Pic: I like you way too much. Lake at Falls, Custer Gallatin NF, MT
Six miles and 1400′ of elevation took me from Elk Lake, past Rimrock Lake and Rainbow Lake, to the head of Lake at Falls.
Pic: Why is it called “Lake at F–” …oh. Lake at Falls, Custer Gallatin NF, MT
East Rosebud Trail continues for another seventeen miles until it rejoins the Beartooth Highway on the Cooke City side. Someday I’d like to tackle the full length as a four-day trip, but for now I was satisfied with sitting on a rock above the glittering lake, eating lunch and watching water dance down the cliffs on the southern shore. The Beaten Path delivers.
I re-enjoyed the sights on the way back to camp, where I made dinner and watched some Survivor. As twilight edged into night, I was doing dishes and preparing for bed. I was also singing (“Now the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum…”), because I did not want to meet a bear while washing instant mashed potatoes out of my bowl. I turned around to dump some dirty dishwater (“…they’ll have theirs and you’ll have yours and I’ll have miiiiiiiine!”) and found a fuzzy white shape on the trail fifteen yards in front of me. A mountain goat! Wait, what are you doing? Why don’t you care that I am big and smelly and making a bunch of noise?
The goat looked at me, pooped, and jogged back up the trail. I could hear its hooves clopping over rocks long after it vanished into the darkness like a hairy ghost. I tell you, some of this wildlife has no respect for personal space![1]
[1] Bonus shoutout to the marmot who chewed a hole in my (poorly-stored) stuff sack to get to the salty-with-sweat-but-not-actually-food t-shirt inside. Silly marmot, shirts are forbids.
Danger Beyond This Point 