Backpacking Montana's Bitterroot Mountains ： Boulder Lake, Crystal Lake & Turbid Lake

Now we're back on the Boulder Creek Trail. This will be our revenge tour. Last time here it was a torrential downpour all day to the point it pierced our pack covers and got our sleeping bags wet and we had to hike out. So hopefully this one... All right we made it to our camp spot we had last time above Boulder Falls here. You can't see Boulder Falls, it's down there. Really pretty camp, a good shade and wind here. The one downside is I forgot to pack the lighter. I know it's in the truck because we used to have a fire last night and I forgot to put it back in the air sack. So looks like it's going to be a 15 mile day for me. I'm gonna go five miles back to the truck and then five miles back here. If I'm going back just for a lighter might as well pack some extra beer in too. Had a really good camp tonight. Found the lighter in the truck. 15 mile day over and uh like I said since I had to go back hiked up hiked up some beer. At least now you can eat four Coors Lights each now. It's uh getting really hot down there. It's a lot nicer at camp here it feels like especially in the shade. Uh might set the tent up just in case there's weather but at least now you're gonna be cowboy camping tonight. Watch the stars even though the moon is out but uh should be a nice evening now now that I'm done walking. Okay the tent's set up. I'll show you camp. This is actually a five star camp spot. Really cool spot. The slabs over here is probably where we're gonna cowboy camp on. Some impressive granite displays over here. There's Boulder Creek. Pretty low right now. This thing spooky level rips uh in the springtime. Uh fourth of July last year and I was getting water from this creek. It was ripping so violently I was scared that I was gonna lose my footing because the second you went in and you just slide all the way down the waterfall the smoke's starting to come back. There's a Boulder Peak. Very imposing. A lot of local relief. Well yeah the beautiful Bitterroot. Still a little hot. You can tell the temperatures are uh starting to drop. Favorite time of year is when starts to have frost on the tent in the morning. I run really hot so I like uh I like cold. At least he's taking a power nap. I'm starting to fire up. Last week fire restrictions were lifted in Bitterroot National Forest. Had a lot of rain. This doesn't quite cool things down. I mean it's cool right now but it did get kind of hot earlier. Can't wait for fall. Very excited for it. Getting some really good alpine glow right now. Wow that is crazy red. I wonder if smoke's playing an effect because I don't think we're very close to sunset. Probably like 30 minutes out still. Smoke's got to be playing a part in this. That is vibrant wild. This has got to be from the fire smoke. It is getting very red. Good morning. We are packing up. Smoke rolled in pretty good. Just finished drowning the campfire. Hopefully later in the day we get something coming through that kicks some of the smoke out. All right we are packed up and uh on the move. This must be where the trail crew has called it quits. We're actually doing pretty good. Lack of blowdown. Blowdown's slowly starting to pick up. All right we're gonna take a little break here at this lake for uh heading over to Boulder. The blood red colors of fall are already starting. Boulder Lake. This must be the turnoff to Turbid and Crystal Lake. This trail's in better shape than the main Boulder Creek trail. Yeah we are getting into some larch. Looks like it's opening up. Here's our first view of Lake Crystal. There's a lot of larch up here. That's really cool. Gorgeous. And Lake Turbid is behind those trees. We're gonna check that out next. Looks like there's like a cave over there. Here's Lake Turbid. Also very beautiful. I think we're gonna camp on that peninsula. Yeah epic campsite. This is pretty. Got a little island out here. Looks like it gets deep pretty quick. No campfire tonight. Not a lot of firewood lying around and uh it's really windy. Go without a fire tonight. Had a good day of hiking today. Uh surprisingly a lot of the blowdowns from last year are have been logged out. So that was very pleasant. Uh they didn't make it all the way to the junction but it was better than nothing. And uh these lakes are gorgeous up here. Talking about coming back in the fall. The amount of larch out here is insane. And uh yeah we just got food in our stomach. Explored a little bit. And now uh we're settling in which means one thing. Beer 30. Should also mention uh it's cooled down a lot. This is really nice. I even had to get my down jacket on. Much better than earlier today. It was kind of hot earlier. Not as bad as the previous day but you could feel it in the air. Fall's coming. There are fires in that direction near uh Kuski in the Dwarf Shack Reservoir. It's the second time he's flown over at that height. We did have a reason why I think that's a firefighting one is because we had an actual commercial airline fly over and it was way up there. Enough to get the vapor trails on its wings at that altitude. Got some good alpine glow right now. That's what's happening. There's a commercial flight. We are all packed up about to head out. Rain this morning. We were thinking of doing West Boulder Peak and Boulder Peak but we were too time crunched for that. So we're definitely going to come back to this area for a fall edition and have a shorter zero day where we could explore more while the larches are turning. Very fantastic spot. Very beautiful. Hopefully that wind stays. Sun's pretty warm right now but that wind feels good. Made it back down to Boulder Lake.