We had gotten a taste of Jewel Basin when Jenn took us on our first hike in Montana and we wanted to spend some more time exploring it. We got our backpacks ready for a couple of nights in the basin and drove up to Camp Misery to set off.
Last time we headed south with Jenn and this time we headed north. We still don’t have a good feel for how long we can go with our backpacks so we headed to Twin Lakes which was only 2.5 miles from the trailhead. There was still plenty of “up” to get there as we had to hike over the ridge through “Noisy Notch” to get into the basin and then down to the lakes. An older gentleman we met on the trail suggested that we go another 2 miles to make it to Wildcat Lake, but maybe it didn’t matter as we weren’t fishing. We thought the lack of fish in Twin Lakes probably meant that we would have more solitude, so we stuck with our original plan.
The wind was blowing as we hiked in and continued for the next 24+ hours. It was a little chilly at night and took away any desire to enjoy the water in the lakes, but it was still lovely. We set up camp and then ventured down to Wildcat Lake. I didn’t realize how far down we hiked to get there until we turned around and headed back up. There was plenty of “up” in these mountains.
After dinner on our first night we were visited by a mule deer who seemed quite interested in us. It came back later at 2am causing a minor “bear alert” in the tent. Mike peeked out and then did a little reconnaissance with a headlamp to determine that it was not a threat.
The next day was still forecast to be windy so we decided to do a loop around the basin and avoid the ridges. It was a beautiful hike through alpine meadows and around small lakes tucked into the mountains. It was a little sunnier than the day before and the trails were pretty empty. I t felt like we had a huge basin to ourselves. We picked berries, admired lakes and pushed our way through a very bush-filled and scratchy uphill section through a somewhat recently burned area. Note to self: Just put on the damn pants to protect your legs!
After an uneventful night (no nocturnal visitors) we had a slow morning soaking in the sun. We’ve grown used to the colder mornings (45-50 lately) but we do take some time to get moving. We packed up and set out from our site before midday and headed to a grocery store to get some special meal fixin’s for our 3rd anniversary.
Once we were back at James and Jenn’s, Mike realized that we had left a hammock behind. We had not hiked up to Mount Aeneas in the Jewel Basin so the next day we set out to retrieve the hammock and finally make it to a summit. We had almost made it to Hefty and we really wanted to get to the top of one “named” mountain in northwest Montana. It was a beautiful, sunny day with light winds. We successfully recovered the hammock and made it to the top of Mount Aeneas!
In total we logged 34.5 miles in the Jewel Basin in our app and not every mile was captured. We could have done even more and been very happy trying to see it all.
Thanks for all of the great pics and exciting adventure stories. Miss you guys, but so glad u are having so much fun! Happy belated anniversary!!