Light out. Looked like for a while already. Ugh! Loopster, you awake? Of course, she was, but even Lupe wasn’t looking too lively yet, still content to snuggle down on her sleeping bag. Lupe gazed sleepily back at SPHP. Is it time?
Uncharacteristically, Lupe had only wanted to go outside her “tiny house” once during the night to prowl around. The scene, the mood, had been magical. A full moon flooded Paint Rock Creek valley with ghostly light. Close by, but out of sight below the grassy ridge on which Lupe’s tiny house was perched, came the soothing sound of Paint Rock Creek gushing over a 15 foot high waterfall. Otherwise, silence prevailed beneath the night sky. Nothing stirred. Lupe and SPHP were utterly alone.
Now it was light out. Yes, it’s time, Loop. I wish it wasn’t – I’m not feeling it. Sheesh, why do I always do this? Bomber Mountain after Cloud Peak, indeed – what a joke! I must be delusional. Now I’ll be lucky to drag myself up Cloud today. I hope you’re more ready for this than I am. SPHP started preparations for the day’s climb. Lupe watched, but didn’t move. She made no comment.
Yesterday, Lupe and SPHP had made it from the trailhead at West Tensleep Lake to the junction of the Misty Moon Trail (No. 63) and the Solitude Trail (No. 38) SW of Misty Moon Lake in good time. The sun had still been high overhead. Lupe and SPHP could have made it to base camp on the ledge near Paint Rock Creek falls with many hours before sunset to relax and recuperate for the climb up Cloud Peak (13,167 ft.) today.
Hah! That would have been too easy. Instead, full of enthusiasm, SPHP had led Lupe E on the Solitude Trail off on a side excursion to see the Fortress Lakes and Gunboat Lake. Lupe even left the trail to climb a minor high point, Peak 10,860. From there, SPHP had seen what looked like a good route up Bomber Mountain (12,840 ft.) from the Florence Pass area. Wouldn’t it be fun for Lupe to climb Bomber Mountain, too, the day after climbing Cloud Peak?
The side excursion was fun and beautiful, but also chewed up lots of time. More importantly, it used up a lot of energy. As a result, Lupe and SPHP had dragged into base camp on the low ridge NW of Paint Rock Creek falls only an hour and a half before sunset. By then, the Bomber Mountain daydream was shattered. SPHP was played out. Even Lupe seemed tired. As soon as Lupe’s tiny house was pitched, Lupe and SPHP had crawled inside and crashed.
OK, Loop, let’s go! Yeah, yesterday’s side excursion may have been a mistake, but so what? You’re gonna make it to the top, sweet puppy! We still have lots of advantages. We are starting from the best and closest possible base camp, the weather is ideal, and we saw yesterday that there’s almost no snow left up there to stop us.
Not gonna set any speed records, unless it’s for the slowest ascent ever, but who cares? No one. It’s just us. We have all day. We can rest as often and long as we want to. There’s a reason for this SPHP tag, you know. Even so, this is still going to be a glorious day. Promise!
Lupe was ready! She grabbed a big stick and chomped it. She snarled and barked. She leaped around encouraging SPHP to please, finally, get on with it. And then she was off, tearing NE along the trail up Paint Rock Creek valley above the falls.
The unmaintained trail was good, at first. It paralleled Paint Rock Creek from a short distance to the NW. Lupe and SPHP went down to the creek, so Lupe could get a drink. Bluebells were growing in profusion along the banks.
Lupe and SPHP returned to the trail. Almost immediately, it veered N, leaving the creek behind. Gradually, the trail became more intermittent and harder to follow. Sometimes there were cairns to show the way. There was no reason to worry. It was just about impossible to get lost. To the N was a giant ridge of solid stone sweeping up to the NE toward Cloud Peak’s summit.
Lupe and SPHP came to several big rock formations that had to be traversed. Between the formations was much more level grassy ground. SPHP grew careless about following the trail, losing it several times. Lupe kept coming across it again. Once, at one of the formations, Lupe came to a rock wall that was too high for her to scramble up. SPHP lifted her up, but that was the only time she needed help.
Sometimes Lupe had to lose a little elevation leaving the rock formations to reach the next grassy section, but the elevation loss was never significant. The last grassy section was the largest of all. Several ponds were scattered around. Directly ahead, beyond the grass, was a headwall. Above it was a higher valley leading toward Cloud Peak.
After crossing the last big grassy area, Lupe was delighted to discover a big patch of snow in a cleft in the headwall. She frolicked, slid, and rolled on it. SPHP was happy for her. Down on the sagebrush prairies surrounding the Bighorns it was supposed to be 100°F, but here was Lupe having a blast in the snow!
Above the headwall, the long upper valley stretched ahead. There was a fair amount of grass in the center of the valley. A tributary of Paint Rock Creek cascaded down from above.
SPHP hadn’t really bothered to look for the route the intermittent trail took up over the headwall, but realized Lupe was probably SE of it. The center of the valley near the creek looked like the easiest way up. Unfortunately, instead of immediately working over to the middle, SPHP chose what looked like the easiest route from where Lupe had arrived on the headwall, which stayed SE of the valley center.
The route was full of boulders, but now and then there were short stretches of grass or dirt. They all led higher up on the SE side of the valley. Gradually, Lupe was getting farther away from the middle of the valley, instead of closer to it. Lupe didn’t seem to mind all the rock-hopping too much, but for SPHP it was time consuming and exhausting. Frequent stops were necessary to let heart and lungs catch up.
Eventually, Lupe was a long way up on the SE side of the upper valley. By now, even short stretches of grass or dirt were non-existent. Ahead was a seemingly endless boulder field. Somewhere up there, SPHP knew Lupe would arrive at the edge of massive cliffs to the SE.
From below, the boulders above repeatedly gave the impression that Lupe was nearing the top of the ridge. As Lupe scrambled ever higher, SPHP urged her to be careful. However, each time Lupe reached the apparent ridgeline, all that was revealed beyond were more boulders and an even higher ridge.
Slowly, Lupe and SPHP pressed onward and upward. There was no other reasonable choice. The floor of the upper valley was now much too far below to consider going back down looking for a better route. Sorry, Lupe, looks like I’ve really screwed this up again. We’re still going to make it, though. This can’t go on forever. On the way back down, we will find a better way.
By now, even Lupe was getting sick of all the rock hopping. Each time SPHP stopped for a breather, she curled up at SPHP’s feet as best as she could. SPHP tried to stop at tiny patches of grass, so she could be somewhat comfortable, but often there wasn’t anything resembling “comfortable” around.
Despite the horrible route SPHP had selected, there were still cairns scattered around here and there. They were utterly meaningless. SPHP did derive a little comfort from them. Well, Loop, looks like we aren’t the only suckers to ever come this way!
Over time, SPHP could see Lupe was making progress. She was gradually gaining on Elk Mountain (11,321 ft.), far off to the SW. After a while, she was even with it. Eventually, Elk Mountain was clearly below Lupe’s elevation.
At last, Lupe reached the edge of the cliffs! Across a chasm to the ESE was an impressive view of Bomber Mountain (12,840 ft.). To the NNE was Lupe’s first relatively close up view of “The Bridge”. It was farther away than SPHP had hoped. The entire intervening distance was still nothing but more boulders. Beyond “The Bridge”, boulder fields rose 1,000 feet above Lupe’s current position.
What SPHP refers to as “The Bridge” is a narrow band of rock connecting much wider portions of the long SW ridge leading up to the summit of Cloud Peak. If “The Bridge” didn’t exist, Cloud Peak would be a technical climb, the summit attainable only by those with genuine mountaineering skills and equipment. Casual day hikers and backpackers like Lupe and SPHP would have no way to ever reach the summit.
Lupe and SPHP had no choice, but to continue on to “The Bridge”. Lupe went N over the boulders along the edge of the chasm to the E. As she got closer to the narrowest part of “The Bridge”, Lupe turned NE to cross it. There were huge drop offs on both sides, with spectacular views, but “The Bridge” is plenty wide enough so that crossing it under favorable conditions isn’t a terrifying experience.
While crossing “The Bridge”, Lupe gained little net elevation, if any. The crossing was still slow, since “The Bridge” is all boulder field, just like the rest of the terrain. There appeared to be a somewhat easier route toward the S side, but naturally, SPHP had led Lupe along the N edge to see the views in that direction. Was it possible to go any slower? It was hard to see how.
Beyond “The Bridge”, Lupe resumed her climb. Only another 600 or 700 feet of elevation gain to the top! Only? SPHP was fading. Lupe wasn’t, though! There were many places where SPHP thought the Carolina Dog might need help over huge boulders. Each time SPHP offered to lend her a hand, though, all on her own she appeared a moment or two later grinning down at SPHP from above. Show off!
This high on the mountain, Lupe started coming to more snow. The snow actually helped. SPHP was able to trudge right on up it, where the snow wasn’t too steep. Although it was warm out and the snow was melting at a good clip, it didn’t give way. Crossing the snow was much faster than trying to negotiate the boulders.
Finally, less than 500 feet below the summit during one of SPHP’s innumerable rest breaks, SPHP saw something that had been expected for hours. Below, and not terribly far away, someone was coming! Two people and a white dog! They were moving fast. Soon they would overtake Lupe and SPHP. Until now, Lupe and SPHP had been totally alone on the mountain.
Before long, Lupe and SPHP met Garrett, Ariel, and their dog Apollo! They were from Casper, WY. After a pleasant few minutes chatting, Lupe and SPHP were left behind. Garrett, Ariel and Apollo blazed ahead, eventually disappearing high above. Lupe and SPHP plugged along slowly. At long last, from the SW, Lupe reached the summit area.
The summit area was quite large – a few hundred feet across or more. The whole area was still all boulder fields, but they sloped much less dramatically. There was a high point to the W, which had been visible at times on the way up. The true summit was a large boulder with a cairn on it off toward the E edge of the mountain. Huge precipices were to the E and S near the true summit, and W of the W high point.
Garrett, Ariel and Apollo were still at the true summit when Lupe and SPHP finally arrived. Lupe was more than a little ill-mannered toward poor unoffending Apollo. Apparently, SPHP had been moving so slowly, Lupe had spent enough time on Cloud Peak on the way up to start thinking of the mountain as her own territory. Lupe repeatedly growled warnings at Apollo. This mountain isn’t big enough for the two of us!
Come on now, Lupe, of course it is – behave!
This was it! Success! Despite the perfect weather, no one else was coming to climb Cloud Peak today. Garrett and Ariel said it was already 3:15 PM. (Good grief, had it really taken SPHP 8.25 hours to struggle up this mountain? A lousy 3,000 feet of elevation gain from base camp? Apparently so. Record crappy ascent time secured! No matter, it was still a successful ascent.) Time for everyone to celebrate with a few photos!
Garrett and Ariel stayed up at the summit talking with SPHP. They were trail runners, and spent quite a bit of time in the mountains when they could. They had only 2 days off work, and had come up to the Bighorns just to tag Cloud Peak. Amazingly, they had hopes of being down off the mountain and back to Pizza Hut in Buffalo, WY before it closed at 10 PM!
It seemed impossible! SPHP would be thrilled with stumbling back into Lupe’s base camp before it was pitch black. SPHP talked with Garrett and Ariel so long, they probably never stood a chance of enjoying that pizza. It was after 4 PM by the time Garrett, Ariel and Apollo took their leave, and disappeared off to the SW.
Alone again, Loop! What a glorious place! We did make it, didn’t we? Lupe panted happily at SPHP. Sure did! You knew we would! You’re with an American Dingo. It was in the bag all along. SPHP sat petting Lupe on the summit boulder for a while. Yeah, but you gotta remember, I’m no American Dingo. Lupe sighed and rolled over, paws in the air. Good! You can scratch my belly, then. SPHP complied, while surveying the world from 13,167 ft.
It must have been approaching 5 PM, by the time Lupe and SPHP started back down. Going down was easier, but still ridiculously slow. SPHP did improve on route selection, which in some places made virtually no difference, but in others helped tremendously.
The big improvements came below “The Bridge”. This time, Lupe stayed much farther to the N, heading W from “The Bridge”. This eventually brought Lupe down to a big, nearly flat area that swept off to the S and then down around to the SW. There were so few boulders here, that Lupe was free to run around exploring as she pleased. It was like a Cloud Peak super highway compared to the way Lupe and SPHP had struggled up earlier!
Better route selection hardly mattered at first. It took a long time just getting down to “The Bridge”. The scenery was spectacular, though!
By the time Lupe reached the Cloud Peak super highway, the sun was already very low, and the light was beginning to fade. It was still a very long way back to Lupe’s base camp. Fortunately, Lupe and SPHP could now make rapid progress for a while.
The big flat area gradually steepened, and eventually led down into the upper end of the valley above the headwall where the tributary of Paint Rock Creek was flowing. There were lots more boulders again here, but Lupe was able to avoid most of them. Successive trails marked by cairns went down long stretches of narrow, boulder-free paths of dirt or grass.
As Lupe got close to the stream, she found a lot more grass, plus big areas of relatively smooth exposed bedrock. Staying on the SE side of the stream, but close to it, was a lot better than Lupe’s tortuous climb among the boulders higher up on the SE side of the valley in the morning.
As fast as Lupe’s progress was, by the time Lupe and SPHP managed to get down the headwall to the biggest grassy area with scattered ponds, the sun was long gone. Twilight was fading fast. Beyond the grass, SPHP had a hard time finding a decent route over the first of the rock formations that had to be traversed. Once on the other side, nothing looked familiar, not that it was possible to see much.
SPHP brought out the flashlight and a headlamp. Ahead to the SW, a wide valley of exposed bedrock sloped down into a deep dark hole. Off to the SE was the outline of a dark ridge, but it wasn’t nearly high enough to be the ridge S of Paint Rock Creek. Confusion set in. SPHP couldn’t see much, but what was in view seemed wrong.
Did the map show the dark ridge to the SE? SPHP didn’t remember it from earlier in the day. A look at the topo map didn’t seem to show it either. Was it possible to miss going right by Lupe’s base camp by simply continuing down the canyon? Both the map and what SPHP could remember seemed to indicate that was impossible, yet the yawning black hole ahead looked totally unfamiliar.
Lupe, let’s go back up a way, maybe we are supposed to be on the other side of this dark ridge to the SE? Lupe was fine with that. For a few minutes, Lupe and SPHP headed back up to the NE. Reason soon set in again. SPHP stopped. Let’s have another look at the topo map.
Little bulges to the SW in the topographic lines probably indicated the presence of the dark SE ridge. SPHP probably hadn’t paid any attention to the ridge in the morning, because it wasn’t really as big as it looked in the dark.
Loop, we are turning around again to go back down into the dark hole. If we persist in trying to reach the other side this SE ridge, we may find ourselves in a real jumble down along Paint Rock Creek way before it reaches the trail. Keep an eye out for the trail, and sniff around for it, too. We need to find it!
Cautiously, SPHP headed back down toward the dark abyss. Lupe sniffed around. She found the trail! It was faint, but here was a little cairn. This had to be it. Across the grassy areas and over the rock formations, Lupe helped SPHP stay on the trail. It had been intermittent and kind of hard to follow in the day. In the dark, it was really tricky.
Whenever the trail disappeared, SPHP watched Lupe, in a minute or two she was usually on it again. Several times SPHP disagreed with Lupe on which way to go. Lupe was soon proven right almost every time.
The rock formations seemed much steeper and rougher in the darkness than during the day. The way back seemed much longer than expected, too. Darkness does that. Time passes much more slowly than one thinks. SPHP went on and on in the darkness, but with growing confidence. The little cairns were helpful. Lupe was helpful. The trail gradually improved.
Finally, Paint Rock Creek could be heard not too far away. The trail still didn’t go toward it for what seemed like a long time. Eventually it did, though, and not long afterward, Lupe arrived back at her tiny house. Ta da! That was quite a day, Lupe! Thanks so much for your help! We are going to remember Cloud Peak for a long time. Hungry?
Lupe was hungry. Famished, actually. She had hardly eaten anything all day. She inhaled her Taste of the Wild. Then she was ready to curl up on her sleeping bag. SPHP pulled part of it over her. Keep the puppy warm! Lupe was asleep in no time. SPHP was too weary to eat. Out like a light.
Suddenly, it was morning again. Bright and beautiful, but not a cloud in the sky. It was going to be a scorcher, even way up here. Now it was SPHP’s turn to eat. Lupe hardly stirred, happy curled up on her sleeping bag. SPHP wrapped it around her a little better again. Hope you weren’t too cold in the night Loop, I never regained consciousness to check on you.
Well, Loopster, Cloud Peak was your toughest peakbagging success yet, but it’s time to go home today. We are low on water, and even if we had gallons of it, I am totally out of energy to climb Bomber Mountain. That was pure fantasy for this trip. Not going to happen. It wasn’t in the original plan, anyway. Would you like to explore the ridge to the W for a little way, though, before we leave?
Lupe was fine with sniffing around to the W. She climbed some low hills. She saw a beautiful unnamed lake. She drank from a tiny stream. SPHP admired Paint Rock Creek valley, and all the wonderful sights in and around it.
Lupe and SPHP returned to base camp. It was time to go. SPHP took down Lupe’s tiny house. Away went Lupe and SPHP, S across Paint Rock Creek valley, up the other side to the Solitude Trail, and over the pass. Lupe went by Misty Moon Lake, reached the Misty Moon Trail, and proceeded S past Lake Marion and Lake Helen.
At 4:14 PM (81°F), Lupe’s 3 day/2 night adventure to Cloud Peak was over. She was back at the trailhead at West Tensleep Lake ready to bark at cows and horses from the comfort of the G6 on her air-conditioned ride home to the Black Hills.
A couple days later, Lupe had an email from her mountaineer friend, Jobe Wymore, congratulating Lupe on her ascent of Cloud Peak. By sheer coincidence, Sam Grant, a mountaineer buddy of Jobe’s had climbed Cloud Peak on 7-21-16, the day after Lupe did! Had Lupe run into Sam by any chance? Sam would have made the entire trip as a day hike in one day!
SPHP saw on Peakbagger.com that Sam had taken the Misty Moon Trail from West Tensleep Lake, too. Lupe and SPHP almost certainly passed by Sam somewhere along the trail on the way back to the G6. Jobe was soon able to confirm that Sam thought he might have actually talked to SPHP for a few minutes! Fun stuff! Too bad Lupe and SPHP hadn’t realized who Sam was. Lupe could have gotten her picture taken with him, and added another genuine mountaineer to her collection of friends.
Just think, Lupe! Sam Grant can do in one day what took me 3 days and 2 nights! Maybe Garrett, Ariel and Apollo did get to Pizza Hut in Buffalo in time, after all? I’m clearly holding you back. Maybe you better consider an upgrade from SPHP? You could get a lot more accomplished!
Aren’t we going on my wonderful, most stupendous ever Summer of 2016 Dingo Vacation in less than a week?
Of course!
Well then, I’m stuck with you, SPHP, at least for the time being.
Good thing, Lupe! I’d sure miss you, if you ever left. Now you are going to help me pack all this stuff, right?
Start without me SPHP, I’m kind of busy resting up for all the adventures I have to star in ahead!
Links:
Next Dingo Vacation Prior Adventure
This Dingo Vacation Prior Dingo Vacation
Cloud Peak, Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming – Part 1: The Mistymoon Trail to Base Camp (7-19-16)
Bomber Mountain, Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming – Part 1: The Solitude Trail to Gunboat Lake (7-14-18)
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