East Rosebud Trailhead - you can see East Rosebud Lake to the right.
I wanted to see a Golden trout, and there are only a few lakes in the Beartooth's where that's possible. The only one accessible by trail is Sylvan Lake. This hike involves a 3000 foot altitude gain in just 5 miles, so I knew it would be tough for me. I thought if we got an early start - it would be manageable.
We'd planned to do this trip two weeks earlier, but Joe had a cold, so the trip was delayed. Then we had house guests for 8 days. Finally, the day our guests left, we packed up and headed for the trailhead. We got into road construction between Columbus and Roscoe, and did not arrive at the trailhead until 3 PM. It was HOT - over 80 degrees, and we would need to climb to the top before we could hope to find a spot level enough for camping.
I was packing 30 lb and Joe had a 40 lb pack. We each had 3 bottles of water.
The climb offered spectacular views of the East Rosebud drainage.
The trail was overgrown with berry bushes of all kinds. But we couldn't spare the time to stop and taste. These colorful berries - I don't think are edible.
A huge forest fire burned through much of this valley in 1996. It was exciting to see the new growth of the forest coming along so well! Soon the views will be gone - hidden in the trees!
When we reached the plateau, the trail disappeared and some very well built cairns began to appear.
It was getting late and we were tired and low on water. We consulted the map to estimate the distance to Sylvan Lake, where we hoped to camp. My legs were cramping severely! We had just done the equivalent of 4 hours of stair climbing in the gym! I was not sure I could make it another mile and a half to the lake!
the fire was in '96.
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