Dayhiking Sliderock

This past weekend, we headed up to the mountains for our last fishing trip of the summer. Our destination? Sliderock Lake in the Beartooth Mountains, just outside Red Lodge, MT. You can click here to jump to the bottom and then scroll up to see the day unfold in photos.

Great shot of Marilyn on the way out...

And a final view of the lake as we head back up the big hill on the south side.

A great parting shot, with Malachi and Micah taking in the view. It's going to be a while before we get back here boys - better take it all in while you still can.

And here's another good shot of Taehoo - this as we are getting ready to leave.

Here's a great shot of little Miss Rebekah, feeling a lot more sunshiny now that she's at the lake!

Here's a nice closeup of a couple of them. Malachi caught the most - 11 - but just about everyone caught something. Which made for a very nice lunch on Sunday, with plenty left over for the smoker (and trust me - smoked trout is FANTASTIC!)

Actually, every fish we caught that day was nice. And as you can see from the photo, we caught a LOT - 25 in all.

And this is just a cool closeup of that same fish. I like this shot because you can see the colored pattern of the fish so well, and the whole thing just feels wet (like it is). Gosh these things are pretty (of course they taste pretty good too!).

And here's me with one of the nicer ones I caught...

Here's Micah, with a dandy brookie - a fine fish that anyone could be proud of!

Actually, we all caught fish - quite a few of them in fact. These are beautiful, chunky brookies, all in the 13-14 inch range (which is big for high mountain brookies). This photo here gives you some idea of how beautiful they are...

Hey, look at that! Taehoo caught his first fish! Woo hoo! (Notice that even Jack is impressed)

And here's me, w/ Jack (Jack is giving me all kinds of pointers on how to fish, and then looking at me quizzically like, 'Come on here! What's the holdup???'). BTW - Taehoo took this shot, as well as the two preceding it.

Here's a nice shot of my Miss Montana...

Doesn't this look like it'd make a nice postcard? Me and Marilyn, sitting in the grass, looking woodsy together. Can't wait to get to Missoula...

Hey, here's a shot of Taehoo as we approach the lake. We're wearing almost all our gear because the wind is just whipping along (well over 30 mph) and its COLD (yes, even in August).

Here's a nice shot from down below, with the lake just out of sight. Notice the ice which is still floating in this little pool on the left...

First view of the lake, as we finally crest the final hill. Sliderock sits at almost 10,500 feet, and we're pretty close to 10,900 from where we're standing here. Mt Rearguard in the distance is 12,204 feet above sea level.

And here's a closeup, staring right into the throat of the flower. Exquisite! If anyone knows what these are, please let me know...

Here are some buds that haven't opened quite yet...

As we were walking across the plateau, we noticed the most beautiful little flowers - I have no idea what they are, but they remind me of crocuses or something like that. Very subtle, very pretty.

Here's a nice family shot w/ Mt Rearguard in the background. Everyone's chipper except for Rebekah, who is sure she is going to die before we make it to the lake. Speaking of the lake, Sliderock is one of the deepest lakes in the Beartooths, and it's nestled about 4 miles back in that big cirque basin to the left of the peak.

And here's Taehoo, looking like he belongs here...

After a stellar breakfast of fresh coffee (very strong!), and bacon and eggs cooked on a Coleman stove, we headed across the plateau at about 7:30 AM. Here's Micah at the trailhead, admiring the Grizzly Bear warnings on the map behind him...

Here's another shot that I liked too. It's hard holding the camera still for these long exposures...

When we went to bed about 11 PM the moon was shining so brightly you could have read a book by it. At 5:15 on Saturday morning, I woke to see the moon fading in the west, with daylight growing in the east. I drug myself out of bed, built a fire to warm up by, and then snapped this shot of the coming morn...

And here's another.

Here's a cool shot of the moon and the fire...

Here we are sitting around the fire, watching the moon come up...

By the time we got all set up, it was just about dark. Here's a cool picture that Taehoo took of Marilyn and the kids standing around the fire cooking marshmellows.

Nice shot of the evening sky (Taehoo took this one)

So this past week we had a friend from Philadelphia visiting us - Taehoo Lee. Taheoo is from South Korea originally, but he has lived here in the states for the past 11 years or so. We know Taehoo because he is an elder at Spirit & Truth Fellowship, our church in Philly.

At any rate - we invited Taehoo to come visit and he did! He wanted to go on an extended hike, so Tues - Thurs he hiked from Cooke City to East Rosebud (about 26 miles). Then on Friday night we headed up to Hellroaring Plateau just outside of Red Lodge.

Here's a good shot of Taehoo, taken on the way up to Hellroaring Plateau. This is the East Fork of Rock Creek Drainage in the background (waaaayyy down there...)