The Bob Marshall Wilderness, miles 98-232…… the hardest hiking I’ve ever done to date. I left East Glacier Village on July 1st at 0900 after a final breakfast and paying bills. The fifth day was smooth cruising with just intermittent overgrowth. Day 6 there was a possibility of taking an alternate to avoid 6 miles of crisscrossed, constant blowdowns but I decided to give the CDT a try and took the red line. 6 miles took me 6 hours. Cussing, cuts, falling and slipping on mud made for a great time. I was able to make the only phone call to Galaxy before zero service for days.
Day 7 was another long, blowdown-covered day, culminating with me losing my lighter at dinner and mistakenly ending up on a 27 mile alternate that has been advertised as “must be a psychopath to take this route”. This was late in the day and I only noticed after 2.3 miles of hiking. I defeatedly went to bed after a 23.8 mile day.
Independence Day saw me backtracking a mile over 2 nasty river crossings to ask some ladies I had met who were camped at a Ranger cabin the previous evening for a spare lighter. Luckily they had one and saved the rest of my section from suffering. The Spotted Bear alternate was a crazy route. Big, swift river crossings, a dangerous, snow covered pass, and so much wet overgrowth from storms that I thought I was going to be hypothermic by the afternoon.
July 5th came with the completion of the Spotted Bear Alternate and a 9 mile section of semi continuous snow and melt along the beautiful Chinese Wall.
There were deep, wet (have to ford) creek crossings, muddy trail and the opportunity to shoe ski down parts of the passes I went over. Snow confidence is growing.
I was up and moving by 0500 this morning and made 17 miles by noon. Easy trail and the motivation of talking to the family, steak and beer. In that Order 😇 I was given a ride by the husband of a non-game biologist. I made his last trip with him to a gps site by a lake that frequents bats. We retrieved a bat sensor that measures density of activity over a week period. Currently roomed up at a motel in Augusta, Montana. Catching up here and with gear maintenance, washing, etc.
Days on the trail: 10
Miles completed: 232
Location: https://goo.gl/maps/jPjEzo6NUz4gAqAi6
Zero days: 0
Comments