Bears,
fires, fish. If I had to describe my trip with my dad and step mom to the Bob
Marshall Wilderness in Montana in a couple words, they would be it. This is a
long one, so grab your coffee or a beer and get comfortable.
My dad
(Bob, but not "The Bob"), step mom (Brenda) and I left with 8 horses
and mules from Minnesota early one morning with the intention of doing a 11 or
12 day, 75 mile loop in "The Bob" with the image of riding underneath
the Chinese Wall and catching fish in all three forks of the Sun River. It
turned into an adventure. And by adventure, I mean shit went wrong. "It's
not an adventure until shit goes wrong", a wise traveler once said. I would have liked another soul to come with
to make packing the mules easier along with a fishing buddy. As with most of my
adventures, it's hard to find someone that can take that much time off their
job.
Getting
to and from "The Bob" wasn't too exciting except for our nights at
the Bar X Ranch in Medora, ND. We have stayed there before, and this time we
actually had to drop off a mare for Doug the owner. We got camp situated on the
trip out when an obviously drunk, overweight, shirtless man with a beer in his
hand asks if we can pull out his little car down by the river. Before we could
say ok, he said he'd pay us 20 bucks. Deal! We drive over to a little Kia Soul
buried in sand and wedged up against a tree on the rear end. The dumb son of a
bitch backed right into it while trying to get out in his drunken stupor. We pull
him out, and then settled down for the night shortly after. Sometime during the
night we got woken up by a crunch and his girlfriend screaming at him ramming
into her little car with his Kia. Now you can't call someone a drunkard based
on just one experience with them.
On the way back home, the man and his
girlfriend were still there but didn't talk to us. This doesn't mean you can't
come to conclusions about one's character without words. They left shortly
after we got there and returned not after too long. Next thing you know, he's
prying at the door to their motor home with a piece of metal and she was on the
roof trying to figure out how to get in through the roof vent! Well after an
hour of course words and blaming, they ran off to bring back a locksmith to get
them in. Then just before dark, dad glanced over there to see the man naked
(except for a beer in his hand of course) just walking around the motor home.
He wasn't just dashing quick to the car or anything, he was just strolling
around with his big belly and white ass hanging out. Let me reiterate that we
only spent about 20 hours next to them and only about 4 of those were us being
awake! Can you imagine what goes on in the rest of this man's life? I'm sure if
there was a reality show about the failures in his life, it would be bigger
than anything on TV right now.
Now, on
to the trip proper. We rode in about 8
miles through some interesting country. The first part was through straight as
an arrow Ponderosa Pines. Then after crossing the West Fork of the Sun River,
it was mostly all burned with some undergrowth coming back. It was kind of a
Mordor from Lord of the Rings looking landscape. It was a bit eerie. We camped
right next to a bend in the river with a nice deep pool with a log jam in it.
It looked perfect for fish, but first we had to set up camp. We hobbled the
horses (tied their front feet together), so they couldn't get too far from
camp. I noticed that Freckles was looking intensely at something in the woods.
I went up to look and saw a grizzly snarling and swatting towards her! I
quickly ran back and grabbed the .44 Mag and called for dad. We ended up
getting about 30 yards away and we tried shouting to get it out of camp to no
avail. I ended up picking up rocks and throwing it close to him. He didn't
finally start getting out of Dodge until I hit him with a golf ball size rock.
That was the closest I had ever been to a Griz and my heart was beating a
little hard, and not from the elevation!
The
fishing was pretty good. I ended up getting a bunch of smaller 10 and 11 inch
rainbows and cutthroats, but the real prize was a 17 inch rainbow in that deep
pool on a small Mepps spinner. Since the fishing and camp were good, we decided
to stay another night. I decided that I would go to the top of Prairie Reef and
check out the lookout up there. It was the highest point for miles and miles
around and I needed to see how good of shape I was in for my upcoming NOLS
trip. It was about 2 miles to the trail that headed straight up the mountain to
the top, then another 5.5 miles to the top with about 3000 feet elevation gain.
I packed up a day pack totaling about 5 pounds and starting trail running the fairly
level first two miles. I then hiked fast on the steeper parts going up and
running the flatter sections. I finally couldn't run anymore at about 1 mile
left to the top. I ended up making it to the top in 2 hours flat. I putzed
around up there for about 20 minutes. I climbed to the roof of the lookout,
took some pictures, and ate my sandwich. I tried to start running down, but
decided that I had done enough and took it easy on the way down. It took my
1:53 to get down. Needless to say, I was in plenty good shape doing a 2.75 mile
up 3000 vertical feet .
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| On top of Prairie Reef 8868' |
The
next day was another interesting day. Brenda's horse, Rex, didn't like to cross
muddy creeks for some strange reason. She would try to kick him across and
eventually get him across. This time though, he wouldn't come and the pack
string was getting anxious. I saw her get off and start to lead him across.
Before I could say that she shouldn't do that because he would jump it, he did
just that. He bulled her over and I could see and hear that he stepped on her.
I quickly got off and ran over there. She was in a depression and couldn't see
her until I got over there and I was expecting her to be seriously injured. She
was lying down but conscious. She was holding her stomach and I immediately
feared a ruptured appendix or internal bleeding, because Rex is a big boy. She
eventually got up and I helped her back up on Rex. We were about 16 miles from
the trailhead with no way to contact emergency services. I told her that if
things got worse we would do the best we could to try to get her to help, but
if it was something serious she was kind of S.O.L. That's the cognitive risk we
take when we go on backcountry trips. We deliberately don't take devices to
contact Search and Rescue (SAR) or anybody else. We feel that if you get into
the wilderness, you get your own ass out! If you die in the process, at least
you died in an amazing place doing something you love.
The
fourth day was what we all came for, the Chinese Wall. It is a 15 mile long
escarpment that runs north and south with the east face rising up about 300
feet or so for the whole length. It such a pleasure to have a spot like this
that didn't get swallowed up into a national park. You have to work hard to get
back here. It's a minimum two day adventure to the wall no matter what
trailhead you take. It was absolutely awe inspiring to be able to ride under it
for roughly 7 or 8 miles. During the day, I noticed smoke out to the northeast
of us. It didn't seem like a whole lot, but it was noted since that was the
direction that we eventually had to head.
 |
| Riding into Chinese Wall |
We
camped at the fishless Your Lake that night and got out early. After a 1500
foot decent down into Rock Creek into very heavy timber we had a chopper come
overhead. This was quite strange because helicopters are only allowed in a
wilderness area for SAR missions. I figured that someone got hurt up by the
Chinese wall or beyond and called for help. We couldn't see any smoke down in
this valley so we figured it was just a small fire that had died out. We
contemplated hard camping at roughly the 6.5 mile mark for the day since it had
decent grass for the horses, something that we hadn't had in 2 days even though
the Forest Service said that there was plenty of grass along our whole route.
Good thing we had brought 150 lbs of hay pellets along! I am the navigator on
trips and said that I thought we could find a decent campsite along two more
creeks about another 3 miles or so ahead. I wanted to get to some good fishing
and felt that we needed to make up some miles for some shorter days. It was a
damn good thing we went farther. We came out of the heavy timber and saw a huge
plume of smoke and we were headed right to the right of it! Dad was a little
concerned about it until the trail turned straight into it and we saw flames
shooting 30 feet high scorching trees about 600 yards away. He then seemed to
be VERY concerned and asked "Where in the hell are we going!!!!" I
told him that we would cross Red Shale Creek and turned east and out of it,
which fortunately is what happened. Not before another little escapade happened
though. While crossing the creek with the heat of the fire very noticeable, I
was leading Rex (with Brenda riding a mule now) and the son of a bitch wouldn't
be lead across the creek! I wrapped his lead rope around my horn and tried
pulling him twice, but he stood fast and almost pulled my saddle of my mule
twice! I don't get angry very often, but I started cussing up a storm and
trying to slap him in the ass to get across. I wasn't about to become a fried delicacy
for a Griz! I finally got him to go the third time, both wet from the hoofs
splashing me in the creek and sweat from the heat of the fire. Of course during
all of this, dad was nowhere to be seen. He took his pack string and beat
cheeks away from the fire. I didn't get the memo that it was every man for
himself! We ended up trotting up to him about 300 yards away.
 |
| Too close to a fire for me! |
We
ended up running into some Hotshots that were on their way to look for us since
we registered our route at the trailhead and we were the only ones unaccounted
for I guess. They said that the chopper was for us! It was supposed to turn us
around, but we got into such thick timber, that it couldn't see our string.
They suggested going another 2 miles to a campsite. Well this turned us into
about a 15 or 16 mile day and we were wiped!
 |
| SCARY!! |
We got
to an excellent campsite right on the North Fork of the Sun River the next day
and stayed a couple nights. We had morning sun to warm us, and afternoon shade
to stay cool. Fishing was superb with me catching many trout in the 14 and 15 inch
range on dry flies. I would catch a fish on about every 7 casts or so. It was
almost easy!
Nothing
particularly interesting happened except for dad deciding to try to have us all
become that fried delicacy for meat eaters once again. He was trying to light
the charcoal starter for his Dutch oven. The paper underneath didn't seem to
light so I was down there lighting it, and he starts pouring Coleman fuel on it.
In any other circumstance, it would have been just fine. He looked at me and
kept pouring though. I mean an extra second makes all the difference and that
second seemed like it was forever. I looked at him and just as it dawned on him
that he should have stopped "awhile" ago, everything went ablaze! I
felt the intense heat and saw the fire shoot up the starter and up into the
fuel can. So with the can on fire, he dropped it and this poured fuel over very
dry grass and his pant leg. Both started on fire but he had the presence of
mind to put the can upright before I could tell him to start rolling. The
problem with fuel fire is that you need to smother it though. So with him lying
down frantically trying to take his pants off, I could see his shoe rubber
starting to melt. I started curb stomping his leg to try to get it out.
Fortunately I was successful, but now had the issue of the grass fire to deal
with! I quickly ran over to the kitchen area and grabbed water. I got most of
it put out with one bucket, but made sure it was all out with the other. We
both said everything up to the point of the inferno was slow motion and then
all hell broke loose and time speed increased dramatically. He thought the
paper wasn't lit yet, and kind of forgot he was pouring while looking at me.
Luckily, he didn't get burned except his hand a little bit and his pride for a
little while I'm sure.
 |
| Gorgeous Pool |
The
next couple days weren't too exciting thankfully. We ended up camping on the
South Fork of the Sun River right next to the trail that headed up to one of
the few lakes in The Bob. I decided to pack up my backpack and spinning rod and
head up there one morning. With already having a grizzly experience and not
carrying my .44 on me, I was whistling the whole way to let anything know I was
coming. The far away scenery of mountain tops were hazed by the fire still but
the meadows and trees were still fun to look at, until I came upon a Grizzly
sow and her cub at about 35 yards! Apparently bears don't know to run away from
someone whistling "Mickey Mouse" loudly. I immediately stopped and
started to back up immediately (no I didn't get a picture you vultures!).
Fortunately, the never looked up from eating their berries and I went back to
about 100 yards and starting banging sticks and shouting. I came back in about
ten minutes and they were gone! That was one of the few times in my life that I
felt that death was knocking on my doorstep. Just like the time falling off the
rock in the BWCA and my head whizzing by the rock at about 6 inches! (Go back
to read that one if you have no idea what I'm talking about). I also scared up
a black bear at about 60 yards a mile down the trail but now I was shouting
things like "COLD BEER, POPCORN, NACHOS!" or whatever I was thinking
about at the time such as "NOLS COURSE, CLIMBING FEST, and SOLAR
SYSTEM!". I wasn't taking any chances of another run-in!
I found
an awesome campsite on a bluff about 20 feet above the lake that was shelter on
three sides by stunted pines. The fishing was absolutely the best with every
fish about 14-16 inches, all being cutthroats. It was a struggle to catch fish
for supper and took about 4 hours to get one under 12 inches with about 50
being caught. I built a small fire in the fire pit and found a thin flat rock
to put over it. I spit on it to make sure it was sizzling hot and threw the
fish on whole. It took about 7 minutes and the fish was done and was absolutely
amazing! I noticed during the day that a huge cumulus cloud was to the north
while fishing. Little did I notice that it never moved! It was the plume from
the fire and it was humungous! I kept an eye on it the rest of the evening and
said that if I could see orange in it at night, that I would descend in the
dark and get back to the horse camp. Turns out that Dad could see it, and was
freaking out. He wanted to come up and get me, but thankfully he didn't and
everything worked out fine.
 |
| Campsite view with smoke |
Well,
that was the last story, we got out safely and headed home. The naked drunk was
the only exciting part, and that was already told. I hope you're not bouncing
off the walls with caffeine or in such a drunken stooper that none of this is
making sense anymore! Next post should be about my NOLS trip and the adventure
that it was to get to Lander, Wyoming. Cheers!
P.S. Remember what James Taylor said. "The secret to life is
enjoying the passing of time"
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