Posted by 25.8 miles
Last nights sleep was deep and restorative after such a long day. Immediately from camp there was a small hill climb to start the day up over Elbert Pass. Short and sweet with switchbacks it was fairly straight forward.
Climbing from the Straight Creek valley I could feel rising through an inversion layer into a pocket of warm air however the air mass quickly chilled once descending from the pass in to the next valley.
My hands were numb and I became difficult to warm them. I had gloves but there buried deep in my pack somewhere. I had to keep moving them, breathing on them at times and placing them in my armpits to warm up.
The valley was walled by tall cliffs still hidden in shade. It wouldn’t be until around 9am that the sun ventured over the hill crests to touch trail. I was grateful for the sun’s appearance and sat for 10 minutes warming up. While I was praising the sun now, I would be cursing it later in the afternoon.
Not only was this valley shaded and cold it was another burn area, maybe a continuation of the same fire area I finished up in yesterday in. And with burnt areas comes downed trees. Another tangled mess of blow downs across the trail brought hiking to a crawl at times.
Not much of the trail had been cleared beyond the pass this season. Where efforts had been made I was grateful and at the same time frustrated with some of the work. You could see the trail crew had looped off sections of trees, mainly at the head end, possibly to lower height of the offending log but not actually taking the time to cut the the main offending section off that still lay right over the trail. Arrhhh!! It’s softwood for fucks sake, easy to cut and the trees had been cut once already. I just wish crews would spend another 30 secs to completely remove it.
All in all it must have been 10 full miles through burn area. At least this side of the valley looked like it had regrowth coming back.
Finally the trail moved back into green trees towards a crossing over South Fork Sun River. It was a wide crossing. Too early to get my shoes fully submerged I took them off, crossing in bare feet. Half way across now my feet were numb and I difficult to feel out solid foot placements on the slippery rock bottom. I made it across unscathed and now it was my feet’s turn to bask in the sun for a few minutes.
From here the trail was flat, fast and easy to the trail junction off Benchmark Ranch and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I had first read about ‘The Bob’ around 30 years ago and always dreamed of hiking through it. Now was my chance.
It was a busy section of trail with many weekend warriors out for an escape and several pack horse trains headed in. I also came across a group of women with pack Llamas. I stopped and chatted for a couple of minutes. Now that is the way to do a trail I voiced – have a llama do all the carrying. Speaking of carrying, the oldest lady of the group, she must have been 65, was hilarious. I noticed instead of bear spray she was strapped with a side arm. Asking what calibre she had, she replied “10mm. You get more rounds than a 45!” Awesome.
The afternoon was a scorcher in the full sun and through yet more burnt but regenerating country. The young trees were too small to cast any real shade. Frequent breaks were required underneath the mature and remnant isolated unburnt trees. There was a breeze but it would only funnel down into the tunnel along the trail when both trail and wind direction were aligned, otherwise it would just pass right over the tree tops.
By late afternoon I was cooked and thankful that the trail eventually moved into the shade and cool of mature forest. The trail was still following the South Fork Sun River, it had for around 16 miles. I finally called it quits at a foot bridge crossing with a small camp.
Before doing anything I dropped by pack, walked down stream and found a secluded bend in the river, jumping in fully clothed to cool down and rinse out the sweat and salt.
It was still extremely hot and a warm wind was blowing. The problem now was it was getting late, just past 6pm and I needed to get them dry before tomorrow. I’ve found the best method is body heat so rung them out and put them back on. The initial chill takes a bit of getting used to but after a few minutes, besides feeling damp and clammy, it’s not so bad.
I think I’ve reached my limit in terms of what is now achievable distance wise, only able to complete around 25 miles a day on flat ground after solid 12 hour day. I’m guessing this is fatigue catching up.
The finish line is in sight and I’m trying to do big days to close this trip out so the next few days will be interesting moving back into some climbs. I may have underdone it with food as it may take an additional day to reach East Glacier. We’ll see. If it’s only another half day, even a full day without food I’ll make do. It will be tiring as hell and my stomach will complain but it’s not like I’ll stave. I’ll treat it like a fast.
Mick Beckers 