“Misfortune is virtue’s opportunity.”
Seneca
I was pretty spent after the Marion Lake hike on Saturday, but I had the gift of Monday off, and wanted to capitalize on the light surgical schedule. I knew I had to do something fairly lightweight, and decided to revisit a trail I had tried to do a few weeks ago – Willow Flats. The trail had been closed either for bear activity, elk migration, or both, but after checking the trail closure page on the GTNP website, I found that it is now open. Aimee was able to join as well, so we planned on a 10ish mile flat loop into Willow Flats.
The trail began at the Willow Flats overlook and headed to an old two-track wagon road. We skirted along the base of Jackson Lake Lodge as we headed along the trail and out across the Willow Flats. Because of all of the rain this year, the foliage was especially lush and dense. Luckily, the bugs generally weren’t as bad as they have been elsewhere. The trail was flat and easy, and was a perfect active recovery from the weekend. Eventually, we arrived at a fork in the trail, and headed down the southern fork.
I have an old GTNP map that shows that this trail loops around toward Swan Lake then up to Cygnet Lake and back the way we began. However, on the most recent maps the trail does not form a loop, but more of a backwards “C.” I had planned on us doing the southern limb of the C, then backtrack and do the northern limb of the C, then return to the car on the Willow Flats trail.
At this point, the trail essentially disappeared into the tall grass. It was kind-of marked by some brown posts, but they were so spaced apart that they were hard to follow. I wound up relying on the map function of my new Garmin Fenix watch which was incredibly helpful in finding the way. We bushwhacked through the grass in what I can only describe as bear nirvana. Bear scat was everywhere, and with the 8 feet high willow, it often felt like we were in a maze. We considered retreating more than a few times, and without the guidance of the Garmin, we probably would have.
The trail eventually petered out near a small stream. We could see that there once had been a bridge across said stream, but it was now gone. I theorized that this bridge had once closed the “C” to complete the loop, but for whatever reason it was now gone. Neither one of us really wanted to go the way we had come, so Aimee said out loud what I was already thinking – “why don’t we ford the stream, and just make our own loop?” Maybe that’s not exactly what she said, but that’s what I heard. Removing shoes and socks, we found a spot that wasn’t too deep or too wide. It was muddy and also required walking through creepy grassy marsh for several feet as well. I for one, was thinking of the pond scene from Stand By Me, so crossed quickly. It really wasn’t too bad, but not exactly pleasant either.
This is when the adventure really began. We followed a faint trail north toward the northern end of the backwards C. It looked like we would be off trail and have to do some route-finding for about a ½ mile at most. What a ½ mile it was! If we were in a bear-laden maze before, we were now in a grizzly-infested labyrinth. I seriously could have used a machete to chop through the willow at times and I was sure we were in the Florin/Guilder Fire Swamp (minus the fire). Guided by Aimee’s good sense and my watch we continued to head to where we thought we needed to be, all the while making as much noise as we could.
After what seemed like 20-30 minutes, and shortly after setting off an absolute mosquito tsunami, we reached the northern part of the trail thereby closing the loop. The trail from here was the lovely, wide, grass and willow free two-track old wagon road. We followed it back past Cygnet pond (which incidentally, you can’t see from the trail and we had no desire at this point to see it) to the Willow Flats trail. With itchy scraped legs, covered in both flora and fauna, we eventually made it to the car and back home.
Maybe we were a little misfortunate today. If we were, we were mostly to blame. Yes, the trail at points was really difficult to follow, and yes we were tramping through the back yard of bears. But, it was our idea to cross a swampy creek and to travel off trail though a thick willowy maze. And, so what? We dug a little deep, mustered a little courage, maintained a cheerful attitude. We had an opportunity to practice some virtue, so perhaps at some point in the future when we experience true misfortune, we’ll be a little more prepared.
Mileage – 9.4 miles
Time – 3 hours, 9 minutes
Animals – none, but I know they were out there
PS – three near Jackson Lake Lodge