Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

July 16-18, 1997, Tuesday through Friday. Rawah Wilderness backpacking alone, mostly to see
that I was in shape for the Yellowstone trip forthcoming. On the Rawah Trail at Rawah Guest
Ranch by 9.30. Steady climb and got into Lake # 1 about 3.30. Spotted fawn seen nicely on the
way up. Plenty of snow packs still left, and, although I had thought I might go on up to McIntrye,
I decided against it and pitched camp at Lake # 1, actually about a quarter mile back. Plenty of
mosquitoes, which, generally, were the bane of the trip. Warm night, good weather.
I was here first in July 1970 (27 years ago!), again in August 1988, with Giles.
Thursday, I did the circuit, back down to the Camp Lake trail, then up to Sandbar Lakes, Lower an
Upper, then to Rainbow Lake, then back out to the main Rawah Trail, to Lake # 3, which is above
timberline, then back down past Lakes 2 to Lake 1. Wilson's warbler, probably, maybe an immature
MacGillivray's. Lunched back at camp, taking my food out to a more windy spot to avoid
mosquitoes and to get a view. In the afternoon, I walked around to McIntryre Lake and found the
spot where Giles and I camped there in 1988. It is on the north side, a flat place in some trees up
a ways from the lake. White crowned sparrow, and the usual birds. Trail crew came by; the chief
has been here six summers. Snow is usually gone by July 4, and this is the latest he has seen it.
Mosquitoes are the worst he has seen. He also fussed at me for not being 200 feet from the trail,
since the Link Trail ran not so far behind my camp, which I hadn't even seen that the trail was there
when I pitched camp, nor had I seen any recent footprints on it when I discovered it the next day.
Friday, hiked out, not too fast, to avoid damage to my toes. Left about 8.00 a.m. and out at 1.40
p.m. Nice doe on the trail on the way down. About 20 miles of hiking.
Sore knee, which I nursed along during the Montana trip, and for several months afterward.
Yellowstone and Scapegoat Wilderness
July-August 1997
July 26, Saturday. With Bill Forbes, drive to DuBois, Wyoming. Lunched at Split Rock, which
recalls the Pony Express and Buffalo Bill's riding some three hundred miles on twenty different
horses over some twenty hours, averaging fourteen miles per hour. In DuBois, we drove up to an
overlook over the Wind River Mountains. Also visited the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
Foundation; there is a population of sheep here, more easily seen in winter.
July 27, Sunday. Drove into Grand Teton National Park, then Yellowstone Park. Elk seen in
opening by the roadside. Moose killed on road. Stopped briefly at the Visitor Center in the Tetons.
Moose seen in willows. Continued into Yellowstone. There was a glimpse of a grizzly, south of
Fishing Bridge, the same area where I had seen one in May-June.
There were perhaps a hundred bison crossing the river in Hayden Valley, in groups of twenty or so.