Not really a race- no registration, no fees, no t-shirts, few rules; but brutally challenging and very rewarding, set in some of the remotest and wildest country in the lower 48. Each year the beginning point and ending point is announced and is different each year. How you get to the ending point is completely up to you- shortest distance is not always the quickest (actually rarely)- weather, elevation, snow levels at passes, trail conditions, stream flows and fords all add into one's decision. It also really demands a Plan B (and probably a C) as well as bailout options as things often don't go as planned. Navigation is an important part as it's easy to lose less travelled trails, especially above snow level and sometimes off-trail options present shortcuts. Equipment choices obviously comes into play, snowshoes or not, raft or not, shelter, clothing, food, etc. Point being a lot of pre-planning goes into it- which quite frankly is part of the appeal.
This was my second time at this event. Last year I went with Kevin and John, this year John teamed up with another friend and planned a more leisurely event- 5-ish days. Kevin and I had just the opposite plan, more aggressive than last year, going very light and mixing in some running- something just under 3 days. We had planned our route carefully and got our packs as svelte as safely possible. Unfortunately Kevin's knee hadn't fully recovered from a winter surgery and had to bail at the last minute (actually a week out); at the same time the weather changed significantly adding a lot of snow to the Bob and calling for more rain/snow during the event. Because of these changes, my plan also changed-going with a larger pack and a little more margin of safety.
This year the start was at Bean Lake campground on the SE side of the Bob Complex, near Augusta (the Complex contains the Bob Marshall Wilderness, bit also the Scapegoat and Great Bear Wildernesses) and finish at Cedar Creek campground on the West side, near Condon. Our route was ~ 120 miles, there were shorter routes, but we chose this route mainly because it avoided fording the South Fork of the Flathead- which we learned last year is not a ford, but rather a swim. A pretty dicey swim at that, given the temperature and swiftness of the river.
Saturday morning 18 brave souls took off from Bean Lake, right away one guy took off in the opposite direction of everyone else- he had a plan other than starting up the Dearborn River. John and his new partner Thad were taking the same route as I was, so I settled in with them- figuring I'd continue on after they bagged it at ~ 20-25 miles in. Turns out almost everyone else continued on past Whitetail Creek where we headed for Twin Lakes Pass.
we made good time up and over the pass into the Blackfoot drainage, not as much snow as anticipated, but our good time would soon slow as we got into significant blowdown
still nice views though, including the North Fork falls
we made it to the North Fork patrol cabin at 8 pm and called it a day, 33 miles in, more than John and Thad had planned on, but in the ballpark of what I was shooting for
we got a pretty early start and headed for the Dry Fork Pass that led into the Danaher and South Fork drainage
Danaher Creek is absolutely gorgeous, the creek starts out very mellow and meandering and eventually raging forming one of two major headwaters for the South Fork of the Flathead
the weather up to this point had been pretty good, some short light rains, but we got into some pretty heavy rains towards evening, but eventually they would pass as well, right on time as we entered our camp area- Cayuse Prairie for night 2, 31 miles logged that day
a nightly ritual, drying our feet out (also at lunch), your feet are wet the entire day- fords, rain, mud, snow, so it's important to dry them out a couple times a day and especially at night, donning dry socks for sleep I also found Costco meat bags work great to put over your dry socks and put on your wet shoes for camp chores or that nightly call to duty
my shelter- a MLD cuben fiber Solomid- a small pyramid shelter that utilizes my trekking poles and 6 stakes- pretty svelte at 11-ish oz
the next day John and Thad said they would only be going as far as Big Salmon Lake (about 15 miles) so they could fish and relax
we ate lunch at Big Salmon patrol cabin and parted ways, making good time of the 15 miles in under 5 hours
I had about 2.5 miles to go to my turn off up Little Salmon and made good time getting there in under 45 minutes, things were looking up and I still had a shot at under 72 hours if I turned it up a notch.
Unfortunately Little Salmon had different ideas, the lower stretch was very muddy and flooded in many areas, slowing me down significantly
I wasn't the only one headed up Little Salmon, bear spray- check
soon the trail climbed and dried out and my time was picking up, but Little Salmon wasn't done with me yet- while the mud and water slowed me down on the lower section, the blowdown would almost stop me in my tracks- 8 miles of almost steady blowdown, looking at it appeared to more than just last fall/winter, guessing a couple years worth or more
it's a 11 miles to my next turnoff, Palisade Ck- I was hoping to do it in about 3 hours, instead it was over 5!
finally made it to Palisade Ck, now 6 miles up to the pass- not surprisingly there was plenty of blowdown on this trail, also a lot of mud and water running in the trail
Palisade Ck
I couldn't find a decent place to camp, so kept heading up, hoping to make it over the pass and camp on the Lion Ck side; daylight quickly faded as I hit the snow and donned my headlamp; the trail became completely obscured, but a grizzly was headed up and pretty sure headed the pass so I followed him (or her?)
I eventually hit human tracks and knew they had to be other competitors, so I was on the right path When I got the pass I was whipped and needed to make some supper, low on water I melted snow
I felt better after eating and wanted off this high pass and thought I'd go down a couple of miles and camp; I thought I found the trail in some big block talus, but after 5 minutes or so it was obviously a mountain goat trail and I was likely to plunge to my death if I stayed on it; I retreated looking for the trail but no luck- at this point it was 11 PM and I was forced to camp on 6' of snow at high elevation, not where I really wanted to be
I woke up at 5 AM, my camp and not too shabby of a view out my door
I found the trail in the daylight about 1/4 mile down from the pass and could see where folks had slid in the scree getting down to it- it was very slow going as it has solidly frozen at night and the once soft snow was now ice and it was steep, very steep
I eventually got out of the snow and started making decent time heading down, but it was short lived as I started hitting significant blowdown again
it was slow going for most of Lion Ck, but there were several really pretty falls along the way
I eventually made it to the trailhead at about 11:30 AM, with another 10 miles to go to get to Cedar Ck campground, it would have been quicker taking the forest service road down to the highway and up, but I wasn't in the mood for cars screaming by- I came up with a route linking up old logging roads that would put me very close to the campground and only being on the highway for ~ a 1/4 mile- it took me longer, but my sub 72 hour finish was history anyways
I hit the campground at 3:00-ish for a 79 hour finish, considering the difficult trails, I was pretty happy with that finish
Pretty soon next year's route will be announced and the planning will begin once again
Thanks for reading
This was my second time at this event. Last year I went with Kevin and John, this year John teamed up with another friend and planned a more leisurely event- 5-ish days. Kevin and I had just the opposite plan, more aggressive than last year, going very light and mixing in some running- something just under 3 days. We had planned our route carefully and got our packs as svelte as safely possible. Unfortunately Kevin's knee hadn't fully recovered from a winter surgery and had to bail at the last minute (actually a week out); at the same time the weather changed significantly adding a lot of snow to the Bob and calling for more rain/snow during the event. Because of these changes, my plan also changed-going with a larger pack and a little more margin of safety.
This year the start was at Bean Lake campground on the SE side of the Bob Complex, near Augusta (the Complex contains the Bob Marshall Wilderness, bit also the Scapegoat and Great Bear Wildernesses) and finish at Cedar Creek campground on the West side, near Condon. Our route was ~ 120 miles, there were shorter routes, but we chose this route mainly because it avoided fording the South Fork of the Flathead- which we learned last year is not a ford, but rather a swim. A pretty dicey swim at that, given the temperature and swiftness of the river.
Saturday morning 18 brave souls took off from Bean Lake, right away one guy took off in the opposite direction of everyone else- he had a plan other than starting up the Dearborn River. John and his new partner Thad were taking the same route as I was, so I settled in with them- figuring I'd continue on after they bagged it at ~ 20-25 miles in. Turns out almost everyone else continued on past Whitetail Creek where we headed for Twin Lakes Pass.
we made good time up and over the pass into the Blackfoot drainage, not as much snow as anticipated, but our good time would soon slow as we got into significant blowdown
still nice views though, including the North Fork falls
we made it to the North Fork patrol cabin at 8 pm and called it a day, 33 miles in, more than John and Thad had planned on, but in the ballpark of what I was shooting for
we got a pretty early start and headed for the Dry Fork Pass that led into the Danaher and South Fork drainage
Danaher Creek is absolutely gorgeous, the creek starts out very mellow and meandering and eventually raging forming one of two major headwaters for the South Fork of the Flathead
the weather up to this point had been pretty good, some short light rains, but we got into some pretty heavy rains towards evening, but eventually they would pass as well, right on time as we entered our camp area- Cayuse Prairie for night 2, 31 miles logged that day
a nightly ritual, drying our feet out (also at lunch), your feet are wet the entire day- fords, rain, mud, snow, so it's important to dry them out a couple times a day and especially at night, donning dry socks for sleep I also found Costco meat bags work great to put over your dry socks and put on your wet shoes for camp chores or that nightly call to duty
my shelter- a MLD cuben fiber Solomid- a small pyramid shelter that utilizes my trekking poles and 6 stakes- pretty svelte at 11-ish oz
the next day John and Thad said they would only be going as far as Big Salmon Lake (about 15 miles) so they could fish and relax
we ate lunch at Big Salmon patrol cabin and parted ways, making good time of the 15 miles in under 5 hours
I had about 2.5 miles to go to my turn off up Little Salmon and made good time getting there in under 45 minutes, things were looking up and I still had a shot at under 72 hours if I turned it up a notch.
Unfortunately Little Salmon had different ideas, the lower stretch was very muddy and flooded in many areas, slowing me down significantly
I wasn't the only one headed up Little Salmon, bear spray- check
soon the trail climbed and dried out and my time was picking up, but Little Salmon wasn't done with me yet- while the mud and water slowed me down on the lower section, the blowdown would almost stop me in my tracks- 8 miles of almost steady blowdown, looking at it appeared to more than just last fall/winter, guessing a couple years worth or more
it's a 11 miles to my next turnoff, Palisade Ck- I was hoping to do it in about 3 hours, instead it was over 5!
finally made it to Palisade Ck, now 6 miles up to the pass- not surprisingly there was plenty of blowdown on this trail, also a lot of mud and water running in the trail
Palisade Ck
I couldn't find a decent place to camp, so kept heading up, hoping to make it over the pass and camp on the Lion Ck side; daylight quickly faded as I hit the snow and donned my headlamp; the trail became completely obscured, but a grizzly was headed up and pretty sure headed the pass so I followed him (or her?)
I eventually hit human tracks and knew they had to be other competitors, so I was on the right path When I got the pass I was whipped and needed to make some supper, low on water I melted snow
I felt better after eating and wanted off this high pass and thought I'd go down a couple of miles and camp; I thought I found the trail in some big block talus, but after 5 minutes or so it was obviously a mountain goat trail and I was likely to plunge to my death if I stayed on it; I retreated looking for the trail but no luck- at this point it was 11 PM and I was forced to camp on 6' of snow at high elevation, not where I really wanted to be
I woke up at 5 AM, my camp and not too shabby of a view out my door
I found the trail in the daylight about 1/4 mile down from the pass and could see where folks had slid in the scree getting down to it- it was very slow going as it has solidly frozen at night and the once soft snow was now ice and it was steep, very steep
I eventually got out of the snow and started making decent time heading down, but it was short lived as I started hitting significant blowdown again
it was slow going for most of Lion Ck, but there were several really pretty falls along the way
I eventually made it to the trailhead at about 11:30 AM, with another 10 miles to go to get to Cedar Ck campground, it would have been quicker taking the forest service road down to the highway and up, but I wasn't in the mood for cars screaming by- I came up with a route linking up old logging roads that would put me very close to the campground and only being on the highway for ~ a 1/4 mile- it took me longer, but my sub 72 hour finish was history anyways
I hit the campground at 3:00-ish for a 79 hour finish, considering the difficult trails, I was pretty happy with that finish
Pretty soon next year's route will be announced and the planning will begin once again
Thanks for reading
.
:thumbup: