Solitude Trail 2021
A tale told by Leah
Four years ago my husband and I read about Trail #38, Solitude Loop, in the Big Horns. Although we had always enjoyed camping and hiking, backpacking was a new discovery for us. We decided to train with several long day hikes with packs that spring and summer, and try the Loop in August. A few days before we were set to go, we discovered there had been a large wind event in Geneva Pass that would impede our plans that year. Solitude Loop never left our bucket list, and finally this summer we decided to give it a whirl. At 47 we knew this was a big undertaking so we planned a 6 day trip, about 10 miles of packing a day. Here’s our adventure told from my perspective.
Day 1: Geneva Pass (elevation 10,308)
Our trip started at Coffeen park on a beautiful Friday morning. We had never used that entrance to the trails, it’s a doozy! The road is quite rough and most definitely requires a 4x4. We parked and loaded our packs on our backs and set out counter clockwise for Geneva Pass. It didn’t take long before Coffeen Trail turned into Trail #38 and we entered the Wilderness. We followed water most of the first day, doing several water crossings that required losing the shoes and rolling up the pants. The second week of July is an amazing time to see the trail as the meadows are green and full of colorful wildflowers, however the downside of going that early is the creeks are still running high and you can’t rock hop them. We had quite an uphill climb past the waterfall and made our way up the switchbacks looking back in amazement of the scene behind us. As we entered the Geneva Pass area we encountered the blow-down that had stopped us years before. We were stunned at the size of trees that were down, and so thankful for those that had come in and made the trail accessible again. We entered a meadow with the rock gateway above us and took a small break. As I took off my pack I looked down and saw a large white leg bone bleached by the sun. Immediately, the Indiana Jones theme song began to play in my head and I told my husband it was never a good sign when Indy began to run into skeletons of the poor souls who had been on the trail before him. The rocky gateway was steep and moderately hard to traverse because of the footing. There was a stream and small waterfall near the top, then some snow before we made the final push to the top. Happy to have our first Pass out of the way, we carried on to our first campsite just before Granite Lake. We were a little short of our initial goal for the day and headed to bed early knowing that we had to add a mile to the second day's push to Solitude Lake.
Day 2: Solitude Or Bust (elevation 9,035)
We didn’t mean to get a late start, but I guess we weren’t in the groove of things just yet. We ate breakfast and packed up ready to make it to Solitude Lake that evening. Again, we followed the water all day and had several water crossings that slowed our pace. We walked through both forested areas and large lush meadows with towering mountains coming into view. It became a very long and tiring day with our late start, and Solitude lake was a welcome sight. This was where we met our first group of hikers. It was two young couples that were also doing the loop, they had started at Tensleep and were moving clockwise. I had seen videos and pictures of the trail leading into the lake from that direction, but had never walked it myself. It is stunning! Large boulders surround you as you walk a stone trail with the lake beside you, and the sheer rock face on the other side of the lake. There were abundant wildflowers blooming in the rock that still had runoff coming through it. Such a beautiful contrast, the hot pink shades of the pedals against the stoney grey rock. If I hadn’t been so incredibly tired from hiking 11 miles that day, I could have photographed that part of the trail for hours. We had camped at Solitude Lake a few years before and knew the area that we wanted to set up, but didn’t know how busy the lake would be on a Saturday afternoon, as it is a popular horse camp. We were delighted to find that we were the only ones there. In fact we had passed only two groups of hikers to this point in our trip. They don’t call it the Solitude Loop for nothing! Again, we went to bed early to get out of the horrible mosquitos masses that were attacking us. I’m not going to lie, our bodies were already breaking down just 20 miles into the trip. The path is not easy. So many elevation changes each day, tons of rocky areas that you must pay attention to your step, and then the added stress of taking on and off the packs for many water crossings took its toll. I began to wonder if we should just pack out at the West Tensleep Trailhead and have our daughter come and get us the next day. My husband told me we needed to rest and we’d see how we felt. I went to bed a bit worried and down, and didn’t get much sleep.
Day 3: Florence Pass (elevation 10,928)
We were up at dawn, and were getting a routine down for packing up. Steve would leave the tent first and start the water boiling for coffee and breakfast while I rolled up our pads, and stuffed away our sleeping bags. After breakfast we would pack our backpacks back up, tear down the tent and we were on trail that morning by 6:30. One of my favorite parts of the Solitude lake is the waterfall and bridge, the last bit of peace before you start your way UP to Misty Moon. You begin your climb out of the lake through a forested area, then come to a large canyon with a relatively narrow path with long drop offs to the creek below. We always like to get an early start through this canyon as there is not much room to get out of the way of other hikers or trail riders with the tall rock wall on one side, and the canyon dropping off on your other side. It is a steep rocky path,we just put our heads down and march up it. Again, I found beautiful Paintbrush growing along its edge. Although these cliffs make me a bit dizzy, I couldn’t help but bend down for a brief moment with the 50 lb pack and take a quick picture of Wyoming’s flower. If you don’t stop to take in the delicate beauty in the middle of what can be a harsh wilderness of rock, the trip will begin to get weary in a hurry. We absolutely love the valley between Solitude Lake and Misty Moon! It is one of the most beautiful places I’ve come across in the Big Horns. My old nemesis Cloud Peak was glowering at me from the distance seeming to say, “Come try me again!” with an evil laugh. Not this time, I had other peaks to conquer. Misty Moon was where we decided to stop and eat an early lunch before entering Florence Pass. I had forgotten how much elevation you gain between there and Bomber Mtn. We were making our way slowly but surely to Florence Lake where I told Steve that I needed to get my pack off a moment before taking on the rock canyon that lay after the lake.There we met a young lady and her dog that were just beginning their trip around the Loop. She started out of West Tensleep and planned 20 miles that day. We told her it must be nice to be young, and chatted for about 30 minutes. We wished her luck and began our journey down through the canyon. Uff Da!! It was way longer and harder than I had imagined. Huge boulders mixed with every imaginable size of loose rock towers above your head, while you walked a very steep, narrow, rocky path. Remember I mentioned cliffs can make me dizzy? Well, there is quite a cliff on the other side of you that leads to more huge boulders and rock. In fact there is nothing but rock and more rock everywhere you look. I knew one misstep could send me sailing down, and the odds of coming out of that fall in one piece were slim to none. I began to pray, and put one foot in front of the other. Quite honestly, I really shouldn’t take on these types of challenges with my clumsy nature and my slight vertigo. Yet through the years I’ve found that if I just keep my eye on where my feet need to go, use my trekking poles, and breath, I do just fine. I felt a sense of both terror and calmness as I traversed my way down the mile long canyon. God has a way of using your weaknesses and fears for good. This was one of those times. As I made my way to the bottom, Steve was there waiting, knowing how tough that was for me he snapped a few pictures. It wasn’t until the bottom that my heart began to race and my legs became noodles. I had made it through one of my dreaded area’s of our journey. I knew in that moment that we would make it around the whole loop. We hiked several more miles to Deer Lake (elevation 9,357) and set up camp for the night. Another rotten night’s sleep on ground that had us tilted both up and down and side to side. Our bodies became more weary by the day.
Day 4: Ant Hill (elevation 10,980)
So far we hadn’t had much trouble staying on trail. However, the trail leading out of Deer Lake was very easy and we became complacent. We hiked right by our turn and accidentally headed towards the Soldier Park Trailhead. We got lucky about ¼ mile down and ran into a trail sign in the middle of a meadow that told us we were no longer on #38. We turned around and headed back where we had come from to find our intersection and trail sign that was hidden behind a tree coming from the other direction. It wasn’t long before the trail began to head straight up. And up, and up. Then we hit a meadow that felt like the Twilight Zone, it just went up forever! We made our way from rock cairn to cairn, stopping to catch our breath at each one. Every time we thought we were at the top, there was more meadow stretched ahead of us..straight up. It was incredible to turn around and see where we had just come from and have both Bomber and Cloud Peak standing against the blue sky with the green grass of the meadow beneath. It was amazing to behold. Steve was in the lead and had told me he was going to head to the next cairn and to tell him if I needed to stop at it. I was getting frustrated at the endless climb and shouted, “Just keep going until you can’t go anymore! I want to find the top of this thing!” So we huffed and puffed and marched up the endless meadow. As I felt it begin to flatten out and sensed we were finally at the top, I imagined myself throwing off the backpack and running to the top singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music..” However, even if I could sing like Julie Andrews, I had zero breath left in my lungs to do so after the climb. Elk Lake was in sight now and we found a little rock stream coming out of the hillside to filter water and eat lunch. Places to filter were few and far between until Willow lake. We hadn’t intended to stay at Willow that night, but after meeting back up with the two couples we had already passed near Solitude we decided to head the extra 3 miles to Willow, making it a 13 mile day. This is where #38 turns into ATV path and you leave the Wilderness area. The couples did not lie, the 3 miles of path from there to Willow was straight down. Our toes and backs were aching and tired by the time we made it to camp. That many miles is too many for old folks like us in one day with packs on. I was so incredibly tired that everything was a chore that night. Lifting the fork to my mouth was almost to much for me. The ground was a little better on this night, and we got a bit more sleep.
Day 5: A Little Bushwhacking and ATV trail (elevation 8,707)
Our new routine was becoming ingrained in us, and we hit the trail by 6:30. The sunrise over the lake that morning was beautiful and we had an actual bridge to cross the raging creek. The day was off to a good start. After crossing the bridge we were unsure if we should stay on the ATV path because our XHUNT map said the trail followed the left side of the lake then crossed Kearny Creek, where we hoped to find another bridge. We took off across a grassy marsh along the lakes edge. The ground was perfectly flat and easy to traverse so of course this is where I fell on my face. Again, you become complacent on the easy parts of the path and get in trouble. I was fine, no harm done with the soft but squishy landing. We bushwhacked a bit in the direction we needed to go to #38 again. We also managed to find the bridge over Kearny Creek, which was awesome because it too was raging. The Trail took a left turn and we finally left the ATV trails for a time. The trail side saddled the Kearny and we just kind of marched through what was somewhat unimpressive territory compared to what we had seen. We could hear the creek raging but could not see it. My side began to ache and I told Steve we needed to take a quick break. As we walked over to place our packs on some large boulders, we saw that we were standing at a magnificent waterfall. Just as we sat our packs down a blue herrion flew up from fishing in one of it’s pools. Very cool! Steve being a bit more daring than me, found a comfy spot on top of a boulder over the waterfall to eat his snack. I too was over the falls, but on a much safer boulder. I was so thankful that my side had begun to hurt right in that spot, I guess we were supposed to see something beautiful after all on this slightly boring path. It was 2:00 pm when we reached Winnie Lake (elevation 9,698), too early to stop hiking but we were not sure about water sources or camp sites above this point. We found a spot to set up our tent, and sat our sore bodies in our camp chairs for a bit. It had been terribly humid all day and now the grey clouds were moving in fast. Dinner had to be cooked ASAP! It began to rain and storm before we could finish eating. We dashed around cleaning up and hung our bear bag not sure how long we’d need to hide in our tent. That storm soon passed and we made it back out to our chairs until the next round came through. Boy is the thunder loud at that elevation! We were happy that our tent held up through the storm and we stayed dry. Off to sleep we went knowing that the next day we would get a shower and a comfy bed.
Day 6: Highland Park (elevation 10,500)
As usual, we were on trail by 6:30. It was going to be an elevation climb kind of morning. The trail wasn’t always easy to spot coming out of Winnie, we actually took a deer trail on accident at one point that happened to lead right back to our #38. Just lucky like that I suppose. We climbed higher and higher through the forest until breaking the tree line for the top of Highland Park. All the anticipation we had for days of seeing the view from there was shattered by the morning fog. What a bummer! Saddened by this turn of events we hurried past the snow at the very top and headed to the meadow on the other side trying to beat the incoming fog bank and see the view from that side of the hill. It was incredible! We plan to go back and explore the Highland Park area lakes someday. On we marched. Coming over a small rock hop water crossing we found the young lady and her dog that we had spent time with at Florence. Her trip was slowed way down because her poor pup had messed up her feet. They were swollen and bleeding so she needed to exit the loop as soon as possible. We offered to take her out with us and drop her off at her friend’s in Buffalo. The dog was gimping pretty good, and we were very concerned that it would need to be carried out. While she packed her stuff up and wrapped her dogs bad foot we went up the hill and waited for them at the top. The dog looked much better after it had it’s foot wrapped and we became hopeful we could get them out without too much issue. By the looks of our GPS we assumed we only had about 5 miles left to Coffeen park,(elevation 8,500) I think it ended up being 7 because of all the switchbacks. The steep elevation change soon took it’s toll on the dog’s feet and by the last 2 miles we were becoming nervous again that we would need to drop our packs at the pickup and help carry the poor dog out. She was a trooper though and slowly but surely her master was able to talk her down the hills. The pickup was a glorious sight indeed! We had made it!! Even better the young lady and her faithful companion had made it out safe and sound too. What a way to end the trip! God put us in just the right place at just the right time. We enjoyed meeting and being able to help out this adventurous lady and her dog.
The Day After:
It took everything we had to make it around Solitude Trail. We had to set aside pain, fears, tired bodies, and discouraging thoughts and feelings in order to make it 65 miles with packs on our backs. At 47 we were a good 20 years older than just about everyone else attempting this hike. Some of them turned around after the first day or two. The two couples I’m sure made it clear around and the young lady if not for her dog would have also. The best part was at the end of our hike we ran into a young couple who wanted to try the loop but changed their minds and just stayed in the Highland area instead. They congratulated us when they heard we were mere miles from making it and looked very impressed. Maybe we aren’t so old after all? Or at least that’s what we thought until we got home. Then OUCH set into our bones. Yep, we are no longer in our 20’s. Besides the ouch factor entering back into civilization was very hard after being in the Wilderness for 6 days. Everything seemed so loud, even the grocery store was painful to go into the next morning. Talk about sensory overload!! I’m so glad we did this trip, but I will never do it again. One and done. That box has been checked.
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