44hunter45
Well-known member
After the decision not to push an Alaska trip that wasn't going to happen, I went to the Bitterroot to for a much needed mental health reset.
@Beignet You will know this place.
New Eberlestock Modframe. The new frame has all the things Mystery Ranch owners have been bragging about for decades. I wish I had upgraded before the elk packout a month ago.
All my Mainframe accessories ported right over to the new frame.
I do not know why I pack 50 pounds for one day or 20 days.
That is my Sitka Stormfront raingear strapped to the side. I needed it.
Trusty Big Agnes Seedhouse SL3. I have a Copper Spur UL3 now, but I like the Seedhouse for solo trips. I sent it back to Big Agnes this year for patching and cleaning. Like new now.
MSR Whisperlite International stove. Still my favorite. I run this thing on white gas, kerosene, and unleaded gas. Very handy when you can siphon a little unleaded from a car in the Klawock supermarket parking lot. (Just Kidding! Relax)
Mountain House B&G is required if you don't want your trip to be interrupted by inconveniences like pooping. Then you don't have to worry about digging holes or surface shit guilt.
No pic, but water provided by the Platypus Gravityworks filtration system.
Ok - No more product placements.
I fished about an hour and donated three flies to the tree gods. I am the worst fly fisherman in the world.
Climbed the peak behind the lake and wandered the cirque rims along the state boundary.
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right.
The geology of the Bitterroot is amazing. Seafloor rocks uplifted to 7000'
Shale on the peaks.
Many of the rocks have this ripple pattern.
Finished my day hike about 2 in the afternoon. Cooked my elk steak for early dinner and cleaned up to bearsafe camp.
No pictures after this. I went into the tent for a nap and was awakened by a close lightning strike. No rain at this point. While I was laying there another strike hit. One of those where your tent walls are invisible for an instant.
Since I had done everything I wanted to accomplish, I broke camp with lightning booming all around me. No ground strikes that I could see. I had camp on my back in about 30 minutes and started the hike out. The hike takes you up over the Bitterroot Divide and out to the trailhead in Montana. It was so crazy on the rim that I collapsed my aluminum hiking poles and stowed them. It might be time to get carbon fiber.
My ears are still ringing 18 hours later.
I had just crested the divide and down the Montana side to the trailhead when the rain came. Word of advice - If you strap your rain gear to the outside of your pack, unzip it first.
I did not quite get my rain coat on before the deluge started because I was fiddling with getting it unzipped. Pretty close though.
It rained so hard the trail became a stream. Lightning about every minute or less. I was looking for somewhere to shelter in place, but the truck was the best option. I had about a half mile to go.
I got to the truck a little after 6PM. The road down the last bit into the trailhead is brushed in with rock hopping. I decide to back out to the top of the pass where there is a horse campground.
I stopped there for a bit and decided I've slept in my truck enough this year. I started toward home. My forgetting to fill my truck with gas before I left the highway made the trip out an exercise in coasting as much as possible. I'm dumb enough to think a ballistic descent on a USFS road is fun.
I made to the a gas station Ok and started pushing for home. About 11PM I decided I was too tired to drive. I followed a sign to a USFS campground and, you guessed it, slept in the truck.
Woke up about 5:30 this morning and pushed the rest of the way home.
I would do it again tomorrow. I found there is an old mine on the Montana side of the crest. I cannot find anything about it in the historical record, but there is an overgrown trail into it.
I want to check it out next summer.
Leaving Monday to road trip to Sheridan WY to see the Weatherby plant. Home through Yellowstone.
@Beignet You will know this place.
New Eberlestock Modframe. The new frame has all the things Mystery Ranch owners have been bragging about for decades. I wish I had upgraded before the elk packout a month ago.
All my Mainframe accessories ported right over to the new frame.
I do not know why I pack 50 pounds for one day or 20 days.
That is my Sitka Stormfront raingear strapped to the side. I needed it.
Trusty Big Agnes Seedhouse SL3. I have a Copper Spur UL3 now, but I like the Seedhouse for solo trips. I sent it back to Big Agnes this year for patching and cleaning. Like new now.
MSR Whisperlite International stove. Still my favorite. I run this thing on white gas, kerosene, and unleaded gas. Very handy when you can siphon a little unleaded from a car in the Klawock supermarket parking lot. (Just Kidding! Relax)
Mountain House B&G is required if you don't want your trip to be interrupted by inconveniences like pooping. Then you don't have to worry about digging holes or surface shit guilt.
No pic, but water provided by the Platypus Gravityworks filtration system.
Ok - No more product placements.
I fished about an hour and donated three flies to the tree gods. I am the worst fly fisherman in the world.
Climbed the peak behind the lake and wandered the cirque rims along the state boundary.
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right.
The geology of the Bitterroot is amazing. Seafloor rocks uplifted to 7000'
Shale on the peaks.
Many of the rocks have this ripple pattern.
Finished my day hike about 2 in the afternoon. Cooked my elk steak for early dinner and cleaned up to bearsafe camp.
No pictures after this. I went into the tent for a nap and was awakened by a close lightning strike. No rain at this point. While I was laying there another strike hit. One of those where your tent walls are invisible for an instant.
Since I had done everything I wanted to accomplish, I broke camp with lightning booming all around me. No ground strikes that I could see. I had camp on my back in about 30 minutes and started the hike out. The hike takes you up over the Bitterroot Divide and out to the trailhead in Montana. It was so crazy on the rim that I collapsed my aluminum hiking poles and stowed them. It might be time to get carbon fiber.
My ears are still ringing 18 hours later.
I had just crested the divide and down the Montana side to the trailhead when the rain came. Word of advice - If you strap your rain gear to the outside of your pack, unzip it first.
I did not quite get my rain coat on before the deluge started because I was fiddling with getting it unzipped. Pretty close though.
It rained so hard the trail became a stream. Lightning about every minute or less. I was looking for somewhere to shelter in place, but the truck was the best option. I had about a half mile to go.
I got to the truck a little after 6PM. The road down the last bit into the trailhead is brushed in with rock hopping. I decide to back out to the top of the pass where there is a horse campground.
I stopped there for a bit and decided I've slept in my truck enough this year. I started toward home. My forgetting to fill my truck with gas before I left the highway made the trip out an exercise in coasting as much as possible. I'm dumb enough to think a ballistic descent on a USFS road is fun.
I made to the a gas station Ok and started pushing for home. About 11PM I decided I was too tired to drive. I followed a sign to a USFS campground and, you guessed it, slept in the truck.
Woke up about 5:30 this morning and pushed the rest of the way home.
I would do it again tomorrow. I found there is an old mine on the Montana side of the crest. I cannot find anything about it in the historical record, but there is an overgrown trail into it.
I want to check it out next summer.
Leaving Monday to road trip to Sheridan WY to see the Weatherby plant. Home through Yellowstone.
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