RIDGE walking in the CABINET MOUNTAINS

All right, well, once again, I am back in Montana, about to head back into the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, place I haven't been for a couple of years, but we're gonna rectify that right now. Late in the day, we're heading up to Bear Lakes tonight. I've never went in on this trail before, but I have come out it a couple of times, and it's gonna be uphill all the way. We've got two and a half hours of daylight, maybe, so I don't know if we'll make it with any light, but Timber and I are gonna throw on the packs here, start making our way up. Let's go. It's been pretty tough so far. Just right out of the truck, straight uphill. Might be halfway up the climb, I'm hoping. Keep pushing on here. We're almost to the ridge. Oh, it is getting buggy. There's this one lower Bear Lake here, the smallest one that I've never stayed at. I don't even think I've seen it, but coming up, I actually see the trail to it, so I think we're gonna head in there and stay there tonight. We've never stayed there, unless it's just horrible. I think it's gonna be buggy no matter where we go. It's just that time of year. Ready to be done, I know that. Well, I think we're gonna call this home in a little over three miles, 2,000 feet of gain. You can see it's really buggy. Gotta get the hammock set up here. Yeah, start relaxing. Timber and I had pushed pretty hard racing the light up the mountain, and I was spent by the time I rolled into the lake. I had anticipated that the bugs could be pretty bad on this trip, and well, so far, I was right. All right, well, I'm set up. Wow, it's really buggy here. It's July, and it's mid-July. I mean, this is the bug season. I think I'm gonna get a fire going and try to ward some of these off. Yeah, give me some water first, and then get on fire. Kinda winding down for the night. Bugs are letting up a little bit. Fire helps, for sure, especially when the smoke comes this way. Timber's already cashed in. He's in bed. I'm about to follow him here pretty soon. Glad we camped here. This is a really nice campsite, and now I've stayed at a mall. Well, good morning. Another morning of trying to beat the bugs. It is thick this morning. Oh, Timber's having a hard time of it. They're really tormenting him. Just trying to keep moving. It's a little better. They get you when you stop, and they get you when you move too, geez. Well, coffee's on. I gotta eat something this morning. Looking forward to the hike today, and looking forward to getting up on that ridge. See what the day brings. Oh, good God, let's go. Well, we are on the move. Bugs are pushing us around this morning. Happy to be on trail. Look at that. There's still some snow back here. I've hiked this section of the trail before, but I've never gone in this direction. There was a lot more climbing than I remember from my previous trips. It was pretty tough going. It is official. We're back in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. I do love this place. I think we still got a little bit to climb, but we've crested this little pass. Pushing on towards Swamp Creek. Right there. Well, we've hit the junction. Back this way goes back to Barre Lake, and this way goes to Lost Buck Pass. These are some of my favorite views in the Cabinet Mountains right here. Let's find a spot to sit down for a while. There is Lost Buck Pass. All right, packs on. Timber and I are headed towards Lost Buck Pass. This is the only section of trail I haven't done in this area, so I'm pretty excited to do it. The whole reason I wanted to do this route was to hike this ridge. A few years ago, when I came through Lost Buck Pass and dropped down into Swamp Creek, I could see the trail going across the ridge and immediately wanted to hike it. From my first few steps on the trail, I could tell I was gonna love it. Getting close. Well, I've hit the junction where you would go down to Swamp Creek. We're gonna make our way over to Lost Buck Pass, though. Drop down to Geiger for water, at least. Feeling like I wouldn't mind camping there. Tired today. Let's get to the pass, we'll take a break. When I made it to the pass, I started running into people. I got worried that I was not gonna get a campsite down at Upper Geiger Lake, so I pushed through the pass and on down to the lake. We hung out at the lake and watched a few people come and go, but Timber and I were the only ones who stayed. Think we have the lake to ourselves. Starting to get buggy again. It's been kind of half decent here the last couple hours. Mosquitoes are starting to come out now. Gonna get something to eat here. Well, good morning. It is just past first light here at Upper Geiger Lake. We were on the move early trying to beat the bugs, but they are out in force already. So, just doing the minimum stuff today. Coffee, drink some electrolytes, hitting the trail. All right, well, I just left the lake. I said I was just gonna do the minimum stuff, but even that got wiped out. The bugs are just insane this morning. I ate one. I thought I was gonna throw up. There's no way I could have drank coffee. We'll stop up at the pass. I'll do my electrolytes up there. Just gotta get out of here. God, they just buzz up in my hair and my ear and my eye. Just hit the junction on up to Lost Buck Pass. Let's go. Well, we've made it up here to Lost Buck Pass. It's getting buggier by the second up here. It was pretty good when we got here. I'm just drinking my electrolyte mix and I'll try to get some energy here. Make the push across the ridge. Ready to get out of the bugs. I am ready. Well, we'll just push on. Quickly came to the junction. We're going up this time. The bugs pushed me out of camp and I stepped on trail in a bad mood, but that all changed once I started taking in the views on this ridge. The way the light was hitting the ridges and the shadows descending down into the valley had me mesmerized. All right, well, we've hit the junction. Now we're heading over towards Bear Lake. Time to say goodbye to this view. Leaving the wilderness. Just topped out on this pass. I think from here, it's mostly downhill all the way back. Now we'll drop down to the Bear Lakes Trail, take that down to the truck. This trip has been a real mixed bag for me. The bugs have been bad enough that I was questioning why I was doing it. When we started hiking, we were pushing with the feeling that we just wanted to get to the truck. On the other hand, there were many times I was filled with elation. Felt like I had to pinch myself because I was in such an incredible place. I dream of places like this. And here I was living it. It was an odd state of mind to be in. All right, made it back to the Bear Lakes Junction. It's immediately buggy here. So we just got three miles down. There's beer in the truck. Let's go get some.