DAY #4: Beartooth Mountains Backpacking Trip

 That's Rachel, making her way up Cardiac Hill! Note the serious drop-off. Yes, it was that steep! It was an incredible challenge with rewarding views that made the climb that much more awesome.

Monday, August  22, 2011

DAY #4: CARDIAC HILL!

We woke up to a beautiful morning. Dewdrops on the grass, low fog rolling across the surface of the mirrored lake, campfire smoke coming through the trees in bright, foggy streaks… we were all in heaven. I think everyone had a permanent smile on their face. At one point during the day Randall said, “My smile muscles are sore.” It was perfectly said.

We all munched down breakfast. For me? Oatmeal and coffee, of course! We were all anticipating, if that’s the right word, Cardiac Hill, which we’d heard so much about. It’s a steep climb up to a saddle before descending down the Lower Aero Lake. I believe the ascent was around 1500 feet… but in less than a mile! Yes – pretty much straight up.

Our trail in the morning was pretty mellow at first with some beautiful views. We all ran out of adjectives after the first couple hours into the hike. You can only say “incredible,” or “amazing,” or “beautiful” so many times! I can’t even describe the prettiness we were absorbing! We came to Zimmer Creek and enjoyed the sound of the rushing water, and then we had to cross it. The crossing wasn’t an easy one. Some of us were able to rock-hop across, but others found it easier to take the shoes off and go barefoot to feel the rocks and get a grip before taking the next step. The water was moving pretty fast, it was knee-deep, cold, and the rocks underneath were slippery. But we all made it across with no falls. Whew! Excitement on day 1!

After the river crossing, it wasn’t long before we began up Cardiac Hill. It was difficult. We took quite a few stops to take pictures… well, that might’ve been an excuse to stop, take a breather and a drink of water, but hey – whatever works! The flowers were everywhere, scattered all the way up the mountainside – all colors of the rainbow, too! With the green grass, the colorful wildflowers, the whitish rocks and boulders – all against the bright blue, sunshiny sky… we had to take lots of photos!

Once at the top of the saddle, we all gathered in a flattish spot to have a break and eat our lunch, and Rachel and I laid out our tent to dry from the previous nights’ storms. There was a giant rock balancing up high, which I had to climb up to. From up there, I could see down the other side of the saddle to Lower Aero Lake, which was as blue as the sky. Perfect.

To my right I saw a giant snow field. I got this idea to go sledding. But I didn’t have a sled. Well, it was a warm, sunny day… and I had fast-drying hiking shorts on. I clambered over, sat on my butt, kicked a few times to get going, and Whoooosh! Away I went! It was so much fun, I did it another couple of times. My wet butt dried in about 15 minutes.

After lunch, which was a late lunch, we were off-trail for the first time and had a little trouble getting our bearings… well, we knew where we were, but we hadn’t figured out our “system” yet. We were also dealing with some crazy-steep snowfields that wouldn’t normally be there, and we were navigating a different direction that what we thought we would – as recommended by a passing fisherman that was just in the area. We scrambled through our first couple of giant boulder fields (there would be MANY, MANY, MANY more of these as the days went by!!!), and we crossed our first snow field. We kept crawling over small hills to see our descent down towards the lake. We were hoping to make it to the stream between Lower and Upper Aero Lakes, but instead, with noodley legs, we all settled for a really sweet spot just up from the water along Lower Aero Lake.

Rachel and I stuck our tent in a nice little cubby. It turned out to be the perfect little spot. Randall and Gary jumped in the water to rinse off. It looked, um, QUITE cold. I was quite impressed with their braveness.

We didn’t get any rain, and when the sun started to go down, the mountains surround Lower Aero Lake gave off a golden hue, the sky stayed blue, and the clouds lit up as if they were reflecting the lake in them. It was a gorgeous night. I had Chicken Curry and hot cocoa for dinner.

I really enjoyed the boulder scrambling, but could tell they became a challenge towards the end of the day when we were all tired. This would turn out to be something we’d figure out the next day, and work around the best we could. It was certainly not easy terrain to hike through! Beautiful, difficult, rewarding… but not even close to leisurely or easy…

I went to bed with a little headache, but figured if was from the elevation. So I took a couple Ibuprofen and drank a ton of water. I was hoping to wake up early to see the sun rise. I promised myself I’d watch at least one sunrise come up over the mountains, and I figured this was the perfect spot. I set my watch alarm for 5am and cuddled up in my sleeping bag and fell asleep.

DAY #3: Beartooth Mountains Backpacking Trip

 In the woods, on our way!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

DAY #3: BEARTOOTHS!

Today was the day we were finally going to get our backpacks on our backs and hit the wilderness. We were all very excited. When we woke up around 6AM, we all walked out of the tree cover that our tents were tucked underneath from our nighttime setup, and we gasped at our first view of the mountains. We weren’t far at all from Red Lodge, and that is the last town before heading up the famous Beartooth Pass.

We all went through our packs and bear canisters one more time to see if there was any unnecessary items that we could take out to save weight. We were all feeling fairly confident in our packing and planning, so not much stayed back. We were all in the 40-pound range for 6 days in the wilderness. I felt comfortable with that.

A little sidenote: when setting up camp at night, you sometimes can’t quite tell what you might be putting your tent next to. As careful as we were about stashing our food to keep critters big and small away from our silnylon protected walls, when we woke up, Leo had a deer skull next to his tent, and we had sliced potatoes scattered around ours. Guess we could’ve slept with our food!

We hit the road into Red Lodge and stopped in at the grocery store. We all rummaged through for last-minute items. Batteries, souvenir $5 t-shirts, breakfast muffins, cheese, and Rachel even bought the cutest little apricot that looked just like a butt. We can have fun with just about anything!

Our next stop was the Yodeler’s Motel. We made our reservations for when we got out of the woods on Friday the 26^th. We knew we’d all want to sleep in a bed with fluffy pillows and have hot showers before going out for dinner. Or after dinner, depending on how hungry we were! The had rooms available, so we got that taken care of, then hit the road for the gas station. We fueled up our gas tanks, filled our Camelbak bladders and water bottles, grabbed our last cups of brewed coffee, a quick breakfast snack or two, then once again hit the road. We were on our way to ascent the Beartooth Pass.

The scenery was incredible. We took hairpin turns up the mountains, stopped at little pull-offs for pictures, gawked at the waterfalls waaaay off in the distance, enjoyed the bright blue sky, sunshine and puffy white clouds, and really had a great time with each others’ company. We had a great group, and we all already knew that we were all going to get along and just have an absolutely amazing time together.

We stopped at a little turnoff up high where there was a walkway and a lookout. It was the Rock Creek Vista Point at 9,190 feet. We still had over 1,000 feet to drive up before heading over the pass and back down towards where our starting trailhead was located. But we planned for two or three hours on this road, so we took our time and really enjoyed immersing ourselves in the beauty around us.

After coming around a couple of turns, we spotted the Bear’s Tooth. It’s a sharp peak, that looks kind of like a sharp tooth, coming out from the mountains in the distance. We pulled over and got a group picture. My dad found a snow field, made a snowball, and just before I took the picture with my camera propped on the side mirror of the van with my gorillapod, he threw the snowball towards the windshield, but it missed and hit the side mirror right below my camera. The snow exploded and went right straight down my shirt and up my sleeves. A perfect, unintended shot! It was good for a laugh. And turns out, I’d have my revenge on him later!

We decided to drive down to Cooke City for one last cold soda, coffee or lunch before we officially left civilization behind for 6 days. On the way there, we dropped my mom and dad’s Envoy off at our ending point, the Clark’s Fork Trailhead. We shifted backpacks and gear so that all the day bags were in the Envoy and all 8 of us and all 8 of our backpacks were stuffed into the van. We drove into Cooke city, splurged on our last citified treats, then got back on the road and drove up a steep, rough, gravel road to the Lady of the Lake Trailhead.

We piled out, got a few beginning shots, then headed up the road towards trail. We passed some amazingly super-courteous ATV drivers, and they even gave Randall, Rachel and I a quick tour of an old mine. That was a pretty cool start to our trip. After a river crossing, we were officially on hiker’s only trail. Aaaaah. Serenity.

We hiked through some beautiful mountain woods, and I enjoyed one of my favorite things in the entire world… the smell of the mountain air. Down in the trees its’ really sweet-smelling. It must come from one of the pines, but I just kept taking in deep breaths, trying to really take in as much as I could. I knew I’d miss it the minute we were done… but I wasn’t going to even think about that yet!

One thing I was surprised by was the wildflowers. I guess the weather is about 2 weeks behind, so normally the bugs would be gone, but they were abundant, but with the bugs we got some incredible wildflowers. SO worth the bugs! And the bugs in the mountain, like the mosquitoes, are so slow! Must be the thin air, but we’re all used to the Wisconsin mosquitoes, and we all felt like mosquito-swattin’ pros as we squished them in mid-air with our thumb and forefingers. Entertainment is so much more simple in the backcountry!

We hiked on until we found a really sweet spot at the end of the Lady of the Lake. We set up tents before it started to rain and thunder. Rachel and I sat down by the water and enjoyed the few beers we packed in for night #1 as we listened to the thunder bounce off all the mountains around us. It sounded so incredibly intimidating! We actually laughed out loud because it was so crazy cool! It rained on and off the whole evening, but cleared up just before dark, so we were still able to have a fire and really enjoy the first evening.

Margie brought out a gift for everyone tonight, too. They were hiking boot pins that she had blessed by her priest. As she was telling us the story of him blessing the pins, and the prayer he recited off the top of his head, she started to cry – she was so moved by his thoughtfulness and prayer that she could barely tell the story of the boots. It was really touching and sweet. We wore them with pride the rest of the trip and remembered the prayer that went with them. It helped give a little boost of strength when we were feeling tired at the end of the day.

For dinner I had Alfredo noodles with tuna. Other smells around the campfire were spaghetti, burritos, and pasta primavera. Delish! After dinner was all done, we hid our bear canisters for the first time in a boulder field outside our camp. If a bear were to mess with them where we stashed them, they wouldn’t roll too far. We were all able to wedge them in between rocks without any problem. I was kinda’ digging the simplicity of just stashing my food on the ground, rather than rigging up a rope in a tree. It’s just the extra 2 pounds of the container that’s a bummer!

After dinner and hiding bear canisters, we fought drooping eyelids to enjoy Rachel’s LifeSavers Wint-O-Green sparkalicious fun – then most of the group hit their tents. Randall stayed up and showed Rachel and I an Iridium flare in the night sky. He had a chart that told him what time it would show up, what direction to look and what angle it would be from the horizon. We stood and started at the sky until Randall exclaimed, “There it is!” We saw it light up, moving across the sky, getting brighter and brighter before it faded out and was gone. He explained to us that it was the solar panels on a satellite that was reflecting the sun. It was so cool to see it after being predicted from a chart!

Not long after that we also retreated to our tents and slept in the mountains for our first night.

DAY #2: Beartooth Mountains Backpacking Trip

Scenery in North Dakota. This is part of the badlands in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

DAY #2: DRIVING DAY!

We woke up at the campground around 4 AM. Rachel and I were giggling. It was our first night as tent mates, and it seemed we were going to have a really great time. No better way to share a tent with a friend then to go to bed laughing, and wake up laughing.

My mom’s cantaloupe was sitting on the picnic table and we all noticed that it had a rather ripe, awful smell to it. We knew it would taste amazing, and we didn’t really want to waste it. Margie had a cooler in her van, so we decided to place it in there to keep it cool if possible.

We started out at 5:00 on the button just as planned. Dad was driving their Envoy, and I started out driving the van. It was a very smooth driving trip, which is always a good thing when driving so far. At one point, we opened the cooler and could no longer take the cantaloupe smell, so I ran it and the plastic bag it was in over to the other vehicle and handed it to my mom. She giggled and took it with her. Later on in the trip we switched drivers around, and as I went over to the Envoy to ride for a while I told them they should move the cantaloupe to the van… come to find out, they already did -- the stinkers!! The first stop after we gave it back to my mom, they snuck it into the back of the van, tucked in between a couple of backpacks and never said anything! Sneaky!!

We drove through Minnesota in no time. We were all excited to reach North Dakota… it really felt far away from home. There were some incredible sunflower fields that we drove by. That’s what I mostly remember from North Dakota. Margie was telling us about how they bow their heads when rain is coming so the seeds don’t get damp and rotten. They are like little people out in the fields. I always knew they followed the sun, and we witnessed that as we drove through… and when a rain cloud rolled in, sure enough – they’re heads were all turned down towards their roots.

In North Dakota, we also came across a couple of areas of highway that were being worked on after being washed out by flooding earlier in the year. The water was still very high and coming right up to the edge of the shoulder of the road. Crazy stuff!

We stopped in at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota for a break and to get some photos. Some of us even spotted a buffalo with a fellow sight-seers’ binoculars (I was in the gift shop, darnit!) What a beautiful stretch of Badlands. So many colors in the land against the blue sky and white puffy clouds spaced so perfectly across the sky. We snapped a couple of photos and got a group shot or two, then got back on the road again. We were making great time, and I’m pretty sure that was due to our excitement to see the mountains and be that much closer to the backpacking portion of the trip.

When we got to Billings, MT, we stopped in at an Irish pub called Pug Mahone’s, recommended by HikerJer, a friend I met on the Backpacker Magazine forums a while back. Jerry was a tremendous help when I was planning this trip. He’s been exploring the Beartooth Wilderness for more than 40 years, so he was able to recommend some routes and give a ton of pointers about navigating, bugs, weather, camping, and all kinds of good stuff. I owed him a beer, at the very least, so we coordinated meeting him when we came through his hometown of Billings. He rode his bike out to meet us and gave us a few more pointers, and wished us luck before we headed out.

There was a campground he said we’d probably have no problem getting in at in Laurel, MT, which was not far at all from Billings. We stopped at a gas station to pick up a six-pack of local brew to enjoy on our last night car-camping, but when we arrived at the campground, we found it to be closed. This campground is right on the Yellowstone River where the recent oil spill took place. We didn’t mind, as all we wanted to do was set up tents, have a few drinks and sleep. But we had to head further on down Hwy 212 toward Red Lodge. There were two security guards at the fence of the campground that said there were a couple of sights on our way, and that we had to look for the brown signs with the fish and a hook. They were boat-launch fishing areas, but with campsites. We did end up finding one, and it was a pretty sweet little spot next to a rushing creek. It was dark when we set up, but in no time my dad had a little campfire going, we were sitting back enjoying our brews and talking excitedly about driving over Beartooth Pass the next day.

The cantaloupe was in the van and ready to be cut open the next morning for breakfast. We were looking forward to eating it, but mostly looking forward to getting rid of the smell!

DAY #1: Beartooth Mountains Backpacking Trip

Friday, August 19, 2011

DAY #1: RENDEZVOUS!

The five of us Fox Valley folks met at my apartment in Oshkosh so we could all travel together to Western Wisconsin – Hudson – to meet up with the three others. We got going around 12:30 pm. Rachel, Randall and Leo sat in the back, Gary rode shotgun and I drove. Five backpacks and day bags filled the back of the Vue to the ceiling. We all fit with all of our gear and we were pretty comfy besides. Not bad!

When we arrived in Hudson, we drove to the Willow River State Campground where I made reservations for Friday night. At the campground, we met up with my mom and dad (Keith and Patty) and their cantaloupe (which I’ll tell more about later!), said our “hellos” and drove off to my Uncle Jerry and Aunt Amy’s home in North Hudson. My aunt Margie was there waiting for us. She was also going to be backpacking with us, and drove her conversion van up from near St. Louis where she lives.

Jerry and Amy were preparing for a weekend of Pepper Fest, but were so kind as to treat all of us to a yummy homemade ravioli dinner. It was delicious! We sat around, ate and chatted. Jerry and Amy also arranged for us to park the Vue at a relative’s home so we wouldn’t have to worry about it being parked in a public lot or the campground. That was really great!

After moving the Vue, we all set off back to the campground where we crashed for the night, with the plan of being in the vehicles (Margie’s conversion van and my mom and dad’s Envoy), rolling at 5:00 AM sharp. We were hoping to make it past Billings, MT and camping before heading up the Beartooth Pass on Sunday.

Beartooth Mountains Backpacking Trip

The group with the Bear's Tooth in the background that gives the wilderness area its name (yep, the Bear's Tooth is that little sharp one right in the middle).

From left to right: Margie, Rachel, Gary, Patty, Keith, Leo, Robin, Randall

This is the intro entry for my journal from my 2011 Backpacking Trip to the Beartooth Wilderness in Montana. Seven others joined me, and it was a freakin' blast!

We titled it: The Best Backpacking Trip EVER!

The Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness

August 19 – August 28, 2011

The crew:

Robin Grapa (me)

Rachel Seppi (friend from local meetup group and running pal)

Patty Laatsch (my mom)

Keith Laatsch (my dad)

Gary Nickel (friend from local meetup group)

Margie Brandenburg (my aunt)

Leo Cepoi (friend from local meetup group)

Randall Schultz (friend from local meetup group)

You will see a series of posts by day, and I will post them starting with day #1, so you may have to scroll down and start at the bottom... or read backwards. Whatever floats yer' boat. I'd be excited to hear it's been read!

Actually, the major reason I journal my trips is because I forgot so much... I have a pretty awful memory, and when I come back to read these entries, it all comes flooding back to me and I can almost place myself back there for a few moments... and I love doing that every once in a while. But if someone else gets in here and reads and enjoys it, then it just makes it that much better. I hope you enjoy following our trip... in my words... ;)

Horse vs. Rabbit

No, my post is not about a race between a horse and a rabbit. Well, I guess it could be if you look at it from a weird angle... but this is actually a post about my bone marrow.

As many of you reading this know, I was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia in 1997, right in the beginning of my first semester of college at UWSP. I lived on the 2nd floor of the dorms, and I remember starting up the stairs to go to my room, and about 4 or 5 steps in, I felt very sluggish. My legs felt like they weighed 3 tons each, and I labored to lift them up each step. I got to the landing on the 2nd floor, and my legs gave out and I landed on my knees. I looked down at the floor in shame, shook my head in disgust and thought to myself, "I have GOT to get in better shape. This is rediculous."

I wasn't in that bad of shape at the time, actually. What I didn't know at the time, was that my bone marrow stopped making blood. My red blood cells had dropped and were not carrying the normal amount of oxygen through my body, making me very lethargic. I'd been tired a lot before this stairs issue. But when you go into a clinic as a freshman in college (or a high school student) and tell the doctor you're tired a lot, they will pretty much giggle and say, "get more sleep." It makes sense, I suppose. Staying up late with friends, doing homework, whatever... Well, unfortunately in my case, that wasn't the cause of tiredness!

When I was first diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia, I was told that I was young enough (18 years old) that this "thing" could turn around and be fine. The hematologist I saw at the time told me to go home and continue with my normal life, get my blood drawn regularly so they can monitor my levels, and come back in a few months. So I did. I wasn't hearing anything from anyone about my levels, so I kept busy with my new college life and didn't worry about it. I didn't actually realize at that time what sort of impact this was having on me -- and what sort of impact it would have on the rest of my life.

When I went to the hematology department a few months later for my checkup, I assumed everything was okay. Or the same. But it wasn't. I had a new hematologist, and after sitting in the waiting room for a while, the nurse called us into a conference room. It wasn't a clinic room, like you would normally be brought into. My mom and I sat down at the table (the only reason my dad didn't go was because we hadn't heard anything and assumed everything was okay). The doctor was very to-the-point and let us know that my counts had dropped significantly, I would need blood transfusions right away, and treatment for the Aplastic Anemia as soon as possible.

It's funny the things you say when you're confused, scared, or nervous. My reaction was, "I can't do that, I don't have time. I'm in college."

By that time, the end of my first semester wasn't too far off. So I received some transfusions and they sent me to Mayo Clinic for some more tests, to get me on the Bone Marrow Registry, and to discuss treatment options. I was going to need to receive treatment that summer at the latest.

Oh, and a fun little sidenote: When you have "gotten used to" not having any red blood, then you receive 3 pints of the stuff -- it's like freakin' DRUGS. I was bouncing off the walls... well, more literally, running though the hallways in the hotel we were staying at! It was incredible!!

Treatment options were limited to (1) Bone Marrow Transplant or (2) Antithymocyte Globulin (ATG). My brother was tested as a potential match for a bone marrow transplant, but unfortunately he wasn't a match. At the time, my possibility of surviving the transplant with an unrelated donor was a pretty low percentage, so we decided to go with the ATG. This was not a "cure" like a Bone Marrow Transplant would be, but instead could potentially put me into remission.

Which it did. I received the Horse ATG. It's a treatment derived from horse's blood, and I couldn't tell you how it works exactly, but the best way I've heard it described is that it shuts down your bone marrow, then restarts it. So my computer was shut down and rebooted. My battery was drained and then jump-started. However you wanna look at it, I restarted and have been doing good since.

It wasn't an easy road... I almost lost my life after experiencing a sever side-effect of the treatment. I had several major seizures and was air-lifted to the hospital in Marshfield where I was placed in the ICU and actually read my last rites by a priest. When I came to, I couldn't remember my birthday, who the president was, or some simple math. But after a few days I regained that memory and was told by the neurologist that I shouldn't experience any permanent damage.

There are two types of ATG -- one derived from horses, and one from rabbits. And the AA&MDSIF just put out an email talking about a study that was done between the two treatments... and that the horse has been more successful than the rabbit. It's hard to think of whether or not you might live or die based on a percentage, but sadly, some people are stuck making a decision -- I went with 80% instead of 60%. And you just can't think about it too hard -- you just can't think about which bracket you're going to fall into... you just have to shrug, smile and say, "Eh... I've got this." For me, mentally, that's all I had to work from.

Thanks to God, my doctors, nurses, mom, dad, friends, family... I made it. And I always stress that I didn't do it alone. It was "our journey." And I could never, ever, in any way whatsoever, say "thank-you" to those that got me through this in a way that would mean it as much as I want to mean it. Humbling.

Oh... and dare I forget to say thanks to whatever horse(s) were involved, too. And thanks to ALL the horses and rabbits that are helping so many others. Right now, sounds like the horse is in the lead, but they're both working harder than ever, and still saving people, so way to go Horses and Rabbits!!!! I'm rootin' for ya' both! :)

Closer to Love

Closer to Love by Mat Kearney 

She got the call today
One out of the gray
And when the smoke cleared
It took her breath away

She said she didn't believe
It could happen to me
I guess we're all one phone call
from our knees
We're gonna get there soon

If every building falls
And all the stars fade
We'll still be singing this song
The one they can't take away

I'm gonna get there soon
She's gonna be there too
Cryin' in her room
Prayin' Lord come through
We're gonna get there soon

Oh it's your light
Oh it's your way
Pull me out of the dark
Just to show me the way
Cryin out now
From so far away
You pull me closer to love
Closer to love

Meet me once again
Down off Lake Michigan
Where we could feel the storm blowin
Down with the wind
And don't apologize
For all the tears you've cried
You've been way too strong now for all your life

I'm gonna get there soon
You're gonna be there too
Cryin' in your room
Prayin' Lord come through
We're gonna get there soon

Oh it's your light
Oh it's your way
Pull me out of the dark
Just to show me the way
Cryin out now
From so far away
You pull me closer to love
Closer to love

Cause you are all that I've waited for
All of my life
(We're gonna get there)
You are all that I've waited for
All of my life

You pull me closer to love hu huuh
Closer to love hu huuuh
Pull me closer to love
You pull me closer to love
Closer to love oh no
Closer to love
Closer to love

Pull me closer to love