Day 39 - Pretty Country

July 27th

21 Miles 

Campground

The morning started off mosquito-y and uphill and the clouds were looking a little grey. Coming around the mountain we came to more beautiful lakes and at the lower lake there was a camp set up with ATV's a big tent, a generator and the works! Those guys were camping in style and I figured we must not be to far from access roads. Followed ATV tracks for a couple miles down following the creek from the lakes and then turned around the mountain again and started to go up. 

Spins and I had lunch by the drainage of a lake up the ridge right before we had to go down the ridge just to climb a couple thousand feet back up the opposite ridge which had dark looming clouds around it.  By the time we made it up the ridge after lunch the clouds had mostly blown off and we ended up in some unexpected beautiful alpine country. This area was smoke free, mosquito free, and the weather was beautiful. Unfortunately this area only lasted for about 10 or so miles before we dropped back down. As we were going down I checked my map and saw that there was an access road that leads to Jackson, Montana which has a hot springs and saloon so we made the decision, it being a weekend and all today seeing plenty of people out, to head to Jackson to soak in the hot springs. On the Jonathan Ley maps it literally says "how could you pass this up?" And that seemed reason enough to commit to going to Jackson. It's 12 miles off trail on roads but hopefully we'll get a hitch in.