South Fork Fish Creek to Vista Pass

I woke up to a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the creek was trickling gently in the background, the wind was rustling the leaves of the willow bushes gently, the cows were mooing. Sigh so much for being in the back country wilderness. I was up and moving with the sun. I'm not sure if it was me needing to get some miles in due to my deadline of meeting my sister on the 8th or just the nervousness of camping alone in grizzly and wolf country but I had to get up and get moving.

Turns out it wasn't just me that needed to get moving. While I was still packing up my tent at 6:30 a northbound hiker came waltzing by me. It was G-Funk who I had last seen floating across the snow in Colorado. Turns out he had camped just a bit over a half mile from me last night. It was great catching up with him but the most interesting thing was he had had seen a big black wolf last night around dusk. It couldn't have been more than a mile from where I was setup. I'm having no luck seeing these animals.

Today's hike was a breeze. I had a "big" pass to go over but it was such a gentle easy climb for me that I was up and over it before I even noticed. At the bottom of the pass I entered the winds for real. I was ready and expecting the amazing sheer rock cliffs, the gorgeous green rivers and lakes, the lush valleys full of wildlife, more stupid fish that even my dad could catch, and you know cows it is Wyoming after all, but what I didn't expect was all the people. I expected a lot of people in Yellowstone and Glacier two of the most popular parks in the country but here I am in one of the most remote wildernesses in the country with some seriously difficult hikes and I saw more people in the first 10 miles than I did in back country of either of the two national parks. Granted I was way early in the season for Glacier but I was at Yellowstone in prime time and there was nobody in the back country there.

Toward the end of the day it started to rain on me. I was expecting it as the weatherman had forecast it but it still sucked. I had 4 miles of uphill left when it started to get heavy. After two of those miles I saw a well used site and just camped there nestled up between two pine trees. After pitching the tent I hardly got wet at all.