Preparations for Wayne and my trip down the South Fork of the Flathead were done. We had a long hike ahead of us, 15 miles or so, so we hit the sack early.
We hit the trail at 07:30, about the same time as Jack and Tim from Rich Ranch headed up the trail with our gear on their mules. The day was predicted to be unusually hot, 104°F in Missoula, and we wanted to get the uphill part out of the way before it got too hot.
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| Pyramid Pass |
On the way up I stopped to enjoy the wildflowers; that way I could pretend I wasn't getting tired.
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| Columbine | Arnica | Larkspur |
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| Split Leaf Painted Cup | Indian Paintbrush | Mariposa Lily |
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| Flower Xxx White | Flower Xxx White |
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| Flower Xxx Yellow |
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| Flower Xxx Yellow | Flower Xxx Yellow |
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| Flower Xxx Blue | Flower Xxx Blue | Flower Xxx Blue |
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| Flower Xxx Purple |
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| Flower Xxx Blue Yellow |
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| Pyramid Peak |
As you near the rocky terrain just below the pass, the trail winds around a cliff with a sign at the top. It's a great example of one reason motorized vehicles shouldn't be in the back-country.
The sign says it all. Roy Thompson, a Forest Service warden, screwed up at the switchback and drove off the cliff.
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| Thompson's Plunge | Looking over Thompson's Plunge;
Wayne is visible at the bottom |
As we approached the pass, the view to the west of the Mission Mountains was a delight and an indication that we were making progress.
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| Mission Mts -- Grey Wolf Pk, E. Saint Marys Pk, Lowary Pk |
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| Pond at Pyramid Pass | |
Wayne and I separated at the top, as I was traveling a bit faster. I headed off down the trail hoping to catch up with the packers. I knew they weren't that far ahead of us from the horse poop on the trail along the way, and the stirred up silt in hoofprints where the trail went through wet areas. I thought I might catch them because there were a fair number of trees which had recently fallen across the trail, and with the horses and their frequent use of the trail in their business, they would stop to saw out a path rather than pass around the tree or over it. As I passed recently sawed or chopped through trees, I checked out the chips and shavings trying to guess whether they were from today or not. They looked recent, which was encouraging.
At one point I came to a fork in the trail with a Forest Service sign identifying the trails and pointing in rather ambiguous directions. I consulted the map and discovered I was either on the wrong trail, or the map was wrong, or the signs weren't really accurate. I finally decided on the last option, then wondered what Wayne would do when he got there. His knee would be bothering him after the long hike, but he's at home in all kinds of wild country so it wasn't a big deal. But just in case I left a sign in the trail indicating which way I'd gone.
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| Stick Sign |
When I finally reached the first real stream crossing about six miles down from the pass I took off my boots, waded across, and stopped to rest and assess.
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| Gary after crossing Young's Creek |
I decided I wasn't that far behind and decided to keep up the pace. Mostly I was just curious; I'd always felt I could pretty much hike about as fast as most pack trains moved, and here was a chance to find out.
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| Upper Young's Cr. Country | Young's Cr. |
As I hiked on I noticed footprints in the trail on top of the horse and mule tracks. I couldn't figure it out. There was no-one else on the trail as far as I knew. Had one of their horses gone lame and one of them was walking?
About 14:30 I arrived at the last crossing of Young's Creek, right before our campsite and drop off spot. There were three young-ish people at the creek packing up super-light inflatable kayaks. I'd never seen one before, but I'd heard a little about them. I was blown away; they'd packed in up Lodgepole Creek, the trail that was supposed to be closed. That explained the footprints. They had started up the trail someplace other than the regular trailhead, and it was a weekend with no work being done. Their packs looked relatively compact compared to all the gear we had; they were planning on a five day, as opposed to our fourteen day, trip. So they didn't have as much in the way of supplies, but they were still traveling impressively light. The boats looked pretty neat; I made a note to seriously look into them when we got out. They were Alpacka Rafts, and we saw three more parties using them on our trip, including the two river rangers we met at the end. We didn't see any other kinds of boats. I was jealous of their ability to travel so light. Even though I'm 66, I felt I could still have back-packed in with something like that. I have a lot of trips left to make if I can...
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| Alpaca Rafts |
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| Alpaca Rafts |
After talking to the kids for a bit to learn a bit more about their trip and their boats, I took off my boots and waded across. Jack and Tim were at camp with the mules. They'd arrived about a half hour earlier, and had hung our food from the bear pole suspended between two nearby trees. They hadn't needed to cut out any down timber -- the forest service crews had been through the week before and cleared the trail. No wonder I couldn't catch up!
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| Food Hanging from Bear Pole | Gear Pile |
We had a good chat and Jack related some early family history and history of the area I wasn't aware of. Then they headed back up the trail. They had to be back to one of their camps we had passed on the way in by evening; they had a party coming in for a five-day trip starting that day.
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| Rich Ranch Mules | Jack, Tim and the Rich Ranch Mules |
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| Butterfly Xxx Checkerspot |
Wayne arrived some time later, tired enough to just plunge in and wade across the creek without taking his boots off. I had thought about doing that myself when I arrived at the first crossing way up where Jenny Creek came in, and then decided hiking with wet feet wasn't a good idea. But he only had to go about a hundred yards after crossing, and we had nice hot weather and a fire to dry things out.
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| Wayne Crossing Young's Creek |
We caught up on the days events and got camp set up.
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| Young's Babcock Camp |
After resting up a bit and enjoying watching the evening descend, Wayne said he thought he should cook dinner since he had some perishable food. I allowed as how that seemed like the right thing to do. Boy, was it ever!
It turns out that in the years since our last trip Wayne had decided that as a parent with a new child and not as many opportunities to go traipsing off exploring as had been the case before, he would put some of that extra energy into becoming a gourmet cook. His wife is French, and he apparently absorbed a lot of that French cooking mystique and talent.
He proceeded to start slicing and dicing, peeling and chopping, seasoning and sauteing, and when it came time to actually sit down and eat we had some pretty amazing bison filets with boletus mushrooms sauteed in truffle oil, with boiled potatoes and wine. My mouth still waters thinking about it.
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| Seasoning; (Potatoes in the Dutch Oven on the fire) | Sauteing |
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| Cooking up the Filets |
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| Yum!!! |
The Forest Service has a food storage rule in effect for the Bob Marshall backcountry. Its purpose is to keep bears, grizzlies in particular, from becoming habituated to humans as a source of food. So all our food had to be either stored in an approved bear resistant container or hung at least 10 feet up -- that's the bottom of the container 10 feet off the ground, not the top or the hanging point.
I have had a Bear Vault BV500 for some years, but seldom use it because mostly I've been packing in with my horses and I have bear resistant panniers which are much larger. I like the container because it can also serve as a seat. I dislike it for two reasons: it's heavy (2.75 pounds), and it's almost impossible for me to open by the official no-tools method. A third problem is it is too small for this kind of a trip -- we had 12 to 14 days' food for two, and it only holds 6 or 7 days' food for one, and that assumes all your food is of the pre-packaged freeze-dried type which means no fresh food for the first few days and no fruit like apples and oranges.
We had way more food than would fit in my single Bear Vault, so we had to find a way to hang food every day. Given that, I should have left the Bear Vault at home, but I didn't. Or we could have bought four more, but we weren't inclined to do that.
On this, our first evening, I was having trouble opening the Bear Vault, and I finally got pissed and decided there must be a better way. It's actually pretty easy, but requires a tool -- a tool everyone I know always has with them in the woods -- a knife.
The Bear Vault has a lid that spins on, and at the end of its two or three rotations a small tooth on the lid slides past a tooth on the barrel. The clearance is less than zero, so the tooth on the barrel, which is rigidly supported by the barrel, deflects the tooth on the lid and the lid itself in slightly, allowing them to pass. The lid then pops back into shape after clearing and the teeth, now opposing each other, won't go back the other way. To open, you're supposed to press the lid in as you unscrew it. In principle, it's easy. In practice, it's particularly difficult if it's cold and the polycarbonate plastic is more rigid, or if you're an old wimpy geezer like me and have lost a lot of strength in your hands.
The remedy is easy: bring the teeth together, then position a knifeblade (I use my swiss army knife blade upside down) with the thin point barely into the crack between the two teeth. I use the knife with the blade upside down so the cutting edge doesn't nick the container with repeated use. Spin the lid backwards and voila! The knife blade acts as a guide and the lid tooth slides past, depressing just as it does when closing. Be careful to hold the knife so the edge (top or bottom) is flat against the top of the barrel where the tooth is.
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| Opening the Bear Vault | ||
We discussed our plans and decided we were in no hurry and were pretty beat. Rather than head off down the creek in the morning, we decided to make it a rest day and spend it exploring up and down the creek. We hit the sack when the sun sank, pretty late in the day; tired but extremely well satisfied with our first day on this adventure.
The next day would give us a hint of what the fishing was going to be like.
This page last updated on 2015-07-16.
