the mosquitoes are coming

After a week of sunshine and heat, we thought it was safe to plan a backpack trip into the Beartooths.  But of course, the weekend rolled around and the rain rolled in.  Because it rains every time we camp...

We met friends in Mammoth and headed towards Cooke City.  The skies continued to darken the further east we drove.  We killed some time in Cooke, and when the sun cleared (a wee bit) we decided to give it a try.

We hiked in from a trail about 3 miles east of Cooke. Our original destination was Fox Lake, but we decided, based on the weather, to do a shorter trip, and headed to Rock Island Lake instead.  That's the beauty of the Beartooths--there's a lake at every turn. 

The trail starts over the Clark's Fork River:

We reached Kersey Lake and the skies got a little darker.

And the climb got a little steeper.

And then the sun came out again.

And then we reached our destination, Rock Island Lake.

We set up home for the night just off the east side of the lake.

And then the boys took to the lake to fish,

while we got barked at by an angry pika who didn't appreciate us invading her space and her rocks.  

 

And then it rained. And rained. And rained. From around 8 a.m. until 8 a.m.  It rained.

Along with the rain? Come in closer, do you hear that? That buzzing? Because there were a million mosquitoes.  As we laid in our tent, we watched them converge between the rain tarp and the netting.  We swatted them away while we cooked, and sprayed on layer after layer of bug spray.  But I digress...

Finally, after 12+ hours of rain,  the sun broke through the clouds and we were finally able to get up and make breakfast.  We dried out our gear, and quickly hiked out to the car. The best thing about hikes in the Cooke City area is that they end with this:

Rain, or shine.