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Not all trips into Thorofare are filled with beautifu,l sunshiny days and clear, cool nights. In the fall of 2001, Tim Fagan asked me to ride with him to Thorofare and help check hunters the last ten days of the deer and elk season. I had a meeting and couldn't go when Tim planned to leave, so we hatched a plan that would allow me to come in later. Tim volunteered to take all the groceries and heavy articles, and all I would need to bring was my sleeping bag and duffle bag. By traveling light, I could make it to the cabin in one day.

After my meeting, I returned to Cody, gathered up a saddle horse and packhorse, and put them in the corral at the Cody Regional Office as I wanted to get an early start the next morning. I loaded the horses and headed for the Eagle Creek trailhead arriving just before daylight. It had been a mild fall and the forecast was for some showers, so I didn't think much about it when a light mist started to fall as I saddled the horses. As I headed up the trail, the temperature began to drop and the mist turned to snow. I reached Eagle Creek Meadows before noon, and there were four or five inches of snow on the ground.

I checked some hunters who had killed an elk in the meadows and then began the acent up Eagle Creek Pass. As I gained elevation, it snowed harder and the snow got deeper. By the time I reached the top of the pass, the snow was about eighteen inches deep, and it was snowing very hard. The trail on the pass had blown in with snow, but I was able to pick my way around the drifts and didn't have to shovel. I walked most of the way off the pass to give my saddle horse and my knees a break. I reached the Howell Creek Cabin about 4:00 pm. The light was very flat, and while there was less snow, I was unable to pick the trail out. Since the trail went through the burns of 1988 below the Howell Creek Cabin, I decided it would be better to lay over at the cabin for the night and not take the chance of missing the trail and having to fight downed timber all the way to Mountain Creek.

Luckily, I had a key to the Howell Creek Cabin, so I didn't have to spend the night huddled under a spruce tree. After getting the horses unpacked, I shoveled the snow out of an area so the horses would be able to graze. By then it was dark, so I went into the cabin, built a fire in the heating stove to dry things out, and tried to warm up. I put a can of stew on for dinner. Then I tried to make radio contact with Tim so he wouldn't worry about my safety, a fact I would learn later in the trip wasn't a concern for Tim. Radio contact in the Thorofare and upper Yellowstone is tenuous at best. There are no SALEX repeaters that can be hit out of those areas, and it is difficult to hit the Park Service repeaters without an external antenna. There was an external antenna on the cabin, but the connection wasn't compatible with my radio. I spent the next hour jerry-rigging a connection so I could let Tim know that I wouldn't be in until the next day. I spent the rest of evening reading the Howell Creek cabin's journal about trips made into the area in prior years. It was still snowing hard when I checked the horses for the last time and turned in.

To my surprise the next morning dawned clear and cold. There were about fourteen to sixteen inches of snow, but the sky was clear and the sun felt good. I decided to go on to Thorofare. It was slow going as the trail was hard to find, and I had to work my way through the downfall when I got off the trail. By the time I reached the lower crossing on Mountain Creek, evidence that elk were on the move was everyplace. From there on I was hardly ever out of sight of elk. Cows were barking, calves were crying, and, occasionally, a bull would bugle as the elk moved eastward towards their traditional winter ranges. It was an incredible sight, one that would continue throughout my stay in Thorofare.

The snow depth decreased as I reached the Yellowstone River , and by the time I reached the Thorofare cabin, there were only six to eight inches of snow. I had to make a short detour around six bull bison that refused to get out of the trail below Yellowstone Park 's Thorofare Ranger Station. I reached our Thorofare Cabin early in the afternoon. Tim helped me unpack, and then we went into the cabin for a cup of hot tea and to catch up on what had happened the last couple of days.

Tim had been working out of the cabin for the past five days. He had packed in over Deer Creek Pass and hit heavy snow and blizzard conditions when he topped the pass. He ended up riding to the cabin in one day, checking the outfitter camps that were along the way. He reported that the hunting had been very good, which came as no surprise with the elk and deer migrations that I had observed.

In addition, I could see Tim had been busy burning the slash piles that had been stacked around the cabin compound over the years. Some of these woodpiles had grown considerably as the dead trees from the 1988 fires had been cut and stacked in the area. With all the wet weather, it was a good time to burn them without risk of starting a forest fire. An additional benefit was that it gave the horses a place to forage without requiring them to paw through the snow. The heat of each bonfire melted the snow in a large ring around the blaze, exposing the grass in the area. This was much appreciated by our horses and kept them around the cabin during the day.

As evening settled in at the cabin, elk could be heard and seen in all directions. Richard Jones, one of Yellowstone Park 's rangers, stopped by for dinner. He was headed out the next day but said John Lounsberry would be bringing Assistant Superintendent Frank Walker in later in the week. A couple of remarks were made about how good our new flag pole looked and that it was a shame there wasn't a flag pole at the Thorofare Ranger Station. Richard's supervisor, John Lounsberry, had made clear he did not like being upstaged by the Game & Fish Department. After seeing our flagpole during the summer, Lounsberry immediately began making plans to erect a flagpole the next season that would be taller and more elaborate than the Game & Fish's. That nagged at Tim and me for the next couple of days. If only we could find a flag.

The next morning we were awakened by the sounds of gunfire above the cabin.

We saw several elk run across the meadow, and there were elk in every direction around the cabin. We decided to wait to check hunters to avoid spoiling someone's hunt. While we waited, we raised the flag and paused for a moment to remember Kirk Inberg, whose plane went down ten years ago on this day. I then hiked up the trail while Tim stayed to fix some breakfast. It wasn't long before I located a party of hunters that had taken two fine bull elk on the ridge east of the cabin. After checking their licenses and animals, I headed back to the cabin. Once again, it seemed like I was never out of sight of deer and elk migrating out of Thorofare.

I hit the trail to the cabin about half a mile above the cabin. I noticed another set of tracks in the trail—those of a large grizzly. I hadn't been gone that long, so this guy had to have come up the trail shortly after I did. The hair rose a little on my neck, and I immediately checked to see if the safety was off my bear spray and if I could get to it. I backtracked him a short ways and found him feeding on a carcass a couple hundred yards off the trail. I hadn't seen the carcass when I first walked up the trail because of the fresh snow. What a sight seeing that big old bear standing in the fresh, new-fallen snow. After watching for a few moments, I quietly backed out of there. I made it back to the cabin in good time despite the snow. When I told Tim about the bear, he said, “Oh yeah, he's come by here the last couple of mornings to feed on an elk one of Nate's hunters killed. Didn't I mention that?” “No you didn't,” was my prompt reply. We continued to discuss his lack of concern for my well-being and the problem of the Park Service not having a flag over a piece of delicious coffee cake Tim had baked while I was out taking my life in my hands.

That afternoon we rode up to Nate Vance's camp and checked his hunters. They had spent five hours shoveling to get over Deer Creek Pass, not great news since Tim planned to go out that way in a couple of days. Oh well, a little shoveling might do him good after not telling me about the bear. On the ride back to the cabin, Tim asked if I had noticed the flag at Nate's camp. I had but hadn't really thought about how it might help us resolve the issue of the Park Service's flag. That evening over dinner, we put together a plan.

They had spent five hours shoveling to get over Deer Creek Pass, not great news since Tim planned to go out that way in a couple of days.

The next morning we headed back to Nate's camp. We checked several bull elk on the way. When we got to Nate's camp, we explained our dilemma and asked if we could use his flag. Nate was reluctant at first, but after some cajoling by Tim, he finally agreed to give it to us. With Nate's flag stored safely in a saddlebag, we returned to the cabin. We had decided that we would have to walk to the Yellowstone Park Ranger Station as we didn't want any trace or tracks to connect us to the flag raising. Taking an axe to cut a tall pole, the two commandos stealthily sneaked down to the Ranger Station. The flag was hoisted on a thirty-foot pole and secured to the hitching rail in such a fashion as District Ranger Lounsberry and Assistant Yellowstone Park Superintendent Frank Walker would appreciate our efforts when they arrived in two days. We then brushed out our tracks and headed back to our cabin to bask in the glory of the fine deed we had done.

Tim headed out the next morning. The grizzly I had seen earlier walked by the cabin as I helped Tim tie his packs on. Cow elk could be heard barking and the calves crying as Tim headed out the gate and across the meadow. Tim was about half way across the meadow when the wolves began howling, giving him a proper send-off. I went back into the cabin, did the dishes, and then rode over to Madsen's camp in Yellowstone Meadows to check his hunters. The last couple of days had warmed up nicely, and the snow had settled considerably. Returning from Madsen's camp, I chopped some firewood, put the shutters up on the cabin, and packed my things so I could get an early start in the morning.

It was cold and crisp as the sun peeked over the horizon, and once again elk were on the move. A couple of miles below Escarpment Creek, I crossed a couple of wolf tracks.

The next day before daylight, I closed the cabin for the winter, packed my horse, and headed for Eagle Creek Trailhead. It was cold and crisp as the sun peeked over the horizon, and once again elk were on the move. A couple of miles below Escarpment Creek, I crossed a couple of wolf tracks. They wandered back and forth down thetrail all the way to Mountain Creek, but I was never able to see them. The elk had packed down the trail up Howell Creek allowing me to make pretty good time. As I neared the top of Eagle Creek Pass, my saddle horse snorted and stopped. I looked around but couldn't see anything, so I got off to get a better look. As soon as I was low enough to see up through the trees, I spotted a sow grizzly with two cubs of the year. She was about thirty yards in front of me feeding on an elk carcass just off the trail. I hollered to let her know that I was there, climbed back on my horse, and moved back down the trail to give her some space. I hollered some more; she took her cubs and moved off up the trail. I gave her several minutes to move off and then headed on up the trail. Within minutes I caught up with her and the cubs on the trail. Since we were both going in the same direction, I had no choice but to follow and try to keep my distance. She tried a couple of times to leave the trail but always returned because the cubs were having a hard time wallowing through the deep snow. I slowly followed her for a couple of more switchbacks until she finally took the cubs and moved off into a deep draw. The last I saw of her and the cubs she was headed back towards the elk carcass.I reached the top of the pass without further incident and headed for the trailhead arriving just before dark. I felt truly blessed to have spent the week in this magnificent place and to have witnessed something that few people will ever have an opportunity to see.

Gary Brown

Cody Regional Wildlife Supervisor

1989 to present