06/21/02 Paddling Brooks Lake:
After leaving Bridger-Teton National Forest I drove 15 miles to the Shoshone National Forest and another 7 miles to the Brooks Lake Recreation Area to see whatever I would see. What I found was a small lake (large pond) 1/2X1/2 miles or so surrounded by mountain ridges and peaks. I just had to get out on that water, if even for just a few minutes... and that's about what it was too.
Paddling out into the middle of Brooks Lake I just stopped to look around. To the south, palisades rising up several hundred feet on top of a snow covered base. To the front of that is a stand of pine trees, in front of that a pretty meadow and in front of that, the lake.
To the west are meadows, backed by a larger stand of pines and a tall ridge farther off. To the north two separate ridges fronted by a pine forest. To the east, rolling, forested hills.
I just poked around on the lake for 30 minutes or so, admiring the scenery. When a 15mph wind popped up I was ready to come in.
The Brooks Lake Campground seemed to be in off season mode with no fees being charged. Several camp sites were already occupied but I found one off by itself for the night. No water but at least a toilet, BYOTP though.
06/23/02 Hiking Dunoir Trail(6 miles round trip to Bonneville Pass):
Yesterday wasn't a good day. Just about the time I was ready to get up it started to rain. Not hard, just enough to put a damper on things. It remained that way pretty much the whole day after which it rained for real, not long and not hard but it was real rain. I would gladly stay cooped a week up if we'd just get some real rain.
Temperatures dropped during the night and I had frosted windows this morning. That was about as good as things got today. Was looking for the Pinnacles Trailhead and found Dunoir Trailhead instead. Close enough. I had vague ambitions of reaching Murray Lake, 4.4 miles away. Bonneville Pass is 3 miles from the trailhead. That's all I knew about the trail.
Saw a female elk and a female deer on the drive up FR-516. I no sooner got on the trail and saw fair sized bear tracks in the mud. The trail crosses Bonneville Creek and I had to pick my way across to keep from getting wet. Just past that I found a large pile of scat I'm not familiar with. I had to assume it came from a large grizzly because it was a big pile. I had my walking stick and began making extra noise with it, banging on handy rocks and tree trunks.
The sun fought with storm clouds all morning and neither was a clear winner. I've been carrying pepper spray tied to the pocket book I prefer to a day pack but the string is too short. Moles, ferrets, gophers or some other critter has been burrowing tunnels all over the place up here.
Came to a large meadow that turned out to be very swampy and the trail became quite muddy from the snow melt. It was cool, in the 40's-50's with a 10mph wind blowing and pretty much overcast skies.
I slogged through a couple of remaining snow drifts, sometimes sinking 2+ feet in wet snow. That combined with the swampy meadow and muddy trail had my feet soaking wet... and wearing cotton socks. I'd climbed 700 feet or so in elevation and despite the coolness had my upper body wet with sweat... and wearing a cotton T-shirt.
At the far end of the meadow the trail crosses a fast moving brook. The brook itself disappears under a large snow bank at that point, No way was I going to cross that. I could have backtracked, gone around another large snow drift and crossed over there. Instead, I went around a small stand of pines and found where the brook reappeared. Right at a deep drop off into Bonneville Pass.
The trail description says a steep 800 foot drop via switchbacks here. This is where I would have had to make a decision about continuing on another 1.5 miles to Murray Lake. I had a nice view of Bonneville Pass from where I was but couldn't see the conditions of the valley. I had to assume I'd find a lot of snow on the trail. With the wet feet and wet torso and the wind and the temperatures and overcast skies I turned back.
Nothing exciting happened until I reached Bonneville Creek again. This time I slipped off a rock and took a swim. No big deal, I was only a couple hundred yards from the trailhead. Except I had my brand new, digital camera in it's cheapy camera case. I landed stretched out on my side, head down stream and the camera case was on my hip. I grabbed it and scrambled to my feet. My pocket book had landed in the water with the GPS, binoculars and wallet in there so I got it up in the air too. I let go of the walking stick when I fell and saw it floating merrily down the creek and went after it.
I got back to the truck, dried off, changed clothes, turned the truck and heater on full blast and laid everything out on the hood. Camera still worked, GPS seemed OK, binoculars not fogged up, wallet not wet. What about the pepper spray? Only way to tell is to give it a squeeze. Oops, not down wind, turn around. About the time I pressed the lever a gust of wind sprang up upwind of me and the spray came back in my face. Ouch!
Actually it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... but bad enough. It hit me in my right eye and I inhaled some of it before I got my head turned and told my finger to leggo. It burnt my eye but only lasted 30-60 second, more like a strong soap or shampoo burn. Inhaling it made me cough, not hard, just a quick eh, eh every few seconds. That lasted 1-2 minutes or so.
I do need new pepper spray though. They recommend it shoot out in a stream for 25 feet. Mine only went 5 feet or so. I'm writing this at the trailhead. One good thing, I was back at the truck before really dark clouds moved in. So far only a little hail and a few sprinkles but who know what's coming.
9200 feet to 10000 feet elevation today.
06/24/02 Hiking Pinnacles Trail (8 miles round trip):
Boots still damp from yesterday but I brought hiking socks today. Also had fresh batteries for the GPS. Trail description indicated the trail is non-existent part of the way so I planned on taking lots of waypoints as I wandered around the woods looking for the trail.
Frost again last night but sun's out at the trailhead. 9100 feet at the start. The trail leading upward through cold, dark pine forest made me think about going back for a windbreaker and gloves but I kept going. After a mile or so it burst out into a sun drenched clearing and excellent views of the pinnacles towering above. Mosquitoes made sure you didn't dawdle too long admiring the scenery.
More walking in the woods and then another great view of the pinnacles. Snow patches on the way to 9800 feet. Then I started running into drifts on the trail. Bypassed a couple but had to step in the snow a couple of times so I'd know I'd been that way on the way back.
Passed a small pond and the trail deteriorated after that. More snow on the trail or they were muddier because of snow melt. I came to a large snow field and couldn't guess where the trail came out. Feet already pretty wet from mud and wet snow and didn't want them wetter and turned back after 3+ miles or so.
Great views of the pinnacles on the way back.
07/16/05 Hiking Jade Lakes Trail (7 miles round trip):
Passing through on my way from the Salt River Range near Alpine to Dubois and camped in the Brooks Lake area. I decided to do a hike here so headed off to the left side of Brooks Lake. Towards the far end I found a sign pointing to the Jade Lakes Trail. This trail leads upwards to the long set of cliffs perched on top of forested slopes.
After rising a couple hundred feet through pine trees I passed a shallow body of water in a meadow that might be considered a lake. Another 1/4 mile or so brought me to the first of the Jade Lakes. Surrounded by pines at the base of the cliffs it made for some nice pictures.
I walked a few hundred feet along the lake shore and came to an isthmus leading to a second lake similar to the first. The trail continued on past the second lake so I did too and soon came to a third lake. This one didn't have any cliffs around it. The trail went on past this third lake but the mosquitoes were really swarming so I turned back,
I camped a couple of miles from Brooks Lake off CR537. Woke up in the morning and found 150 elk bedded down in a nearby meadow. Cool stuff.