Story time
Grab your coffee or tea, it’s going be a long one. 😬
Well we said goodbye to Montana one more time. It was, I think for the both of us harder to leave this time. Who knows what the future holds for us. I had one more adventure I wanted to do before leaving this time tho! About a month ago I had asked my hiking buddy Craig, “Hey do you wanna backpack up to upper arrow lakes for one night on a Saturday?” I don’t know when the next time I’m be back in Montana, so let’s do a long hike. A couple days go by, while in Texas, and I think to myself while looking at a map of where we’ll be camping. I call him back up and say “You know, Glacier Peak is right there, maybe I should see if my fat Texas ass could do another 12,000 ft peak after 3 years of not hiking”. After that he was all in, We can do it Tony! He is by far one of the most positive if not the most positive guys I’ve ever met! So the date was saved. A few days later, while sanding, I think to myself again, my buddy Patrick has never hiked in the Beartooths, has always wanted to go on an adventure with me and never hiked a peak that high. I give him a text, “hey buddy, you ready for an adventure?” Sure I’m all in Tony, whatever you want to do let’s do it!” Well I didn’t mention the peak yet to him. 😂 SWEET, my backpacking trip to my favorite place is coming together. I guess a few days go by and Craig texted me asking if I wanted it to be just a boys weekend. I said naw, what do you have in mind? He asked if I minded if his 11 year old daughter Zoe could come with us. First words out of my mind was “Are you seriously asking me that? That would be the icing on the cake for me! I’d absolutely love if she came with us! To see a father take his daughter backpacking, climb a peak and see the wilderness for what me and you love so much about it? Of course I’m up for it! So the whole trip was planned, now we just had to hope the wind gods loved us enough to blow all the smoke back north and west to give us a clear weekend.🤞
We all meet up at the trailhead at 8am and we’re off for a adventure into the wilderness for a night in the Beartooths. Now it was time to tell Patrick that we was planning on hiking a 12,000 ft peak. 😂 He’s game for anything, love the attitude brother! The weather was awesome, blue skies all weekend! We get about 4-5 miles in then me and Craig start telling about the first nasty hill to go up. It’s called “Heart attack Hill” yes that’s the actual name of it. Ask Deja, it’s called that for a very good reason. It’s a one mile straight up, no switch backs hill that will have you crawling over the top of it. Guess what tho, Zoe takes it like a champ! No huffing and puffing like us old men, as she’s calling us now. 😂 She called our hiking sticks “Old man sticks” yea yea yea missy. 😬 Up and over we go, we pass the only folks we see the whole weekend. We take lunch at 7 miles in beside a waterfall. Zoe and Patrick are doing awesome and loving it so far. Now the boulders start, if you’ve never hiked the Beartooths you will never understand the boulders you cross ALL DAY LONG to get anywhere.
“Hey Patrick, we should be getting to the first lake, Lower arrow lake, just up over that hill and you’ll get a eye full”. Once we’re there all eyes are wide open. We are in the thick of it now guys and gals! On to the next lake, my favorite lake, upper arrow lake, another 2 miles. Me and Craig then find us a good spot to camp for the night, right at the bottom of “Glacier Peak” . We all set up camp and look around for a bit, Zoe of course is off picking berries. That girl and berries is something else. Every time I looked around she was picking them. ❤️ So we decide to just go for it the same day, let’s get it over with. 2:45 pm we’re off. Patrick and Zoe’s first peak in the Beartooths experience. Everyone doing fine till “the wall” hits them, that’s we call it, I also call it the 11,800 ft wall. It’s going hit you hard, either you go past it or you stop in your tracks and go back down.
All eyes are on Zoe at this point, she’s 11 and has never carried a backpack, hiked in the Beartooths or hiked a peak this high. It’s hits her hard, she gets the “Mean mug face” as Craig’s calls it. I can still see she’s still pushing tho, slowing but still going. She has nothing to say, no smile, nothing. It’s what happens tho, in the altitude. Everyone is concentrating on their breathing and foothold. This is not the place to loose your balance. From here I could say, we had to hang on upside down with our toes, like monkeys, scaling shear drop offs with our shirts tied together, holding each other together but I won’t. 🤫😂 But I will say we did some things that are a bit crazy… At one point I thought Zoe and Patrick was going throw in the towel. But they both are troopers! Yes I’m sure there was some spots, wait I know there was some spots that there butt checks was squeezing very tight! But we finally made it to the ridge and it was somewhat smooth scaling from there. I finally meet back up with Zoe and stayed behind her, she needed all the encouragement she could get. Once we got to the last 60 yards we let the Zoe be the first to summit the mountain. Zoe and Patrick first ever peak, in the Beartooths . Glacier Peak 12,353 ft.
They had hiked in 14 miles and done 4,500 ft of incline on the same day, that’s a awesome day! While we was taking pictures, hooping and hollering, all of a sudden a herd a huge POP. Wth was that? I turned around and it was a Pringles can! Yes my buddy Craig had carried a new can of sour cream and onions can of Pringles to the top of the peak for us to eat when we got to the top. Who does that?? 😂 It was so cold I think we only got a few each but we sure had a laugh about that can popping so loud. It was like a bottle of Champagne at the top of the mountain.
Somewhere along the way, I can’t remember when it happened. I was either above them or beside them at one point and I herd a loud scream from one of the guys “Your a ……” I couldn’t hear what he said, the wind was blowing so loud, I yelled back “WHAT” then I herd the next yell “TONY, YOUR A BADASS” this scream came from Zoe!! My heart just sank! When a 11 year old calls you a badass you take that to heart! I’ve never been called a badass from a 11 year old before. I could hear the next conversation after that. Daddy Craig said, woe now Zoe, you can’t say that, then Patrick said , she could only say ass if we was above 12,000 ft. Craig said ok that’s a deal. Then I believe she yelled it again! We all couldn’t stop laughing then. So down the mountain we go. Zoe gets a lot of education at this point from dad about what rocks can have on impacting hikers below her and what nots.
Then me and Zoe hiked the rest of the way back down together. This girl won more of my heart in two days then most do in 10 years, this is one awesome individual! Very positive and a unbelievably given person, I can see where she gets it from tho. Her dad is one of the most positive guys I’ve ever meet! Period! You’d just have to hike with him to know him. We all scrambled back down to camp, Patrick stomach was a bit upset coming down so he turned in for the night. Craig, Zoe and I sat up eating and chatting. I was telling Zoe all kinds of stories the whole weekend. One thing I keep telling her was to soak up everything that she is doing at this very moment with her dad. She will always remember them. She will remember this weekend her whole life. Of course she keeps on picking berries too. 😂 I tell her about my adventures of hiking peaks by myself like her dad does and one thing I love the most is waking up at 3 am and looking at the stars. It’s like you can grab them from the sky with your finger tips. So the next morning I wake and guess who pops up beside me? Zoe is already up.❤️ She told me that she got up with her dad at 3am and seen the stars. Craig walks over beside me, says the sky’s where crystal clear at 3 am. Awesome! Just what I wanted to hear. Shhhhh don’t worry, I snuck my head out of my tent that night to get a peak also.
Craig then made us some coffee in the mountains, I pulled my sleeping bag out of the tent and got into it to keep myself warm while sitting at the edge of a cliff, over the lake watching the sun come up. Here comes Zoe with her sleeping bag, “that’s looks comfy Tony”, “well sweetheart you just pull up a sleeping bag and enjoy this moment with me” Here I am in a sleeping bag, in the Beartooths , at 11,000 ft, drinking coffee with a 11 BADASS girl, having the best morning of my life! How can you beat that?? Here comes my buddy Patrick, good morning sunshine. He also makes some coffee and we all enjoy some laughs, the morning coolness, eagles across the lake from us and a bit of food. I tell them both how proud I am of them for doing the hike yesterday. Craig and I both praise what they have accomplished. Not to many people will do it! We share lots of stories. Patrick tells of stories of hiking the AT trail a few years back. We all have more laughs. It takes a different person to hike over 2,000 miles! He’s got loads of stories! As we are drinking our coffee it dawned on me. I didn’t bring a coffee cup, a breakfast bowel, any snacks, a water purifier or a sleeping pad! So I got the “Damn Tony, what did you bring?” 😂😂 We’ll I brought enough for a night in the woods and a fishing pole. 😂🎣 Did I need to bring anything else guys? Word from the wise tho, a yoga mat does not do any good to sleep on in the back country! 😂 It was time to talk about our hike out and where we was going fish at. We pack up everything and head down to the lake to fish. NOTHING. Then we get to the next lake NOTHING, 😂😂 It’s all good tho. Zoe and I was still just a chatting away, roaming around as she’s picking berries. Finally we get to a spot I think there might be a few small ones. I teach her about how to sneak up on fish, I make a tight bow cast and WHAM! Got one Zoe! Now let’s get a picture or they won’t believe us. Grab my phone out, push the button and it dies right then! We both just laugh. Ol well, let’s walk down a bit closer to your dad, see if we can find another fish. Next spot WHAM! Another one Zoe. This time we holler and get Craig to come take a photo. Yes they are very small but beautiful nonetheless. Now was the time to pack up all fishing gear and head down the mountain. Everyone meets up and we’re on our way, hoping the dreaded boulders again, 7 miles of them! Next up was going back down Heart attack Hill! Grrrrrrrr the knees! At about the last 3 miles, I can see it’s gets to Zoe, she’s ready for it to end at this point, heck, so am I a bit. Ol Patrick and Craig up in front just a chatting away. I can hear Patrick telling more stories of the AT trail. Some very funny ones. As we are going down a hill, Patrick tells us how to squeeze our butt checks together so it doesn’t hurt our knees as bad. Yes we was all trying it with a smile on our face. At this point you try anything. 😂 Last half mile Zoe and I are beside each other chatting away, I’m sure it was about food and just what she had accomplished and should be very proud of herself. THERE IT IS GUYS, THE SILVER BULLET, THE THING WE HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR, A SOFT SEAT, 😂 That’s what Deja and I call the truck. We made it back to the trucks, everyone had all the digits still intact, with smiles on our faces. Zoe being who she is, keep a four pack of Reese‘s cup the whole trip. She shared them with us all at the end. We called it the “Victory Cups”. 😂❤️ And that’s our trip into the Beartooths. 24.5 miles, 4,500 ft on incline to a peak at 12,320 ft high.
P.S. That was the easy part of the weekend! The hardest part was listening to a 11 year tell you countless times, “Tony, you need to just come back home, I miss you” !! Then telling her goodbye! Zoe if you read this I won’t you to know, I will come back, I promise you we will hike together again. If you stick to this, hiking mountains with your dad, it would be my honor to hike with you again! You made my Montana trip weekend the best I’ve had in 5 years! Having coffee with you, in a sleeping bag, above a lake, at sunrise, was the bees knees. Plus I will definitely have to make you some homemade biscuits!
