This years event started at Bean Lake near Augusta and ended at Cedar Ck campground near Condon
This was my second year taking on the challenge. Ā Last year I went with Kevin and John, this year John teamed up with another friend and planned a more leisurely event- 5-ish days. Ā Kevin and I had just the opposite plan, more aggressive than last year, going very light and mixing in some running- something under 3 days. Ā We had planned our route carefully and got our packs as svelte as safely possible. Ā Unfortunately Kevin’s knee hadn’t fully recovered from winter and had to bail at the last minute (actually a week out); at the same time the weather changed significantly adding a lot of snow to the Bob and calling for rain/snow during the event. Ā Because of these changes, my plan also changed-going with a larger pack and more safety equipment.
My route was ~ 120 miles, there were shorter routes, but chose this route mainly because it avoided fording the South Fork of the Flathead- which we learned is not a ford, but rather a swim :) (just ask Tanner)
Saturday morning 18 brave souls took off from Bean Lake, Ā John and his new partner Thad were taking the same route as I was, so I settled in with them- figuring I’d continue on after they bagged it at 20-25 miles in. Ā Turns out almost everyone else continued on past Whitetail Creek where we headed for the pass
we made good time up and over the pass into the Blackfoot drainage, not as much snow as anticipated, but our good time would soon slow as we got into pretty significant blowdown
still nice views though, including the North Fork falls
we made it to the North Fork patrol cabin at 8 pm and called it a day, 33 miles in, more than John had Thad had planned on, but fairly close to what I was shooting for
we got a pretty early start and headed for the Dry Fork Pass that led into the Danaher and South Fork drainage
Danaher Creek is absolutely gorgeous, the creek starts out very mellow and meandering and eventually raging, it’s one of two major headwaters for the South Fork
the weather up to this point had been pretty good, some short light rains, but we got into some pretty heavy rains, but eventually they would pass as well, right on time as we entered our camp area for night 2 at Cayuse Prairie, 31 miles logged that day
a nightly ritual, drying our feet out (also at lunch)* I also found Costco meat bags work great to put over your dry socks and put on your wet shoes for camp chores or that nightly call to duty
my shelter choice, a MLD cuben Solomid XL
the next day John and Thad said they would only be going as far as Big Salmon Lake (about 15 miles) so they could fish and relax
we ate lunch at Big Salmon patrol cabin and parted ways, making pretty good time of the 15 miles in under 5 hours
I had about 2.5 miles to go to my turn off up Little Salmon and made good time getting there in under 45 minutes, things were looking up and I still had a shot at under 72 hours if I turned it up a notch.
Unfortunately Little Salmon had different ideas, the lower stretch was very muddy and flooded in many areas, slowing me down
I wasn’t the only one headed up Little Salmon, bear spray- checkĀ 
soon the trail climbed and dried out and the time was picking up again, but Little Salmon wasn’t done with me yet- while the mud and water slowed me down on the lower section, the blowdown would almost stop me in my tracks- 8 miles of almost steady blowdown, looking at it, it appeared to be more than just last fall/winter, probably a couple years worth
it’s a ~ 11 miles to my next turnoff, Palisade Ck- I was hoping to do it in about 3 hours, instead it was over 5!
finally made it to Palisade Ck, now 6 miles up to the pass- not surprisingly there was plenty of blowdown on this trail, also a lot of mud and water running in the trail
Palisade Ck
I couldn’t find a decent place to camp, so kept heading up, hoping to make it over the pass and camp on the Lion Ck side; daylight quickly faded as I hit the snow and donned my headlamp; the trail became completely obscured, but a grizzly was headed up and pretty sure headed the pass so I followed him (or her?)
I eventually hit human tracks and knew they had to be other competitors, so I was on the right path Ā When I got the pass I was whipped and needed to make some supper, low on water I melted snow
I felt better after eating and wanted off this high pass and thought I’d go down a couple of miles and camp; I thought I found the trail in some big block talus, but after 5 minutes or so it was obviously a mountain goat trail and not the trail and there was some chance I would to plunge to my death if I stayed on it; I retreated looking for the trail but no luck- at this point it was 11 PM and I was forced to camp on 6′ of snow at high elevation, not where I really wanted to be
I woke up at 5 AM, my camp and not too shabby of a view out my door
I found the trail in the daylight about 1/8 mile down from the pass and could see where folks had slid in the scree getting down to it- it was very slow going as it has solidly frozen at night and the once soft snow was now ice and it was steep, very steep
I eventually got out of the snow and started making decent time heading down, but was short lived as I started hitting significant blowdown again
it was slow going for most of Lion Ck, but there were several really pretty falls along the way
I made it to the trailhead at ~ 11:45 AM with about 10 miles to go; I didn’t like the idea of hiking up the highway with screaming cars, so linked some old logging roads (with a little bushwacking mixed in), definitely took longer, but easier on the eyes and brain
I made it to Cedar Ck at 3:45, not as fast as I hoped, but considering the difficulty of the trails- I’ll take it :) Ā It was great hiking with John and Thad, much longer than I anticipated (probably long than they anticipated too!)
Now the wait for Dave’s announcement for 2017 and the planning begins again :)
