Bob Marshall Wilderness

I just returned from a work-related nine day back country backpacking trip. We headed into the Bob Marshall Wilderness to do some trail work. Amazing scenery, hard work, some pretty rustic "leave no trace" living, and 50 miles of hiking!

By rustic living I mean "no using toilet paper, no soap, no cleaning dishes, no dumping of left over foods or cooking water, no spitting of tooth paste, hanging the food out of reach of bears each night, sweeping camp daily to make sure the tiniest food specs or trash bits weren't left behind, no signs of fire pits or obvious camp sites" rustic. I learned a lot about what "leave no trace" really means... It was a much appreciated change to the numerous trashed camp sites Bruce and I have come across in our travels - toilet paper having been dug out by animals (or left out in the open by humans) and food trash everywhere. Being so far in the back country our lives - not to mention the lives of the animals - truly depended on our diligence in not attracting all sorts of wild life to us. Even then, we were fortunate enough to spot a Grizzly bear not too far from our camp! Thankfully he didn't want anything to do with us other than reminding us that we were on his turf. I wish I had caught a picture but honestly reaching for my camera was not the first thing on my mind...

I'll post a few pictures of the wilderness here though:

We had multiple river and creek crossings along the way.



Fields and fields of Bear Grass... We hit these spots at the peak of their the bloom! Each patch only blooms every seven years, so we also seemed to hit an abundant year!







Most of the trail was overgrown before we came through with our loppers and pulaskis.





Evidence of bears in the area...




Wolf prints...

We had our tools and food brought in by horses - thankfully. The packs were still heavy enough for the 16 mile hike each way.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Montana?....