It's not a race— no entry fees, no t-shirts and just a few rules. Every Memorial Day weekend at 8:00 AM a small group departs from a different point and if lucky, finishes at another—every year the starting and ending point changes. How you get to the finish is completely up to you, no set route. This year 18 folks showed up to give it a go, about half the group first timers. This is my twelfth year of giving it a go.
20 hardy should giving it it a go. Starting at the Monture trailhead, finish is at Home Gulch (near Gibson Reservoir)
I knew this year was going to be rough. We had three big wind events this winter, one was a historic event. Blowdown is always an issue in May as the trails don't even start arriving until June. This year's blowdown paled the previous eleven years by a long shot.
Monture Ck had quite a bit of blowdown, but it was fairly manageable (save a 1/4 mile of a really big jackpot!). We still made fair time to Burnt Ck and the cabin, where we stopped for a short lunch. Some of the guys have gone to these two pound burritos for their first lunch—too much for me
We turned up Burnt Ck towards our first pass, didn't take too long before we had to transition to snowshoes.
We made the pass w/o too much drama, but that was soon to change.
We found the trail, but it was choked w/ blowdown and instead opted for a steep, narrow finger ridge taking us in the same general direction.
Eventually the finger ran out and we worked our way towards the trail. We found the trail, but it was still pretty full of blowdown. Eventually we got out of the snow (we were on snowshoes for five hours) and the blowdown became more manageable as well.
We made it to Danaher Ck (headwater of the SF of the Flathead River) at dark and decided to call it good.
We were up at 5:00 and discovered it had dropped into the 20's, freezing solid our wet shoes and wet socks. Stove to the rescue.
After a quick breakfast (and thawing session) we discovered our next crux—getting across the Danaher. The ford at the Danaher was a large beaver pond, probably stomach to chest deep. We spent two hours finding a more suitable ford w/ lots of brush busting.
Back on the trail; you can see the Danaher at times looks more like a lake than a creek. Eventually it becomes a large raging creek.
We made it to Rapid Ck where it eventually lead to our next pass over the Continental Divide. Not surprisingly lots of blowdown on Rapid Ck, but we finally made it to the pass and over. Snow conditions were terrible (full sunshine and temps north of of 60°), lots of post holing even w/ snowshoes—sometimes to your waist.
Things took a turn for the worse as the descent steepened, the snow got even worse and now when post holing, it was into blowdown. Several trekking poles were broken and one gentleman broke both his snowshoes—the tips breaking off trying to free them from downed trees
We eventually made it to the upper reaches of the SF of the Sun River where our next surprise awaited. Normally at this time of the year the ford is like a small creek; not very fast, nor very deep.
While we made it across just fine, we had a dilemma. Our plan was to follow the Sun all the way to Benchmark, but that required another for of the Sun further down river where several more big drainages added to it's flow. I've done that ford twice in May and both times were a little spooky and it was definitely running more water than what I experienced previously. We decided to play it safe and add extra miles (certainly w/ blowdown) as well as another pass.
Well as expected, a lot of blowdown up and over. I won't lie I was totally spent climbing over, under and around blowdown and three plus hours of post holing with rotten snow and treacherous downed trees underfoot. We turned the headlamps on for the last couple of hours.
It was almost 11:00 PM before we made it to Straight Ck. My cognitive functioning was pretty much shot as was my dexterity—taking an inordinate amount of time pitching my shelter (which has been pitched a hundred of times) and getting camp squared away. I was also a little nauseous and decided to skip supper. We were well behind schedule and with another full day of fighting blowdown and another high pass, we decided to make it to Benchmark the next day and bail.
We slept in to about 6:30. I was really hungry now and remembered I had brought a biscuit and gravy for a supper—perfect!
Not too shabby of view out my front door (and no frozen shoes or socks!)
We took our time packing camp and headed out for the last eight miles of our journey. Of course we had to have at least one really big jackpot to negotiate
We're smiling now as we only have a 1/2 mile to get out!
Thanks for reading!
20 hardy should giving it it a go. Starting at the Monture trailhead, finish is at Home Gulch (near Gibson Reservoir)
I knew this year was going to be rough. We had three big wind events this winter, one was a historic event. Blowdown is always an issue in May as the trails don't even start arriving until June. This year's blowdown paled the previous eleven years by a long shot.
Monture Ck had quite a bit of blowdown, but it was fairly manageable (save a 1/4 mile of a really big jackpot!). We still made fair time to Burnt Ck and the cabin, where we stopped for a short lunch. Some of the guys have gone to these two pound burritos for their first lunch—too much for me
We turned up Burnt Ck towards our first pass, didn't take too long before we had to transition to snowshoes.
We made the pass w/o too much drama, but that was soon to change.
We found the trail, but it was choked w/ blowdown and instead opted for a steep, narrow finger ridge taking us in the same general direction.
Eventually the finger ran out and we worked our way towards the trail. We found the trail, but it was still pretty full of blowdown. Eventually we got out of the snow (we were on snowshoes for five hours) and the blowdown became more manageable as well.
We made it to Danaher Ck (headwater of the SF of the Flathead River) at dark and decided to call it good.
We were up at 5:00 and discovered it had dropped into the 20's, freezing solid our wet shoes and wet socks. Stove to the rescue.
After a quick breakfast (and thawing session) we discovered our next crux—getting across the Danaher. The ford at the Danaher was a large beaver pond, probably stomach to chest deep. We spent two hours finding a more suitable ford w/ lots of brush busting.
Back on the trail; you can see the Danaher at times looks more like a lake than a creek. Eventually it becomes a large raging creek.
We made it to Rapid Ck where it eventually lead to our next pass over the Continental Divide. Not surprisingly lots of blowdown on Rapid Ck, but we finally made it to the pass and over. Snow conditions were terrible (full sunshine and temps north of of 60°), lots of post holing even w/ snowshoes—sometimes to your waist.
Things took a turn for the worse as the descent steepened, the snow got even worse and now when post holing, it was into blowdown. Several trekking poles were broken and one gentleman broke both his snowshoes—the tips breaking off trying to free them from downed trees
We eventually made it to the upper reaches of the SF of the Sun River where our next surprise awaited. Normally at this time of the year the ford is like a small creek; not very fast, nor very deep.
While we made it across just fine, we had a dilemma. Our plan was to follow the Sun all the way to Benchmark, but that required another for of the Sun further down river where several more big drainages added to it's flow. I've done that ford twice in May and both times were a little spooky and it was definitely running more water than what I experienced previously. We decided to play it safe and add extra miles (certainly w/ blowdown) as well as another pass.
Well as expected, a lot of blowdown up and over. I won't lie I was totally spent climbing over, under and around blowdown and three plus hours of post holing with rotten snow and treacherous downed trees underfoot. We turned the headlamps on for the last couple of hours.
It was almost 11:00 PM before we made it to Straight Ck. My cognitive functioning was pretty much shot as was my dexterity—taking an inordinate amount of time pitching my shelter (which has been pitched a hundred of times) and getting camp squared away. I was also a little nauseous and decided to skip supper. We were well behind schedule and with another full day of fighting blowdown and another high pass, we decided to make it to Benchmark the next day and bail.
We slept in to about 6:30. I was really hungry now and remembered I had brought a biscuit and gravy for a supper—perfect!
Not too shabby of view out my front door (and no frozen shoes or socks!)
We took our time packing camp and headed out for the last eight miles of our journey. Of course we had to have at least one really big jackpot to negotiate
We're smiling now as we only have a 1/2 mile to get out!
Thanks for reading!
