust of whine? Who knows??? Regardless, I was happy we were leaving. The hike out was much easier than the hike in but I was still glad when we reached Red Fish Lake and were able to sit and wait for the shuttle boat that would be taking us the remaining 4 miles back to our car. On the drive home we took a 2 hour detour so that we could swing by a climbing shop in Ketchum Idaho called The Elephant's Perch which is supposedly the only place where you can find four information for the Perch. They gave us a sweet poster for free of the Elephant's Perch which had a bunch of different climbs marked on it. Pete can hardly wait to go back and climb some more.
The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful except for our deer sighting. I saw the deer first and said "deer, deer, deer!!!" Pete was going about 70mph but slowed to 30mph as he locked his eyes onto the deer in the lane just next to ours trying to anticipate what it would do. What he didn't realize and what I didn't realize he didn't realize was that when I said "deer, deer, deer!!!" I meant "multiple deer!". When Pete saw the large deer in the left lane he focused in on it and his vision tunneled. He didn't notice the 3 baby deer that were in our lane until he was nearly on top of them. Luckily he slammed on his breaks and they stumbled out of the way just in the nick of time. We missed hitting them by inches. I was relieved. They were so cute and it would have been tragic if we would have hurt them.
2 comments:
Wow, that is quite a weekend! I felt goosebumps just reading about the possible bear encounter. I know that feeling well!
I almost peed a little with sympathy terror as to your near encounters with the wildlife. Darn wildlife, always getting in the way! I'm so glad you didn't get eaten and that the baby deer were safe.
Also - that pict of the view is spectacular. Your life is amazing.
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