2016 Bob Marshall Wilderness Open

The Benchmark forecast on Wunderground has been updated to reflect no rain on Saturday and Sunday!

Yeah just keep checking that forecast for low elevation on the rain shadow side. I’m sure it’s a good indication of passes over the Swan Range :)

Mike,

I guess you don’t try to find the most favorable forecast and block out all of the negative-sounding ones. I may do a mini-recon of the Dearborn River tomorrow afternoon. Where can I buy Bear Magnet in Montana?

^ they sell it at the Augusta grocery store; it’s labeled slightly different though- they call it bacon :)

Scott — I would suggest bringing the hydroskins. For a small weight penalty, they’re very useful if hiking in snow while wearing light, mesh trailrunners. Also, a big help keeping the toes warm when packrafting (if you plan to float). You probably don’t need them most of the time when just hiking on bare/muddy trail with wet feet. A good pair of wool blend socks are sufficient in those conditions. (Hint: socks first, then hydroskins as a second layer.)

Hi Scott, Re: Hydroskins. I felt like they actually prevented hotspots for me. Last year in the Open I hiked 100+ miles in my water-filled NRS Hydroskin 2mm neoprene sandal socks + trail runners while fording countless rivers through the Bob. There seemed to be about a half-pint of cool (but comfortable, not too cold) water in my socks at all times which I would pour out at the end of the day. I feel this is what prevented me from getting a single blister for all 128 miles we hiked last year. Hotspots need three things to form: 1.Heat 2.Friction and 3.Moisture. Mitigate one, two, or all three of these and you’re good.  Also, a sealed-off non-breathable sock full of water provides a decent amount of cushioning too, contributing to some impact absorption. The “squish-squish-squish-squish” sound for days is my only complaint… a bear bell is much much worse though.

Hydroskins keep the ice cream headache at bay, and provide nice cushioning and a buffer from grit that gets into your shoes.  They do take up a bit more room than most sock combos, so beware of fit issues if you’ve never done long days with them.

Once again, my SPOT shared page can be found by using this link.

I’m getting on a plane to Great Falls in just a few minutes. See you on Friday at the Buckhorn Bar and/or Bean Lake. I’ll have no internet connectivity or cell service until then, I think.

Time to check the forecast…just one more time…it better be good. If not, I’ll find one that is and roll with it.

Here’s my SPOT shared page…not data yet as there have been no uploads.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Y6TGD7OnBzpHPKHkdxd0u5Cz32mHROZ9

If we make good time, we should be at the Buckhorn on Friday night.

here’s my SPOT link- I did a test message and track, other than that it’s virgin :)

mtwarden SPOT

Stay safe out there, peeps.

Good luck everyone. I’ll be following online.

Unfortunately I am not on schedule to depart for Montana this afternoon.  The soonest I will be able to depart is early Saturday Morning, and with that I wont be in the Bob till after 6pm.  I am bummed I wont be able to meetup with all of you or participate in this years event, but I am looking forward to a week in the mountains and a lot of packrafting. Good luck and stay safe.

Dan/Cyrus – sorry to hear you guys cannot make it. I hope you will still report back on your upcoming Bob trips.

My inReach page can be found here. I rarely take it with me and have had mixed results but will have it along on this trip.

If any of you get in a jam this week, you can try looking me up.  I will be on the east side of the Bob (probably Benchmark).  My inReach page can be found here. We Plan to boat all 3 forks of the Sun, and do some backpacking with the dogs toward the end of next week.

I found internet in Montana!

I also found this little guy wandering around on the first section of my route.

By the way, the Cedar Creek Campground is a swamp.

So I’m in with my buddy Jon. Any open seats left for a ride back to Bean Lake on Monday evening?

We’ll aim for meeting up with everybody at the bar on Friday. If anybody needs a ride up from Missoula Friday afternoon let me know.

We might be a rather significant percentage of the patrons at the Buckhorn tomorrow. As a group lets be more conscientious than we inadvertently ended up being at the Hungry Bear last year, and take up as little space as possible. I reckon John and I will get there around 5pm, and we’ll try to hide in a corner.

For those who haven’t had the pleasure, bear in mind this is a bar in small town Montana. Things happen at a leisurely pace, and it is generally not a good idea to stray far from beef and potato products.

Godspeed to all of you departing Bean Lake tomorrow.  Hike hard and hope all your decisions are good ones. We’ll be here on the sidelines cheering you guys on.

Summary of all the Spot/Delorme devices:

Tanner: https://share.delorme.com/TannerKeil
Cyrus: https://share.delorme.com/Cyrus
Derek: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0UV5LCaHD1XJFVoHlpDOepT9Cm2qEY9LR
Mike M: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0umiTstPhE35s8sOTcczMnKiDdon75Yfd
Adrian: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Y6TGD7OnBzpHPKHkdxd0u5Cz32mHROZ9

It’s nice Tanner’s Delorme has distance travelled and averaged speed.

Looks like Tanner and Adrian are on a similar route, with Adrian a couple miles ahead. Derek is also headed for Benchmark via a road route and it looks like he’ll get there first. I imagine they’ll all headed for White Pass.

Mike and crew are headed hard west – I’m not quite sure what their plan is. I think they’re headed south of even Observation pass.

My guess is Mike and Co. are aiming for the Dry Fork Divide — that southern route will likely have less snow.

Weather doesn’t look too bad, probably just the odd shower.

Looks like Tanner made it over Straight Pass at 3:20pm and stopped for the night at 8:30pm about 33 miles in at Benchmark.

Adrian also went over Straight Pass, topping out around 2:40pm and got through Benchmark at 7:45pm. He is now ~6 miles past Benchmark and it looks like he’s stopped for the night at ~9:40pm just across the bridge over the NF Sun. Maybe 39 miles.

Derek’s had a big day. He took the road route to Benchmark which got him there a little earlier at ~6:45 pm (guessing because no tracking points for while). He’s pushed on past and rolled into Indian Point just now at 10:20pm MST. I’m guessing that’s where he’ll stop for the night since it’s a good spot and fording the SF Sun in the dark is dicey. Looks like a ~46 mile day. Derek, Adrian and Tanner should all be over White Pass tomorrow morning.

Mike and crew rolled into the North Fork Guard Station around 8:30pm. That’s 24 miles as the crow flies, so probably closer to 35 miles of trail. It looks like you’re right Dan G about the Dry Fork Divide. They should be able to cruise tomorrow with lots of fairly flat low elevation terrain up Danaher Creek. That should be some neat country.

Could be a chilly night all around with lows of ~34F where these folks are camped. Weather looks okay for tomorrow – just a moderate chance of rain. SF Flathead is running just under 6K which should be nice comfortable rafting conditions if it’s not rainy.

Made it to Cedar about 2:30 this afternoon. Things did not go exactly as planned but I won’t complain about our 31 hour finish.

Yes, we bailed. Not out of necessity or any real noteworthy  reasons, just a little behind schedule after a freezing evening paddle of Straight Creek resulting in taking out early for a much needed fire. Woke up this morning not feeling the need to prove anything to ourselves or anyone else so made the easy decision to not risk developing any overuse injuries to nag us through the summer, and walked the grueling half mile out to lay in the sun waiting for a ride at Benchmark.

It was another good crew this year and the weather and conditions were perfect out there. I expect to read about some crazy fast times.

Glad you’re out okay Tanner. The most important element of survival in the backcountry is making good decisions –especially paying attention to one’s physical and mental state, so kudos for making a mature choice.

No doubt my ‘secret admirer’ will find this comment unhelpful, as he/she seems to find every comment I make on this thread, so I’ll just help them out by marking it ‘not helpful’ myself.
Cheers.

Glad you guys are well Tanner. How was Straight Creek besides being cold?

Looks like Adrian made good time over White Pass today, arriving at the White River around the same time as Derek. Looks like the rafting is going well for Derek, floating the 12.5 miles of White River and SF Flathead in under 3 hrs. Looks like he’s taken out now and is starting the long approach to Lion Pass. Its 21-22 miles to the pass and he took out around 5pm, so perhaps he’ll lay up just before the pass again around snowline (Palisade Lake?) and finish mid-day tomorrow – or push through the night to go sub 48.

Adrian forded the White River 1/2 way down, which was probably challenging, and is now continuing on the East side of the SF Flathead. Looks like he’s headed for the Black Bear Bridge. Not sure where he’s headed from there. Inspiration might be the shortest route out but going over Picture Ridge adds a lot of vert so he might cut back to Lion Pass. The terrain is funky enough that he might have a few off-trail shortcuts in mind.

Mike & Crew are well into their march up Danaher Creek and as of 4pm were somewhere near where Camp Creek feeds in. Maybe they’re headed for Big Prairie tonight.