My New Favorite Things

Currently sitting in the Missoula Public Library it seems like the trail is a world away.  Glacier National Park was so incredible I pinched myself every day.  After leaving East Glacier Park I have been traveling with Papi Chulo and Kramers, the company has been really nice.  It's so much fun to be journeying with people who share my enthusiasm for the fact that every day is simple the best day of our lives.

The Lewis and Clark National Forest blended into the Bob Marshal Wilderness and we we found ourselves in the most remote stretch of the trail.  This corridor of mountains are wild and free.  Bear and wolf signs EVERYWHERE! It was so great.  And the WILDFLOWERS are absolutely STUNNING!!!!  Parts of the forest had been burned by fire in recent years and we entertained ourselves with games of "Tree Tennis"...  basically taking turns pushing trees over =-) these skeletons of wood and charcoal can literally fall at any moment (often without wind) and are quite dangerous to anyone passing through the area.... just doing our part to make this mountains safer!  In the BOB we came across a few Forest Rangers clearing trail and pack mule strings carting loads of supplies into maintenance camps.  Everyone is basically trying to get as much trail clearing done as they can before the fire season sets in and they are called away to help with fires.  What a life!  We also got the pleasure of hiking right under the Chinese Wall, a massive rock cliff that stretches for miles and is the main attraction for anyone visiting the BOB.

After resupplying at the Benchmark Ranch (Kyle sent me a resupply box with food and maps) we continued south.  Without that resupply option I would have had to carry nearly 10 days worth of food, THANK YOU BENCHMARK!!!!  After traveling along many fabulous trout rivers and having visions of fishing we climbed to the ridge and for the first time this trip we actually hiked along the Great Continental Divide.  It was so special to be sleeping on top of a ridge at 8000 feet watching the sunset dancing on the thunderheads in the distance.  Then to wake up to the sunrise to the east.  This just might be the best day of my life.

As the days passed we notice the mid-day heat slowly climbing past 80.  With a breeze on the ridge it was manageable but we get word that a heat wave is coming.  100 degrees in Helena.  The day before we hit route 12 to Helena we were actually hiking by 5am to take advantage of the cool morning.  By 1 we stopped for a Ciesta because the thermometer read 86, and we were at 8000 feet.  We took naps and cooked dinner.  By 5 the heat seemed to be cooling off.  When we left 8000 feet it was a lovely 72 degrees, within and hour we were down to 7000 feet and it was 83 degrees.  That's not bad when you're sitting in the shade with an iced tea but when backpacking with 15+ miles between water sources you really do have to pay attention.  The three of us are taking a couple days to relax and let the heat wave pass. The next few sections are a little lower in elevation and we are very much hoping the weather settles down a bit.  With fire season on the horizon we are glad to be moving south!

Happy Trails!!!
~beads

Chinese Wall in Bob Marshall Wilderness

Glacier National Park

After many hours of driving, sitting in the Backcountry Office figuring out our permits, picking up maps at the Post Office, making sure I had enough food, checking snow conditions over the many passes ahead, and generally just getting super anxious.... myself, Bearclaw, Dirtmonger, and Papi Chulo were at the Chief Mountain Border crossing last thursday at 8 pm with 6 miles ahead of us. Lucky for us it gets dark at ten.  As we got closer to our destination we all gawked at the mountains ahead, even got caught in a massive hail storm and was thankful we were in a car.

As we hiked up glacial valleys and climbed over multiple high mountain passes we all just kept looking around in disbelief... this was clearly the best days of our lives!!!  Our legs pumping, lungs heaving, and hiker hunger returns: this is what it feals like to be a thru-hiker.  Most of the passes, Papi Chulo and I seemed to be the first people over the pass this spring.  There was lots of animal tracks (Grizzley, Black Bear, Wolf, Coyote) but no shoe marks.  There was definitly a few bits of snow left still melting but we strolled over them singing our own song "Not Post Holing, la dee dah!" The whole time we felt like kids in a candy store.  Surrounded by massive cliffs down to tiny alpine flowers: truely a magical place.

This park was created back in 1910 primarily by the Great Northern Railroad as a "See America First" Campain.  In no time they built an entire network of Lodges and Chalets throughout the park that were a day's horseback ride apart.  Visitors would get off the train in East Glacier and then explore the park by horseback and boat.  By 1925 there were 1,000 horses carrying 10,000 visitors annually.  Many of these mountain lodges are still here and a huge part of the history.  We had the pleasure of walking by Many Glacier Lodge, Two Medicine Chalet, and later today I plan to curl up in front of the fire at the East Glacier Lodge.  What a treat!

The trail goes through East Glacier Park (town) and we are resting up for our nest section, the BOB!  The Bob Marshal Wilderness is tauted as some of the most wild mountain country we go through.  I didnt have the pleasure of seeing a Grizzley in Glacier but my chances are supposedly much higher in the Bob, I'm stoked!!!  It is also out longest section without roads or cell service.  We are lucky that there is a Ranch that lets hikers send resupply packages so that we dont actually have to carry 200 miles worth of food all at once.

My plan from here is to try and keep it simple, hike south.  This will have me finishing the trail in northern NM in the San Juan Mtns.  Not quite what I had planned but it has been a great exercise in adapting to what Mother Nature throws at you.  Despite major set-backs, I'm still confident that I have enough time to finish the trail this summer.  For now, I'm just enjoying the moment.

Happy Trails!
~beads

Wonderer (from Japan), me, and Papi Chulo enjoying a fire at Two Medicine Lodge

CDT insanity - Southbound from the Border

A lot has happened since my last entry but the take home message is: I'm heading to Glacier National Park to proceed with my hike southbound.  The snow in Colorado is still unmanageable and it was an extremely low snow year up in MT so myself and 11 other hikers are taking the plunge and going to the Canadian Border to walk toward the sun.  I'm absolutely thrilled to finally have a GOOD plan with regards to dealing with this snow.  The fact is, Colorado is still at 150% to 200% snowpack, the avalanche danger is still extreme, and stream crossings are dangerous.  This hike is not worth risking my life to that extent and I'm not willing to road walk through some of the most stunning parts of CO if I can avoid it.  I want to walk through the San Juan Mtns in all their awesome glory, and with this plan that will be my finale. 

Ive hiked approximately 800 miles so far.  In the grand scheme of things I have a lot more work to do but it still feels good to have that many miles behind me.  This time tomorrow I should be up near Glacier National Park gawking at the massive glacial valleys and ready to move my feet. 

And of course while I have the simple task of walking, Kyle my resupply person is probably having an ulcer because of me.  All the nicely wrapped boxes must be torn apart and re-organized to accommodate the fact that I'm now traveling south, not north.  For anyone who has had this responsibility, you know how nerve-wracking it can be!

So what have I been up to for the past week or 2?  I hiked north from Rawlins WY, through South Pass City (an AWESOME state historical park that the trail goes right through), and onward to Pinedale.  I stayed on the trail as far north into the winds as I could but did end up having to bail down to roads for the last bit into Pinedale.  At the time that I rolled into town I had no idea what I was going to do.  I could continue north where there is much less to no snow but I would have been totally alone, all other hiker were still grappling with the snow in CO.  Or I could have stuck with my original idea of going back to CO and trying to get through the snow but the more reports I got back from hikers and the more snowpack data I combed through this just didn't seem like a reasonable option, despite the lure of awesome company.  Then this past Saturday, FINALLY a group of hikers decided to drive up to Glacier and southbound from the border.  Did they have room for one more? YES!!!!!!!  So for a few days I've been resting in a very familiar place, Jackson Hole WY.  Good friends, good food, dancing, singing, and good vibes. Boy it's nice to be surrounded by such a positive energy!!

Happy Trails!

~beads

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Smile Often :-)

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Smile Often :-)