Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Slippery Mud, Great Views, and We Still Have Spur
06/29/04
We are in the Bob, which is short for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. They call it a complex because it's really complex to figure out where the exact boundaries of the Bob are. The Bob is an overlay on several jurisdictions, mostly national forests. The Bob is legendary for its wildness and remoteness. It abuts Glacier National Park, which also provides a point of contrast. A backpacker's experience of the wilderness is so tighly controlled in Glacier NP that stepping into the Bob feels like freedom. It's kind of like the difference between Mormon Day at Disneyland and being at an orgy.
We finally got out of the trees. But before we did we walked through Round Park, a lovely meadow full of blue camus lilies in bloom. Deeply green trees surrounded the damp blue and green expanse.
Then we started climbing, but it was a going-upstream kind of climbing so it was easy. An upstream climb is gentle. A hit-the-saddle or hit-the-pass climb is usually more aggressive.
Soon we reached the North Wall trail. The North Wall is very lovely. To the west and our right is a continuous bluff with waterfalls, spires, and trees growing along the edge. Words can't begin to describe what we saw today. The North Wall is a preview of the Chinese Wall. Both are amazingly continuous cliffs that define the Divide and provide protection from the Huns.
Since we are crossing snow again, we lost the trail, but then picked up what turned out to be a use trail. The immediate area has many use trails because of Lake Levale, a lake with the most amazing color.
We bushwacked, which in this case consisted of winding throught the snow between the trees, until we came to an open spot. Spur got a GPS reading, then, from the compas rose on Jonathan's maps, we found out that we were too low. So we bushwacked straight up a steep slope finding the trail in short order. It's nice to hear or shout, "I'm on the trail."
Although the flower-covered hillsides seemed to go on forever, we soon entered a burn area full of blackened tress. We had an exposed dinner, then continued on to our little bedroom for the night.
The mud here is legendary. I've heard that it's deep and the type that creates layers on the bottom on one's shoes. I found a little of both of those qualities, but what I mostly noticed is that it's damn slippery. The feet can fly on any given step. It takes muscles to keep upright.
Saw some great grizzly tracks today, but did not feel compelled to photograph them.
We've been seeing human tracks ever since we got back on the CDT. We've come to think of them as the Ghost of Jesse, because Jesse's the only one we know who is southbounding and possibly this close.
