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It's a rough life here in Montana
This is the southern end of Lake McDonald at Apgar VillageHitch 1
I started my first 9 day work week, called a hitch by everyone here, on Wednesday, May 27th with a short 3 miles up and 3 miles back down Fielding Creek. I set up 8 trees with barbed wire which each take about 15-20 minutes each. This results in hiking roughly at 1 mph while setting up compared to around 3 mph when just hiking.
Snyder Lake was the destination on day two, May 28th. 4.4 miles up, and I mean up, then, of course, 4.4 miles down, but it was a gorgeous clear water lake, still partly frozen, in a tremendous waterfall laden cirque. Hiking down gave beautiful views of Lake McDonald which I took numerous pictures of. Then, disaster strikes… I put my camera on top of the car while taking off my hiking boots and yada yada yada someone else now owns an Olympus camera, so you won’t be seeing Snyder Lake.
Life continues with or without my camera, and day three, May 29th, was a journey along Snyder Ridge. This heavily overgrown trail totals 10.6 miles, and this one was no up and back but one long trail. This was the day the crew grew by one member, adding Clair to the mix. She just finished her freshman year at Harvard but a Whitefish native and a good hiking buddy. She ended up being my partner for the rest of the hitch and managed to survive my “leadership”, as you will read. P.S. Happy belated birthday dad and Caroline.
After a very long and tough day three, day four, May 30th, was a welcomed easy day. Clair and I tackled Stanton Lake which is a flat 5-6 mile round trip hike in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, which is just south of Glacier National Park. Great Northern mountain looms over the lake with snow capped peaks that blazed in the reflecting sunshine, but no pictures so you’ll have to come visit and see it for yourself.
Until this point I was able to come home every day and take showers and sleep in a bed, but day five, May 31st, was the first day of a five day camping trip. We arranged gear in the morning and hit the road towards Walton Ranger Station on the southern boundary of the Park. Eric and his partner Matt were hiking up Park Creek and staying in ranger cabins while Clair and I were to hike up Ole Creek and tent camp for two nights. Along with a tent, stove, fuel, sleeping bag, etc… we had to carry enough wire and nails for an estimated 80 trees! To give you some idea of this extra weight, each tree needs four strands of barbed wire, eight u-nails to hold the wire on the tree, two reflectors so the tree is easy to spot when we go back to collect the hair, an individualized number tag and three straight nails to hold the tag and reflectors. It took us over 8 hours to hike the 7.7 miles in to the campsite and we were exhausted by the time we got there, so a nice hot meal with some cocoa then into the sack was the plan. But disaster strikes again! The MSR fuel bottle didn’t fit the Coleman stove provided to me, and no one decided to tell me the MSR is just for carrying extra fuel. “SH*T! What do we do? We have very little food that doesn’t need to be cooked. Aha! Call on the radio (also provided and it weights five pounds!) to Eric and see if we should hike four miles to them in the cabin.” But of course the radio doesn’t work either. With nothing else to do we go to bed having eaten trail mix and granola bars for dinner.
Nothing like welcoming in June hungry and sore, but day six, June 1st, came that way whether Clair and I liked it or not. After combining our heads we decided hiking out to the car and calling Headquarters was the safest thing to do. 7.7 miles out, then another mile to the nearest phone just to get more bad news, they were going to send someone out to give us the right fuel bottle and a working radio, then back into Ole Creek, the trail we hiked twice already. And that’s exactly what we did, 7.7 miles back to the same campground we left that morning, but this time we did have a hot meal and cocoa.
Day seven, June 2nd, began with the knowledge that we were leaving Ole Creek for good, but first we had to set up more trees. We grabbed just what we needed and continued up the trail 3.5 miles, turned around, grabbed our packs and hiked the 7.7 miles for the fourth time in three days. We meet Eric and Matt at the car to much jubilation and continued to the nearest Mexican restaurant for burrito’s. All four of us camped at the magnificent Two Medicine campground for the next two nights. Two Medicine is located on the southeastern border of the park, next to a stunning lake. It is one of the most popular places in the park, but thankfully the campground was nearly empty and quiet.
My favorite hike of the hitch was on day eight, June 3rd, a beautiful cloudless day with a mellow hike next to a crystal clear lazy stream, up a wide valley toward Morningstar Lake. It was still over 8 miles, but it didn’t matter much because it was such a nice day for a hike, and we knew our five days off were just around the corner.
On the final day nine, June 4th, Clair and I hiked around Two Medicine Lake. It was close to 7 miles, but we flew with few rub trees and the thought of a comfy bed waiting at home. All in all a good time, the weather was beautiful but no bear or moose sightings. All in good time.
Snyder Lake was the destination on day two, May 28th. 4.4 miles up, and I mean up, then, of course, 4.4 miles down, but it was a gorgeous clear water lake, still partly frozen, in a tremendous waterfall laden cirque. Hiking down gave beautiful views of Lake McDonald which I took numerous pictures of. Then, disaster strikes… I put my camera on top of the car while taking off my hiking boots and yada yada yada someone else now owns an Olympus camera, so you won’t be seeing Snyder Lake.
Life continues with or without my camera, and day three, May 29th, was a journey along Snyder Ridge. This heavily overgrown trail totals 10.6 miles, and this one was no up and back but one long trail. This was the day the crew grew by one member, adding Clair to the mix. She just finished her freshman year at Harvard but a Whitefish native and a good hiking buddy. She ended up being my partner for the rest of the hitch and managed to survive my “leadership”, as you will read. P.S. Happy belated birthday dad and Caroline.
After a very long and tough day three, day four, May 30th, was a welcomed easy day. Clair and I tackled Stanton Lake which is a flat 5-6 mile round trip hike in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, which is just south of Glacier National Park. Great Northern mountain looms over the lake with snow capped peaks that blazed in the reflecting sunshine, but no pictures so you’ll have to come visit and see it for yourself.
Until this point I was able to come home every day and take showers and sleep in a bed, but day five, May 31st, was the first day of a five day camping trip. We arranged gear in the morning and hit the road towards Walton Ranger Station on the southern boundary of the Park. Eric and his partner Matt were hiking up Park Creek and staying in ranger cabins while Clair and I were to hike up Ole Creek and tent camp for two nights. Along with a tent, stove, fuel, sleeping bag, etc… we had to carry enough wire and nails for an estimated 80 trees! To give you some idea of this extra weight, each tree needs four strands of barbed wire, eight u-nails to hold the wire on the tree, two reflectors so the tree is easy to spot when we go back to collect the hair, an individualized number tag and three straight nails to hold the tag and reflectors. It took us over 8 hours to hike the 7.7 miles in to the campsite and we were exhausted by the time we got there, so a nice hot meal with some cocoa then into the sack was the plan. But disaster strikes again! The MSR fuel bottle didn’t fit the Coleman stove provided to me, and no one decided to tell me the MSR is just for carrying extra fuel. “SH*T! What do we do? We have very little food that doesn’t need to be cooked. Aha! Call on the radio (also provided and it weights five pounds!) to Eric and see if we should hike four miles to them in the cabin.” But of course the radio doesn’t work either. With nothing else to do we go to bed having eaten trail mix and granola bars for dinner.
Nothing like welcoming in June hungry and sore, but day six, June 1st, came that way whether Clair and I liked it or not. After combining our heads we decided hiking out to the car and calling Headquarters was the safest thing to do. 7.7 miles out, then another mile to the nearest phone just to get more bad news, they were going to send someone out to give us the right fuel bottle and a working radio, then back into Ole Creek, the trail we hiked twice already. And that’s exactly what we did, 7.7 miles back to the same campground we left that morning, but this time we did have a hot meal and cocoa.
Day seven, June 2nd, began with the knowledge that we were leaving Ole Creek for good, but first we had to set up more trees. We grabbed just what we needed and continued up the trail 3.5 miles, turned around, grabbed our packs and hiked the 7.7 miles for the fourth time in three days. We meet Eric and Matt at the car to much jubilation and continued to the nearest Mexican restaurant for burrito’s. All four of us camped at the magnificent Two Medicine campground for the next two nights. Two Medicine is located on the southeastern border of the park, next to a stunning lake. It is one of the most popular places in the park, but thankfully the campground was nearly empty and quiet.
My favorite hike of the hitch was on day eight, June 3rd, a beautiful cloudless day with a mellow hike next to a crystal clear lazy stream, up a wide valley toward Morningstar Lake. It was still over 8 miles, but it didn’t matter much because it was such a nice day for a hike, and we knew our five days off were just around the corner.
On the final day nine, June 4th, Clair and I hiked around Two Medicine Lake. It was close to 7 miles, but we flew with few rub trees and the thought of a comfy bed waiting at home. All in all a good time, the weather was beautiful but no bear or moose sightings. All in good time.
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