Cabin Creek Peak

Yesterday we hiked to the fire lookout on Cabin Creek Peak.

We had planned on doing this to celebrate my 60th birthday,

but the weather that day was a bit nasty and we did not want

to be up there in a thunder storm.  This turned out to be a

pretty ambitious hike for a couple of old goats, but we had

a great day in some beautiful country.  We went up the north 

fork of Willow Creek to McDougal Gap and into the head

of Bear Canyon. We then went north to the Cabin Creek

divide and followed  the ridge up to the top of the peak.

I bought myself a new GPS for my birthday and had fun

seeing what we were doing.  The hike was 8.1 miles up

and 7.4 down for a total of 15.5 miles (we took a little

short cut off the top).  The elevation gain was 3450 feet, 

but the GPS tracks all of the ups and downs and the 

total ascent was 4166 feet.  It was pretty hot yesterday

and we were beat last night. Another beautiful day

together in the wilds of Wyoming.

Head of Bear Canyon on the Greys River side

of the Salt River Range. 

 The Tetons were barely visible to us in the far

 background, but with the smoke from the Idaho wildfires,

 they do not show up in the photos.

 Brass cap on top of the mountain.

The date is 1946.

 We recognized the names of some of the vandals

that had visited over the years.  I asked Dick about

this and he said that he and Harlan Bateman

had ridden their motorbikes up here years ago.

 Looking south across Bear Canyon.

I have always had this hike on my list because Dad

had talked about taking supplies up to Rand when they

were working for the Forest Service as teenagers

in the mid 1940's.  Rand was stationed at the lookout.

As we approached the top and the lookout

came into view, I could imagine Dad calling out,

"Hello Rand, I've brought you some grub."

and Rand yelling back, "Hello Dee, your'e sure

a sight for sore eyes."

We were surprised to see some really nice

huckleberries hanging on this late in the season.

We planned to stop in Willow Creek on our way

back down, but it was getting late and, sorry,

we only had time to pick what we could eat.