Intentional TonicBeartooth Pass (5/26/14)
The Beartooth Pass opened on May 23rd. I can’t believe they got it open that fast considering all the snow this winter. There’s still a lot up there:
What a job – what a wall of snow!
JR and I went up to meet a business contact of his who was up there skiing (down the steep cliffs!). The intent was for us to go up and cross country ski. Considering my prosthetic is in such bad shape and the fact that I haven’t skied since March and at that time it was on perfectly groomed paths, I said I would pass. I opted to take the kayak up planning on putting in at Long Lake or Beartooth Lake. Ha! Once again, our “newness” to the area shows.
Yep – that’s Long Lake still frozen
Break time!
We sat looking in awe at this snowmobiler (top right quadrant of the picture, just shy of the horizon) who ten minutes earlier was up on the plateau with us. No one around could believe he was going straight up this mountain. I didn’t think he was going to make it. People are nuts.
Click to zoom in on this snowmobiler who rode all the way to the top
As it turns out, the snow was very packed down and I probably could have cross country skied, but I’m really not in shape. I’ve been waiting since February for insurance to approve a new socket. The current one fits so poorly that my hip height side-to-side is off by over an inch. I hung in there until May, but it is now nearly impossible to get any sort of a good workout in without causing extreme back pain. It’s all I can do to walk Scarlett. I am tired of feeling so crappy! Well, that was a tangent. Anyway, next year we can try to xc ski up there. Shoot, we may still be able to do it after I get my new leg!
Coming around the bend, we saw these kites and were curious:
Who knew kite skiing was an actual “thing?”
If you click on the picture, you can see all the tracks coming down the mountainside
We continued on the Pass to lower elevations to find a lake that wasn’t frozen over. We went to Lily Lake which is also a small campground. Bad choice on a holiday weekend. Never again. Every Tom, Dick, and backwoods Harry was out there driving their 2500 HDs down a tiny road to the put-in so that it was unusable by anyone else (namely us). We hightailed it out of there. Although, before we did, I considered letting Scarlett loose to clear everyone out. It drives me nuts when people act like the entire area is their’s and their’s alone! I would have loved to tell those folks that the dog that just licked their kids’ faces ate two dead mice a few hours earlier. I’m pretty sure we would have had the place to ourselves after that!
