Mike and I along with Coda and Jax dogs drove into Paradise Valley and up Mill Creek road to the East Fork Sage Creek trailhead on the afternoon of Sunday, May 30th. We planned to hike up river until we hit the snowline and then find a suitable place to camp. This ended up being about eight miles in at elevation 7,500 ft.
Our map showed a landmark called Crystal Cave which we found and explored before wandering around on a hillside for 30 minutes trying to find a place flat enough, dry enough, and suitable enough to pitch our tarps.
We found a nice flat spot fifty or so meters off trail, pitched the tarps, laid out our bags/quilts and then headed into the woods aways off to find a suitable place for cooking, eating, and hanging our food. Upon finding a nice place I set about cooking some dehydrated chicken, beans, and rice left over from what Mike had prepared for a trip the previous fall. While I was cooking Mike set about building a nicely done “Leave No Trace” fire.
We enjoyed some working man’s whisky and conversation around the fire while the dogs napped until about 23:00 when it was time to put on the headlamps and navigate back to our tarps. It’s always fun climbing over wet, downed logs in the dark after you’ve had a couple fingers of mediocre whisky.
Morning arrived with temps hovering around freezing (34 deg F / 1 deg C) and clear skies. With no schedule to keep we slept in ’til around 07:45 or 08:00, arose, made coffee and breakfast and were out of camp by around 09:45. The hike back to the car was lovely with Jax dog scaring up plenty of deer as well as getting a face full of porcupine quills. We arrived at the car around 13:00, enjoyed a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon and had a chat with the ranch owner (or caretaker, not sure which) of the Big Snowy Ranch located at the trailhead.
East Fork Sage Creek – Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness, Montana, USA at EveryTrail