Have We Been Bam-moosled?!?

 If you look up the word "bamboozled" you will see that synonyms are "fooled" or "misled" or "tricked." This day we added a new synonym to that list. We invented this word during the hike, and we're expecting to see it added to the next edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The new word is "bam-moosled," and it rhymes with bamboozled. 

It all started with a long drive from our camp site north of Buffalo, Wyoming, all the way across the Bighorn mountains on Highway 16. We have found that all the hikes we were hoping to take on the eastern side of the mountains are still too muddy or snow-covered. So this trail was a 1.5-hour drive to the west side of the Bighorns, to a trail head north of Deer Haven. We crossed the roaring Ten Sleep Creek, and then headed down seven miles of gravel road to the trail head. We loved seeing those snow-covered high peaks in front of us.

We parked the pickup and took a short walk to see West Ten Sleep Lake. It was really chilly, so Denisa was shivering for this quick photo. Besides, we planned to take the hike to Ten Sleep Falls after our morning hike--if we don't get Bam-moosled.

Then we started our main hike for the day, heading up-hill through the woods towards Mirror Lake.

It was deliciously cool this summer morning, and we were already talking about how this was such a good hike. We had a little time in the forest, then a walk beside the roaring Tensleep Creek . . .

until we found a spur trail that took us to a waterfall. This hike offers a little bit of everything! Mark hiked to the top of the falls, and took a picture of Denisa downstream.

Likewise, Denisa took a picture of Mark at the top of the cascading water. What a fun hike this was already!

The other delightful part of this hike is that we almost have it to ourselves. We did see one other family (who offered to take a picture of us together at the top of the falling water). Then we wouldn't see another person for miles. We love it that the trails in the Bighorns have yet to be discovered by the crowds.

We were climbing uphill, but at a gentle pace that didn't make it hard to breathe at this high altitude. But the views up here did take our breath away.

We could see the high peaks ahead of us, and the calmer creek below us.

We were carrying our water shoes on this hike because we knew there was a high water crossing before we got to Mirror Lake. So we stopped to change shoes before we forded the river.

It doesn't look like that much, but the water was swirling over our knees and the slippery rocks made footing tricky. We were in the water long enough to make everything from our knees down numb. That water was coming right off the snow!

After three miles, the trail dropped into the Mirror Lake basin. With a reflection of the blue sky and fluffy white clouds, we can see where this lake got its name.

We have definitely wandered into another of God's wonders on this hike. We sat at the edge of the lake and enjoyed our lunch. We were both feeling good, and it was only 1:30. We had a lot of daylight left in these northern mountains.

Mark had downloaded another trail that continues from Mirror Lake and goes on to Hidden Twin Lakes. Doesn't that name sound tempting? We would only have to add another five miles to our hike today to get to see two more mountain lakes. That seemed like a bargain! We decided to continue up the trail a little more just to see what it looked like.

Besides, we found even more mountain wildflowers as we trudged upwards. These furry purple pasque flowers look less tattered than the ones we had seen on the pass a couple days ago.

As we tiptoed through wet marshy areas, we found big groups of marsh marigolds.

Maybe we should go a little further . . . But that's when we met a couple hikers coming towards us, excited to tell us about the moose up ahead on the trail. We got as much detail as possible. They saw a moose cow on the right after a treed section on the trail ahead. Then we could look to the left where they saw a bull moose with another cow. That sealed the deal, we were definitely heading on up this trail!  

We met another hiker who told the same story of the three moose in the meadow up ahead. We were practically running up the trail by now. We knew that we were in moose territory because we kept seeing their muddy moose tracks on our trail. Isn't there a flavor of ice cream called moose tracks?

Plus, we were hiking right through the willows. While moose graze on grass, they also love to nip off the new tender shoots of willow bushes even better. By this time we've walked through multiple forest sections into multiple meadows. But no moose sightings yet.

We had another river crossing that necessitated another change of shoes. But still no moose. That's when Denisa started questioning, "Have we been bam-moosled?"

While we practically ran down this moose-inspired trail, we were getting closer to our secondary lake destination. Those grand rock walls up ahead are hiding the Hidden Twin Lakes.

It's a steep and long push over the ridge, but we finally got our first view of the first hidden lake. With willows surrounding this side of the lake, surely we were going to find moose here!

At the peak of that last scramble to see the lake, Denisa about ran out of gas. We had been hiking fast and long, and she was beginning to wonder if she had enough left in the tank to get all the way back to the pickup--far, far away now. This was really unusual, but she decided that she had seen the lake from this distance and made it to her destination. Perhaps she should save some energy for the hike back. So she decided to hang out here with the beautiful views all around her.

But Mark powered on down that hill to put his toes right beside the water. It was a beautiful view of a beautiful mountain lake!

Normally, Denisa would be by his side to take a picture. But this time he had to prop his phone up on a rock and use the timer to get a photo with the lake.

The second hidden lake is in the bowl formed by the flat-faced mountain on the right. We could barely see it, but neither of us had the energy to hike that much further for a close-up of the second hidden lake.

Meanwhile, Denisa was sitting on the rocks and resting. She spotted a yellow-bellied marmot doing the same.

She crept closer and closer until she got a good picture of the marmot sunning himself in this lovely location.

One step too close, and the marmot darted back into the rocks. But marmots are naturally curious animals, and he was soon peaking out to see if Denisa was still taking pictures.

Mark was amazing, with enough energy to run up on the ridge to take another picture from a different view point.

We ate a snack and took one more picture of this beautiful bowl formed with granite peaks surrounding these hidden lakes. We have definitely wandered into another of God's wonders. After her time with the marmot, Denisa is feeling a little better about being bam-moosled.

She even made snow angels in the snow that was still left at the peak this summer. Whew, that snow went down the back of her hiking pants and inside her hiking boots. That cooled her off on this already cool day.

We started back with these mountain views in front of us. We only have six miles between us and the pickup. But maybe we'll see some moose on all those miles of trail?!?

We also have two river crossings and two shoe changes and two toe-numbings. As we made the third crossing of the day, we couldn't help but notice that the clouds were thickening, and turning an ominous shade of gray.

Just as we had hiked quickly in hopes of seeing a moose earlier, now we hiked quickly in hopes of not getting wet. We were hiking directly into the storm clouds, and we were hearing rumbles of thunder ahead of us.

We felt particularly vulnerable as we started seeing flashes of lightning and rapid thunder right in front of us. We practically ran through the wide open meadow sections of the hike, where we were the tallest thing around. There was no way that we were going to make it back to the pickup before this storm hit. So we decided it was time to find some shelter and hunker down for a while in the next grove of trees.

We sat huddled close to the ground, trying not to feel like a lightning rod as the lightning crackled around us. Denisa really hated to hear and see how close the lightning was flashing all around us, while Mark seemed to be enjoying this little adventure. No animals were sighted, and Denisa is really feeling bam-moosled now. Then the ice started falling from the sky. We were certainly glad to have packed our rain coats for the extra layer of warmth. We reached out and caught a few of the ice pellets that were falling.

Then the ice began falling in earnest. We stuck a phone out of our cover just long enough to see that the ground had suddenly turned to white. Then the rain started and we were glad to have our rain coats to keep at least part of us dry. The rest of our bodies got very wet. We were hunkered down in the forest listening to the storm for 45 minutes, wishing that the lightning and rain would stop. It felt like we had been bam-moosled again!

The rain didn't stop, but the lightning got more distant. So we decided to get on the trail again. We still had another river crossing to make. We changed into our water shoes one more time to ford a river that was even higher and colder now than before. We probably didn't need to change our shoes, because we were totally sopped from head to toe by the time the rain finally stopped.

It was a soggy last couple miles to the pickup. We were hiking as fast as our energy would allow. That gave Denisa time to think about how to spell her new word. Should it be bam-mooseled, or bam-mooseld. She finally settled on bam-moosled. She also worked out the final definition--to be mislead or cheated out of a moose sighting.

The total stats from our beautiful/interesting/terrifying/soggy hike was 13.1 miles with 2,178 feet in elevation gain. That's a tough one! Both of those numbers are a lot bigger than the 7 miles/1,000 feet elevation that Denisa likes to use as maximums. By the time we finally crawled into the pickup at the trail head and turned that heater on, it was almost 9:00. We still had 63 miles that will take at least 1.5 hours to drive to get back to the motor home. Plus, we needed to dry out! It was definitely getting dark soon, so this was going to be a dangerous drive back over the pass. Sure enough, an elk crossed the road in front of us. So we were dodging wild animals on this long drive as the sun was setting. That's when Mark spotted it.

The light was low, but Mark pulled the pickup over beside the grassy meadow. After hiking all those 13 miles, we finally saw our first moose of the day along the highway! We took a few blurry pictures in the fading light and laughed to ourselves--we were definitely bam-moosled today!