Scapegoat Pack Trip, near Ovando, Montana, September 2005
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| Under the Continental Divide |
In early September,
I finally decided I needed to get away for a pack trip into the Bob.
I hadn't been on a proper pack trip for about five years,
and I figured life is going by way too fast.
Winter arrives and I always regret not having gone.
The horses were in pretty fair shape,
having been ridden all summer.
Lynde got a few extra days off work,
so we did a quick menu,
grabbed the few items we didn't already have,
stayed up too late packing,
and finally got off late in the morning of Labor Day weekend.
Daiquiri was our main pack horse,
although we did pack Poppie on the last day.
The pack rides on Poppie better,
but Daiquiri is a bit more laid back.
However, she is so round the load has to be just about perfect to stay put
and not rotate to one side or the other.
She's gotten pretty good at just stopping and looking at me as if to say,
"Hey, dummy, come fix this !#@%?! thing, ok?
It's kinda hard to walk with it hanging under my belly!"
Actually, it never quite made it under her belly,
although it did rotate quite a bit before we got out of the yard...
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| Ready to Leave |
We rode from the house up to the North Fork trailhead,
then up towards the cabin.
We camped where the cutoff trail crosses the river;
there was good grass for the horses there.
Most of the area we rode through was burned
in the 1988 Canyon Creek fire,
but is recovering nicely.
But there is a lot of downed timber.
I carry a 24" pruning saw;
it works great to cut out the trail,
but it still takes time.
Fortunately, we didn't have to do too much cutting on this trip.
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| Dry Fork Cutoff Camp |
Got Grain? |
Grain hung up safe |
Morning Toe Warming Ritual |
The next day we rode up the Dry Fork to Cabin Creek,
then up the creek towards the continental divide.
Lunch was served on the bench where the Cabin Creek trail takes off.
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| Lunch, Cabin Creek Trail |
Horses get lunch too! |
Lynde
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Mt. Evans and the Continental Divide |
We made camp near the head of Cabin Creek,
in a small place we found where we could rearrange some downed timber
to make a corral.
From the head of Cabin Creek,
the trail goes up steeply to just below the wall of the Continental Divide ridge.
It's a wonderful ride up,
with the mountains slowly coming into better view.
Eventually we were on grassy alpine meadows just below the rocks.
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| Lots of Downed Timber |
Rest before the steep up |
Continental Divide |
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| Cabin Creek Drainage |
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| Mt. Evans |
Mt. Evans and Cabin Creek Drainage |
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Head of Cabin Creek
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Lynde |
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| Under the Divide |
Flint Mt. |
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Lunch under the Divide
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Haley and the Divide
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We rode along under the wall,
then over a saddle where we could see Scapegoat Mountain
and the Dobrota Creek drainage.
The trail goes down steeply from here.
We camped near Carmichael Cabin
in the upper basin of the main stem of the North Fork.
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| Scapegoat Mt. |
Then we headed down the North Fork.
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| Upper North Fork |
Camp was in a small patch of timber above the river.
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| Camp, N. Fork Blackfoot |
Daiquiri on the Picket Line |
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We spent the afternoon relaxing;
I caught some fat rainbows for dinner.
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| Afternoon relaxing |
They taste good upside down too! |
The next morning it was down past the confluence with the East Fork,
past the falls,
and home.
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| Near the N and E Fork Confluence |
Looking down the N Fork Canyon |
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