Mallard Lake

Bear Scat at the Trailhead

I hiked this trail in October 2017 after being between jobs and taking a random road trip with a friend driving toward Yellowstone. This was my first backcountry campsite permit ever, to kick off my first time hiking and camping in wide-open, untouched places.

Overcoming the Crux

After boiling some lake water and intermittent eating of sardines, crackers and fried beef it got dark quick. We tossed some lake water on the fire and crawled into the tent fully clothed. We took our boots off outside the tent and left them on the tarp just outside the tent, stupid, and I maneuvered myself into my sleeping bag, well insulated with my winter coat on. It had to be 9 pm and pitch black out. Some of the worst sleeping I have ever endured at the time, but what a thrill. There was sleet and snow overnight while the tempature continued to sink.

The next day, getting moving was difficult because our boots were wet, dusted in snow, and frozen. My feet weren’t much better, but it was 10 AM, and we had to get moving to Yellowstone. I forced my feet into my boots and started wrapping and strapping shit to my backpack. Once we started hiking, the blood started to flow. We passed a few more early hikers on our way out. I remember my Achilles tendon being very sore, making me almost hike with a limp. My feet were numb after being shoved into the frozen boots. It was my willpower to get to the car that kept me going that morning.

Leigh Lake, Bearpaw Lake, Trapper Lake

The Plan

Once we entered the Yellowstone South Entrance we pulled over and noticed only a few campsites were open during this season, my friend assured me it did not matter because we would be backcountry camping. We needed to find a Ranger Station to get our permits and due to my mistake, I directed us back into the Tetons to get our permits at a Ranger station in Colter Bay Village.

 A very helpful woman ranger set us up with a campsite at Leigh Lake for $25 a night. It was my first time going through this process and I had never researched the Grand Tetons before. She made us watch a 7-minute backcountry safety video. All said and done we discussed bear safety, bear boxes, campfires and location. The Ranger did say our night would be the coldest recorded for that year to date with a chance of precipitation. She also made it a point to mention bears hang out near Bear Paw Lake. One last use of the restrooms and we drove to the Leigh Lake Trailhead.

The Hike

The hike was an easy 9.2 miles out and back with nearly no elevation change between 6,800 to 6,900 ft. It was very flat, muddy and cold enough for the snow to stick around. The trail followed the edges of one lake to another with the mountains across the way.  

My preparation consisted of putting on pajama pants under my jeans, a t-shirt, thermal shirt, sweatshirt, flannel shirt, winter coat. Stuffing all our other shit in the packs was a puzzle trying to make it tolerable for miles of hiking. I had the tarp, my sleeping bag, a bed pad and my camera bag. The camera bag was a pain in the ass at first as it would continue to slide off my shoulder. I fixed that problem the next day and never dealt with it again. My friend packed up the food, stove, his sleeping bag, tent and a bed pad on his back then we took off.

Starting from the parking lot we headed North from the Leigh Lake Trailhead, walking along String Lake until it connected with Leigh Lake. We passed a few hikers headed back toward the parking lot after day hiking the trail, as well as a group of four women who had to be at least in their 60’s. They stomped right past us with their hiking poles putting us to shame. My cheap hiking boots were causing myself problems, but I continued to push through it. It turns out I laced up to tight and was strangling my Achilles tendon. We were the only ones out there to go camping, everyone else must have thought we were crazy with the snow and temperatures dropping.

The campsite was a blanket of snow not 20 yards from a rocky beach along Leigh Lake. Directly across the lake were three peaks, Mount Moran 12,605 ft right, Mount Woodring 11,591 ft center, and Rockchuck Peak 11,145 ft left.  We located our bear box which felt like 100 yards away from the fire pit and tent pad. Once we established the campsite layout, we wandered the beach immediately. The precipitation was coming down like a snow globe. I want to say we reached the campsite around 4PM, dropped our gear and wandered further up the trail to Bearpaw Lake and Trapper Lake. My stomach was upset but I thought nothing of it.  

The side trip to Bearpaw and Trapper lakes were exciting. The snow kept coming down in spurts, and I relieved my bowels of building pressure in the thick wilderness for the first time. It was the excitement built up from the adventure. This was my real first outdoor experience after all. I scathed my way about a hundred yards off the trail. I decided to go atop the closest hill around. The situation would be relatable to watching your dog take a shit. It’s not as easy to decide on the spot as you think, and yet sometimes you don’t get much choice.

A few notes here, more than a mile away from our gear all I had was my camera. I made do by ripping off some fabric from my shirt. I buried it and that was that. Lesson learned; some materials you want to keep close. We then returned to camp.

The beach we were next to provided the driest wood we could gather, and with help from the white gas, that fire saved my toes from being cut off, seriously. My boots were not as waterproof as I had believed; I was walking through mud, ice, snow, and puddles. That day and night went from a high of 40 to a low of 29; every minute of that fire was crucial. Literally taking off boots and socks, laying them near the fire to dry out for about an hour; hell, I even tossed my gloves real close to the fire just for good measure. Another mistake by me: I wanted my fingers and toes to be so dry and warm that some of my shit caught on fire, i.e., I burnt a hole in my sock and through one of my gloves.

The first actual area we wanted to stay at was near Old Faithful. We stopped at the first village we crossed in West Thumb which offers a view to the Yellowstone Lake. We opened the door to the back country office and a woman ranger approached the desk. It took us much longer to fill out paperwork this time not only for our lack of picking campsites but her computer had been down all day. She was nice enough to help us with some details such as the last time she was by said village was because a girl had crashed into a buffalo. Sounds terrible. Anyhow, she set us up for two nights in a row, we would have to drive in between days to get to our campsites. She didn’t make us watch the video again and the last thing she said was, “and you have your bear spray?” I looked at my friend, ” no, we have been doing all this without it.” She looked at us as if we were crazy. She gave us a can from behind her counter, “take mine, I have so many at home.” Explained how to use it then we were out the door and 40 minutes later at the Old Faithful Visitor Center.

The decision was to blow off taking time to watch Old Faithful erupt. We used the bathroom to wash our faces, I inhaled a double cheeseburger from the restaurant in the village, bought some overpriced Neosporin and hand sanitizer to clean open nicks on my hand, laced back up and took off. Not twenty steps into this trail we crossed a large bear pie, a ranger had mentioned a few bears spotted in the area, a single male and mother with some cubs.

The Hike

This hike was approximately 7.3 miles out and back with 900 feet of elevation gain. Somewhere in the first hike I noticed my Achilles tendon on my right leg was sore, to the point where I felt pain in every step I took. The first thing I told my mother before doing such a trip was along the lines of, “I will either go out there and die or come back. Survival of the fittest.” There was no way in hell I was going to let this inconvenience stop me from exploring, so from this hike specifically I suffered every step while limping here and there. This was a result from lacing up to tight.

My second hike ever was on a beautiful sun shining day. After wearing the same clothes for the second day straight I peeled off layers as my body started to sweat. The constant climb in elevation took a lot out of us, every few hundred feet we would find some shade and grab our breath. For me, during these hikes I realized as much as I needed the rest, I wanted to get to the destination more. I desperately wanted to get to our campsite where I could sit for more than a few minutes and not hike further up a mountain with an estimated 30 lbs on my back. Throughout the first hike I realized it was easier to just always hike with my camera in my hand. Every time we would wrap around a new trail section I would snap a few shots, fall behind 20 steps and continue keeping pace. Once we got through the snow-covered forest at the peak we finally started to decline again until Mallard Lake revealed itself.

What a relief it was to finally get to our campsite, on the edge of a shining lake and the view across the way where open hills with some staggered trees stood bare from a presumed forest fire. We hung our clothes on nearby trees to dry out, put our tent, bed pads and sleeping bags opened on the hill soaking up all the sun. Everything was so damp from the previous night of being covered in snow it would have made this night worse than the last. After we started another fire, it got dark quick. Under those conditions we strung a line over our bear pole 25 feet in the air and set up our tent on top of snow again.

That night was more enjoyable under a full moon. The fire was roaring from the full logs we started to feed it, and I decided it was a great time to get a feel for night photography. I continued to fail for an hour or two while we would boil lake water and turn it into instant coffee and smoke cigarettes. The real treat was getting a taste for my first ever MRE. It contained pork sausage with gravy, dehydrated granola with milk and bananas, cheese and crackers, and a toaster pastry. It also came with some clean wipes, waterproof matches, toilet paper (not needed), and two mints. That food could not get in me fast enough, considering what I had been eating, these new and exciting flavors were a treat. We drank 3 pots of coffee that night because why not. This night ended when we finally ran out of wood to burn because we scavenged 100 yards in every direction for wood that would burn easy. I really believe who ever used a camp site after us was shit out of luck, we burnt everything within reach.

A better night turned into a better morning. No snow to dust off the boots, just wake up wrap up camp, fire up a pot of the instant coffee and hit the trail. Not a bad hike back either because we were learning, I started the hike back in only a sweatshirt to account for overworking my body to the point of sweating. Along these hikes we might see a couple of people, we never encountered other hikers who spent a night in the back country though. On our hike out we saw one man pass us, only because we decided to climb a large collection of boulders on the side of this mountain in aspirations of getting to a cave we noticed.

And as expected this kind of off trail exploring must be normal, halfway up those boulders we gave the man a wave as he had to make his way around our packs in the middle of the trail. It turned out to be a little more challenging to get to the cave than we were to believe. We did some climbing maybe 10 feet high before he started to take on a little exposure. I reminded him I would be his only help for a few miles. We returned to the trail hiked a few miles through the pines out back to the car. We were off to our next campsite.