Into the BOB
Leaving the hostel was joyous. Between the overwhelm of all the hikers holed up in town, the frustration of Glacier logistics, and the financial burden of an overpriced town, I was glad to be leaving East Glacier. It was a weird way to start the trail feeling so limited in where and how far I could go each day, it almost feels like today is the first day of my thru-hike south. Though it was sad to say goodbye to all of the wonderful people we met at the hostel.
Burgs, Lemon, and I made our way to breakfast at the Two Medicine Grill and added Chew Toy to our booth when we arrived and she was sitting alone. On the way to the restaurant, Tree Beard appeared and asked where we were going. When we told him where, he said he may catch up to us before we left town.
Breakfast was delightful and it was so fun to have the company of Lemon and Chew Toy. Her energy was infectious and she was good at making us laugh. Just before we finished up and were ready to leave, Tree Beard appeared and handed me a tiny folded up piece of paper on which he had written on the outside “Emergency Letter”. Tears nearly welled up in my eyes as I took it from him and thanked him. That was one of the sweetest things someone’s done for me. I’m not sure how he knew I needed another letter since I’d already read my emergency letter from my friend back home. But it was so kind and made it even harder to head south knowing Tree Beard was just starting.
The first few miles in the Bob were covered with blow downs. The moans and groans of the trees in the wind was eerie yet made a rhythmic sound. The ground was littered with bear scat and I thought our chances of seeing a bear were pretty high. But no bear. Just scraped shins and an unfortunate knee to a blown down tree resulting in a 2” cut that decided to bleed like no other. The one thought going through my mind, I hope this doesn’t need stitches.
Where there weren’t blow downs, there was an abundance of wildflowers in every color. Burgs shared about his family as I took in the array of colors and shapes. Eventually we ran into Crop Duster and Rocket having a snack. Through a random series of conversation topics, we landed on the poop star rating system. It is as follows:
0: bad poop, bad view, bad cat hole, bad all around
1: good poop, good cat hole
2: poop with a view
3: poop with an animal
4: poop while making eye contact with an animal
5: poop while another animal is pooping
You learn something new every day.
We ended up taking a short alternate saving us 4 miles on the day and had dinner at the last creek crossing just before camp. I promised my mom I’d be smart and eat away from camp and it was kind of nice to eat along with the sounds of the river. We arrived at camp where Plan B, No Seeum, Rocket, and Crop Duster were already set up (they passed us while we ate dinner).
We squeezed in our tents and called it an early night. Though before I tucked away in my tent, I ran behind camp to find a good pee spot. In my trek through the trees, I happened upon a pile of Pure Protein bars at the base of a tree. I finished my business then quickly ran through the tall grass and up to Hamburglar. “Hey so do you think it weird that there’s a pile of protein bars under a tree in the woods behind camp?” I lead him to the stash, which he deemed was cursed, but I was not going to just leave perfectly good bear bait laying around, especially behind our campsite.
I wasn’t thrilled about it, but I gathered them up and placed them in my food bag before I hung it across the meadow from camp. Maybe I’d be thankful for the extra protein and snacks during this stretch. If I was going to have to carry them, I might as well eat them.
Goodbyes
Saunter and electric car got to camp about an hour or two after everyone else and I overheard them quietly setting up their tents. The next morning, they said there was a black bear hanging out in the field just behind our campsite when they arrived. And I was evermore grateful to have picked up those protein bars.
The birds began chirping at 4:30 in the morning. When I peaked out from under my quilt, the cold air stung my forehead and nose. It was frigid. I had to convince myself that the minute or so between emerging from my quilt and putting on my shorts and shoes would be quick and I’d soon be warm. It was neither quick nor warm. I raced to get my still damp socks and shoes on my feet and put my rain jacket on over my sun hoodie. A few moments later, my core was warming but my feet and fingers were painfully growing more and more numb.
I threw on my mittens to warm my fingers between pulling each stake and grabbing my food bag. Then it was a mad dash to eat breakfast and roll up my condensation-filled tent. I stomped my feet on the ground and bounced on my toes to warm them up while I waited for Burgs when he read that his thermometer reported 32* this morning. That’s when I began to notice the frost on the shrubbery around us. Brrrr!
Immediately, we had a river crossing. Being too stubborn to remove my shoes and quite frankly unable to untie my laces, I tromped through the frigid waters immediately regretting that decision. The icy feeling snaked its way from my toes to my ankle to mid shin. Burgs took his shoes off and walked across but I was already heading up trail, fearful that if I didn’t keep moving, my toes would succumb to frostbite.
The cold wet feet were only made worse by thick, wet vegetation that continued to cover the trail. Except now there were many more trees at eye level that somehow managed to smack me in the face and a few times right in the eye. I was over it. If I was the hulk, I’d be turning green, ripping trees up from their roots, and smashing them into the ground. Burgs caught up to me and talking with him took my mind off of my feet. But eventually they warmed up and so did the air.
I hiked on and off with Burgs, leap frogging also with No Seeum, Crop Duster, Rocket, Duchess, and Plan B. When I hiked alone, I noticed the big and small bear prints in the mud and felt more on edge knowing there may be cubs around. Little baby frogs jumped beneath my feet and up the banks of the trail. And again, there were so many boggy sections of trail where the mud sucked my feet backwards trying to lessen my progress.
I ate lunch in the sun with a few of our friends and then found another sunny spot to lay later on in the day, my feet finally fully dry. I’ve learned my lesson, take off shoes for river crossings. It’s not worth risking cold and wet feet for over half the day.
The burn areas that the trail wound through were beautiful. I was hopeful to see a bear through the bare trees, but either was not keyed in enough to spot one or they’re more elusive than everyone is making them seem.
Around dinner time, Burgs and I stopped to have dinner at the campsite where the rest of the people we’d hiked with were staying. We wanted to push a few more miles before setting up camp. They settled between two creeks and we ate in the shade of a few short trees together before parting ways.
As Burgs and I went to leave, Rocket said that this may be the last time we bump into each other and wished us a fair well and luck on the rest of my hike. I hadn’t even realized this may be the last time I see this crew. As we walked away, realization set in. In a few days, I’d be on my own. Burgs had agreed to hike with me at least until Lincoln where I said I’d wanted to start pushing bigger miles. I didn’t realize how soon that was going to be and I hiked with sadness for the remaining miles of our day as we chatted about that reality.
Left to Right: Hamburglar, Rocket, Plan B, No Seeum, Crop Duster
At Gooseberry Cabin, the sight of young trail maintainers boosted my spirit slightly, but as the cold haze settled in around my tent now, I’m feeling the burning fear of what’s to come settle in my bones.
Decisions
Everything was wet this morning. The inside of my tent has so much condensation that water was dripping from the roof directly onto my quilt. It’s not the bear that scares me. It’s not really even being alone out here. It’s being wet and then being cold that terrifies me. I suppose some bit of moisture is common when the temperature drops 30° through the night and I feel that yard sailing all of my wet gear midday will become part of my daily routine. Yet another frustrating time consuming piece of backpacking I forgot all about.
But my angst was short-lived because how can you be upset when you wake up to a beautiful view of the sun hitting the tips of the mountains ahead and especially how can one be upset when a cute trail maintainer offers you hot coffee on the front porch. Oh, how lovely was that hot coffee that it warmed my numb fingers right up. I parted ways with Burgs because I was packed up and ready to go long before he had even eaten, except I made the fatal error. I’m went the wrong adding about a half mile to today’s total mileage, which was already going to be high. Once I got turned in the right direction, embarrassingly passing the cabin once more and thanking the trail maintainers again, I headed into a dense forest. It followed along a river bed about a mile in with some of the most beautiful views of the Bob yet. A stunningly clear reflection of the mountains ahead, appeared in front of my eyes, the water so still the only ripples were from a wood duck.
As I thought every morning when I’m hiking alone, today is the day I will see a bear, and I begin shouting out “hey bear!” I saw something blue in the distance and slowed to a crawl before realizing it was another person. I shouted another “hey bear” and they stopped. I said “good morning” and they turned to their left and right. I said “behind you” and finally he turned to face me, exclaiming, “thank you, Lord!” with hands raised in the air. He said exactly what I was thinking.
The rest of the morning kind of sucked. The air was damp and despite being cool and overcast, the humidity clung to my skin and mixed with my sweat to form a slick slime all over. The uphill climb was long and relentless. Each time I thought I was close, it was basically a false summit. The only saving grace of the climb was Dean lake near the top. The pristine water was stunning against the backdrop of grey cliffs and remaining snow. Though soon after, I chuckled to myself as the trail turned into a river.
Nearing the pass, snow covered the trail. I followed footsteps of someone ahead of me as best as I could but eventually they ended at a steep snowfield. Well, they didn’t end, they went straight up the snow field. The snow was slushy enough to dig footing into, so I sent it straight up. Half way up, I realized how crazy what I was doing was but couldn’t turn back. So I continued to chip into the snow until I finally reached dry land where I fell and activated my watches SOS function. I scrambled to turn it off without yeeting myself off the side of the steep cliff. But soon after, I found myself steady on top of Switchback pass.
I quickly unpacked my wet gear hanging my tent and sleeping my bag on bent tree limbs to dry in the wind. It was a yard sale of sorts. (I’d heard other hikers describe this behavior in that way) I found a spot out of the wind and curled up on my foam pad with my head propped on a rock. I made a peanut butter and white chocolate macadamia nut cookie tortilla wrap and then waited. Both Plan B and Burgs arrived within a short time of one another, though I’d been there for a bit.
They too hung their gear to dry, tents sopping wet. We sat a chatted for a long time. He was determined to wait for the large crew of ladies behind us and we were determined to take the trail from the pass back to the red line once our gear was dry. While talking, Plan B was kind enough to take a few of the protein bars I’d found the night before and reduce the weight of my food bag. I was determined to pawn them off into other hikers and also eat them so I wasn’t carrying extra unnecessary weight. Plus, I was sure my body could use the extra protein.
Finally, Burgs and I headed for the back of the pass. The trail was hard to find in the snow, so we both blazed our own path and followed the trail where we could. On the steep descent, there was a large and steep snow field where you could kind of make out the trail below. Instead of teetering on rocks around the edges of the snow, Burgs sat down and slid to the bottom – a glissade. I’d never done one before, but with coaching from Burgs to shorten my poles and hold them across my chest with one end in the snow and my heels dug in, I sent my first glissade. I rode the adrenaline high from that for many miles, it was so much fun!
We still had a ways to go before camp and we did our best to keep pace through the endless ups and downs. However, just before 5, the sky turned a nasty shade of grey and thunder boomed in the near distance. We were under trees about to head out into an open field, so we did the smart thing and stopped under the trees. With my limited remaining brain energy, I thought to tie my tyvek around our trekking poles and make a little shelter in case it rained. I set it up just as Thunder boomed overhead and we scurried beneath the tarp to make dinner while we waited out the storm. Well, the rain never came but at least we knew how we could quickly set up a make-shift shelter in the future. 
Today was by far the best day in the Bob. Everything was beautiful and despite the threat of rain, it didn’t come down on us. (What a blessing!) Burgs and I argued about how to split up our days heading into Augusta and schemed about how we could potentially go to the rodeo without losing days waiting in town. At one point he said, “we’re on vacation” and that hit me a little differently. I responded with, “I guess I need to decide how worth it, it is to me to finish this trail.”
200 miles
We decided to do three shorter days into Augusta instead of two really long days that way we can Nero into town and zero on the day of the rodeo. It doesn’t seem worth it to me to hike this trail if I’m not going to make any memories along the way
As I was walking, just ahead of Hamburglar I heard what sounded like a mix between a moo and a growl. “Is that a bear?!” Hamburglar said, “yeah I think so.” Eff that, I’m not hiking by myself today.
We officially hiked 200 miles as of today. When we reached the 200 mile point in FarOut, Burgs and I built a marker out of sticks. Though when we got to camp today and realized all the hikers there took the whole spotted bear alternate, it was a bit funny to think no one else saw it. But hopefully the hikers behind us will get to enjoy it.
Since the miles for today were relatively short comparatively to what we’ve been doing, we took the day slow. We’d even decided that if we got to camp early, we’d make a fire. Just before the last few miles and only climb of the day, we spent time stretching on the front porch of the rangers cabin. I thought, man it would be nice to be inside. But alas, we trudged on to My Lake where we’d planned to camp.
To my surprise, just before getting into camp, I recognized Electric Car and Duchess just ahead of me. Boy was I excited to see them. We exchanged greetings and then I plugged on with excitement to see the rest of the crew whom I thought I’d said goodbye to. Everyone was there plus other hikers from the hostel. I set up my tent and brought my dinner supplies to the main area where yet more hikers had rolled in to make camp for the night – No Seeum, Crop Duster, Saunter, Duchess, and Electric Car plus Rocket, Oorah (the guy I saw yesterday morning), Super Noodz, and several other hikers from the hostel who have caught up.
Can you guess which one is me?
It was thrilling to be surrounded by so many hikers. And though I’ve not been alone yet because Burgs has been so graciously hiking with me, I felt the furthest from lonely I’d felt since the start. I guess it was due to deciding that I didn’t need to rush through the trail just to make it to the end. When Rocket asked if we were going into Augusta for the rodeo, I replied yes. I decided that if I was going to be out here doing this trail, I might as well have fun along the way. After all, that’s what it’s really all about – meeting people, making memories, and hiking across the country. I realized I’d be much happier if I focused on having a lot of fun rather than just making it to the border.
I spent part of dinner talking with Electric Car, who was a physio, and Super Noodz, a PTA about PT things. Then spent the other half of dinner trying not to get talked into being a part of Super noodzs’ calendar (you’ll have to ask him what that’s about). Right now it feels so good to be surrounded by this small bubble of hikers and I’m looking forward to spending time in Augusta making memories at the rodeo instead of worrying about hiking 30 miles a day to stay on “schedule”. But now the big question is do I take the big sky alternate?
Chinese Wall
Today was both long and short. The morning was spent meandering along the Chinese wall, which was every bit as beautiful as people make it seem, followed by a lot of downhill hiking. We planned to camp after 21 miles so we could Nero into Augusta. But shortly after going over the pass at the end of the wall, rain spit and spat. It wasn’t enough to warrant rain gear until it was too late. My shirt had nearly soaked through after 30 minutes of what I thought was going to be a short shower. The only bright spot amidst the clouds was stopping to allow a line of 5 horses pass by headed up the trail. They were beautiful horses and their cowboy riders were not too bad looking either.
Before noon, we’d covered over 13 miles and stopped briefly for lunch under some trees. It was a cold, wet, sad lunch. After eating a soggy tortilla and reassessing the lack of food I had in my bag, I turned to Burgs and said, “I want to hike all the way to Benchmark.” Over the next mile or so of more spitting rain, he was convinced. But the funny thing is, the rain stopped and gave way to bright, beautiful, sunny skies not long after. So we sauntered to the campsite we’d intended to stay at nearing 2pm and rested our feet.
After an hour of feet propped up on a log and finishing off our snacks, we looked at each other and decided that 7 more miles of hiking was doable. They flowed by smoothly until the last few miles when my feet were screaming and a new pain arose in both of my heels. The last couple of miles wound along a dusty horse trail that seemed to never end. And I was tired of having dry horse crap blow up onto my shins and into my face with each gust of wind. When I finally saw the bridge out of the Bob, I was elated. However, it was short lived. Waiting at the trailhead where FarOut comments purported easy hitching were 4 other hikers – Sally and John, Jake, and Droobie. They’d been waiting for a while. So I sat in the gravel and willed the pounding in my feet to stop.
We attempted a hitch into Augusta for about 4 hours or so. We made it 10 miles up the road to wood creek campgrounds thanks to a sweet couple and their dog. But had no more luck finding another ride headed out of the woods as everyone seemed to be heading in for the weekend. So we finally decided to hunker down in the campground, where we ran into the couple who drove us here, and wait for a ride to come in the morning. During our wait along the gravel road just opposite the campground, we sent messages via our inReaches to hikers in town, shuttles, and other numbers from FarOut in a desperate attempt to get to town. But we’ve settled for the campground, my food bag is completely devoid of edible food, and I’m remembering that this is what I signed up for when choosing to thru-hike – sleep in the woods.
P.S. I pawned off two protein bars last night to some other hikers as part of a food exchange. But I still had two today and ate both of them. If you’re wondering if there’s a limit to the number of chocolate pure protein bars you can eat in a day and over the course of 5 days, there definitely is. My stomach will never recover and I will never eat another chocolate protein bar as long as I live.
