The Chinese Wall in the Bob Marshall Wilderness might be the most iconic site in this vast wilderness area. My buddy Tom (my crazy buddy Tom) recently suggested a trip into the Wall via snowshoes. This has been an abnormally low snow year for Montana so instead of a 16 mile snowshoe just to get the trailhead, it appeared you could drive all the way to the trailhead- making it much more appealing, so I said yes.
We met up at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, able to drive the full way to the trailhead. Tom was accompanied by his rescue shepherd dog, Pepper. We found that there was little snow lower and some of the south facing hill sides were bare. But it was damn cold, not sure you can see but my mustache is froze!
West Fork of the South Fork of the Sun River
Views were pretty good.
Snowshoes still on our backs.
At one point Pepper went racing up the trail at mach one- we found out why- she had treed a very large bobcat!
We made it about 13-ish miles in and called it good. The ground was frozen solid and I only dared to drive my tent pegs in about halfway (even then they were very difficult to remove the next day!)
Mandatory evening fire.
We were up with the sun which isn't up until 7:30, making for a loooong night in the tents! It was snowing lightly as we continued our trek upward.
At about 6500' we hit snow deep enough to warrant our snowshoes.
While we were glad to see snow up higher (snowpack is looking a little grim at this juncture), the snow sucked. We were doing a lot of postholing and combined with climbing upward = not great fun.
We finally got our first glimpse of the Wall around 2:00 PM
Pepper hanging in there like a champ.
Looking north along the Wall.
It was nearly dark so we found a sheltered area to make camp. Camping on feet of snow presents some challenges- you have to really tromp down the area you want to set up your shelter- and even then you need to leave your snowshoes on anytime you venture out or away from the tent or you end up in snow up to your a$$! You can get a fire going (which we did) but your fire slowly sinks into the snow and fuel has to be added to constantly. Running water is almost non-existent, so bringing adequate fuel to melt snow is a must (and melting snow for water isn't all that fun!). The good news is you don't have to hang your food in a tree to keep it from the grizzlies!
I could hear snow hitting the tent most of the night and had to smack it off a couple of times to keep from piling up too much. When we got up the next morning it was still lightly snowing and we probably ended up with an additional 6" of snow that we didn't have the day before. Our old fire was sunk down a couple of feet and the little wood we had saved was covered in snow- no fire this morning. We packed up and headed downward (and back) for better climes.
It continued to snow lightly, but eventually gave way to sunny skies.
We finally got off of snowshoes and our descent pace picked up. We made pretty good time and was able to make it a few miles past our first campsite, which will shorten our day four out.
We camped near the river where we had ample firewood AND running water. We were also decently sheltered from the wind which had steadily picked up through the day (and continued through the night).
I should have snapped a pic, but we had a giant bon fire that night. We finally ran out of firewood and called it a night (about 7:30 PM). I could hear the wind most of the night, but the trees kept most of it away from us. We were up before sunrise, timing our breakfast and packing almost perfectly to first light.
As we were no longer on snowshoes and the trails were mostly snow free, our last day went by pretty quickly.
Soon we were at our crossing- South Fork of the Sun
Another great trip in the books
Thanks for reading!
We met up at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, able to drive the full way to the trailhead. Tom was accompanied by his rescue shepherd dog, Pepper. We found that there was little snow lower and some of the south facing hill sides were bare. But it was damn cold, not sure you can see but my mustache is froze!
West Fork of the South Fork of the Sun River
Views were pretty good.
Snowshoes still on our backs.
At one point Pepper went racing up the trail at mach one- we found out why- she had treed a very large bobcat!
We made it about 13-ish miles in and called it good. The ground was frozen solid and I only dared to drive my tent pegs in about halfway (even then they were very difficult to remove the next day!)
Mandatory evening fire.
We were up with the sun which isn't up until 7:30, making for a loooong night in the tents! It was snowing lightly as we continued our trek upward.
At about 6500' we hit snow deep enough to warrant our snowshoes.
While we were glad to see snow up higher (snowpack is looking a little grim at this juncture), the snow sucked. We were doing a lot of postholing and combined with climbing upward = not great fun.
We finally got our first glimpse of the Wall around 2:00 PM
Pepper hanging in there like a champ.
Looking north along the Wall.
It was nearly dark so we found a sheltered area to make camp. Camping on feet of snow presents some challenges- you have to really tromp down the area you want to set up your shelter- and even then you need to leave your snowshoes on anytime you venture out or away from the tent or you end up in snow up to your a$$! You can get a fire going (which we did) but your fire slowly sinks into the snow and fuel has to be added to constantly. Running water is almost non-existent, so bringing adequate fuel to melt snow is a must (and melting snow for water isn't all that fun!). The good news is you don't have to hang your food in a tree to keep it from the grizzlies!
I could hear snow hitting the tent most of the night and had to smack it off a couple of times to keep from piling up too much. When we got up the next morning it was still lightly snowing and we probably ended up with an additional 6" of snow that we didn't have the day before. Our old fire was sunk down a couple of feet and the little wood we had saved was covered in snow- no fire this morning. We packed up and headed downward (and back) for better climes.
It continued to snow lightly, but eventually gave way to sunny skies.
We finally got off of snowshoes and our descent pace picked up. We made pretty good time and was able to make it a few miles past our first campsite, which will shorten our day four out.
We camped near the river where we had ample firewood AND running water. We were also decently sheltered from the wind which had steadily picked up through the day (and continued through the night).
I should have snapped a pic, but we had a giant bon fire that night. We finally ran out of firewood and called it a night (about 7:30 PM
). I could hear the wind most of the night, but the trees kept most of it away from us. We were up before sunrise, timing our breakfast and packing almost perfectly to first light.As we were no longer on snowshoes and the trails were mostly snow free, our last day went by pretty quickly.
Soon we were at our crossing- South Fork of the Sun
Another great trip in the books
Thanks for reading!
