Bowmania

After weeks of marginal conditions, and soggy weather Drew (a fellow Big Creeker) and myself decided that rainstorms be damned, we were going into the park. With heavy snow above 5,000' however, this was difficult. After scouting around for a cool trip we decided on Bowman lake. Normally Bowman, can be driven to via an eight mile long single lane dirt road, however the road is closed due to heavy snows at mile 4. So we threw mountain bikes and snowshoes in the back of my truck, and headed to the trailhead in Polebridge.

The main pull of Bowman is the high concentration of wildlife. The Bowman drainage is reputed to be the favorite spring grounds for the North Forks wolves and also (like everywhere in the North Fork) contains great grizzly bear habitat. We were not disappointed on either account. 15 minutes into our bike ride on a steep downhill section, we actually rode into the middle of a wolf hunt. The whitetail deer should send us his regards as the wolves fled as soon as they spotted us. Still, we were within 50 yards of a wolf mid hunt... Epic. Later in the day we watched a fully grown griz harass a herd of elk in a meadow below us, and rounded things out by watching a black bear and its cubs hang out 70' up in an old cottonwood. Oh, yea... Bowman lake was pretty cool itself as well.


Juvenile griz track.


Wolf track. These were literally everywhere.


A view of the North Fork from the ridge.


Bowman lake.