2024 Bob Marshall Wilderness Open

Kyle and I took the temperature of the Bob this weekend and hiked/floated the 3 forks of the Sun. Flows were bony and super low with clear water > SF 300 cfs, NF 260 cfs. It felt like base flow conditions; the trails weren’t even muddy. The Sun drainage at least did not have the wet and flooded conditions we usually expect this time of year.

It makes sense to me to camp somewhere near Roger’s Pass, and then commute to the start at 8. Aspen Grove campground is right off the highway and only 11 miles from Roger’s Pass. As others have mentioned, Alice Ck is also an option

Kyle is joining us. Here’s our link

https://share.garmin.com/RobertsonBobOpen2024

Another year another incredible Bob Open! Bailed yesterday at Swan Lake after a 120 mile ish trip and a really creative route by Rob.  Keith and Rob continued on and looks like they’ll be making a strong finish today! Really great to tag along with them and a different experience as a group of 3 vs. solo in years past. I’m guessing some other participants made it out of the woods as well?

I ended up bailing at NFBF on Sunday afternoon.  I’ve done the suffering on previous Open’s so figured I’d preserve my soft tissue for the remainder of the summer. Andrew and Peter soldiered on up through the Danaher and made an exit over the Swans via Bartlett Creek, hitting Holland Lake around 4 pm.  Sounds like it was quite the slog, Peter definitely got the full Bob Open experience ;)

Rob, what a huge effort. Massive congrats on the finish!
Mike, Tom, and I ran into Dylan on the S fork of the Sun on Monday. Sounded like he had ditched the official route and was leaving for a loop out of benchmark. No info on the others, though.

Great job all!

Rob, I am curious if you found any water in Tom’s Gulch. I was at the head of Tom’s Gulch two weeks ago and it was bone dry.

Looks like you crossed just above the private land going up Silver King and I know there have been several good springs in that section.

Congrats Rob and Kieth, and everyone else who joined, this Open is so rad and brings out the best people! This was my second year and attempt at the open and it did not go to plan but was a great experience. I bailed off the CDT on Alice Ridge on the first day not prepared for sustained snow travel or familiar enough with the Scape Goat to have rerouted well, so I got back to my car at Rodgers Pass on Sunday and drove up right to Benchmark trailhead where on Monday morning I started a two-day loop crossing over the mountains SW at Stadler Creek, floated the Danaher into the S. Fork till White River and then on foot I went over White Pass, floated a stretch of W. Fork of the Sun and got back to my car around midnight Tuesday. I’ll be excited to edit a short home video of this adventure shortly. Can’t wait till next year to get another go at the Bobs early season :)

I finished yesterday evening shortly after 11 p.m. My partner Hayden wisely bailed earlier yesterday with 23 miles remaining.

Carrying 50 pound packs, we started the first day following the majority of folks up the CDT, before dropping down Bear Creek to Alice Creek Road. We then spent much of the afternoon following the public/private boundary to sidehill over to the Landers Fork and take the Lone Mountain trail up to Heart Lake for the night. The second day we dropped into the East Fork of the Blackfoot, followed that down to the North Fork guard station, and then headed up the Dry Fork to camp just before the divide. Day three we crossed into the Danaher, where Hayden decided we should try to put on earlier to make up some miles and take some weight off of battered feet. Ultimately this resulted in some serious hike-a-boat as we encountered an obscene amount of deadfall. So we took back out, portaged another mile downstream, and put in about five miles above Camp Creek, and were met with friendly and enjoyable floating conditions. We then made it to the confluence and continued to Big Prairie for the night. Day four we floated the remainder of the South Fork to the Meadow Creek takeout, where I took a swim on the last pinch/constriction before the takeout. We made the portage over to Harrison Creek and began an involved bushwhack back down to the South Fork. About half way down a squall rolled through that brought quite the deluge and we watched as six trees fell in rapid succession around us. So we hightailed it out of there, and put on the creek just above the South Fork for a fast and bony ride out to the river. We then floated to the Billy R. Garrett bridge, where we lost light, and slept under it, which was definitely the pro move because it proceeded to rain all night. By day five we knew we needed to make up some miles, so we started early, wrapped up the remainder of the South Fork, and into the Hungry Horse reservoir. Flat-water paddling can be a real pain, so we put in an effort for about six miles before deciding to bail off to the east road and walk the remaining distance to the Logan-Dirtyface trail and pass over to the Middle Fork of the Flathead.

There had been a reasonable amount of suffering up until this point, especially given that Hayden’s feet weren’t much appreciating the heavy loads we were carrying. But that all seemed trivial once we began the climb. Keep in mind that this trail is labeled as primary-use by all available maps. Initially the trail was very amiable, only getting somewhat overgrown as we hit the snow line and neared the pass. The pass was beautiful, looking down into the greenery of the Middle Fork valleys. We started down, and lost the very faint trail about a mile from the top. Naturally, at this point it began snowing. We were able to find it after some searching, but it had clearly not been maintained since the 20th century. And it just kept getting worse and worse as we lost elevation, getting to a point where the remaining five miles were a hellish test of endurance and perseverance. This was only further helped by losing light, constant rain and a plethora of fresh bear sign that was only a few hours old. I’ve had more than my fair share of bushwhacking, especially along the Swan Crest on older logging roads, but the Dirtyface ‘schwack was a special sort of ruthlessness. Would not recommend to anyone, ever. And it also included a creek crossing sometime after 1 a.m. that was ripping at 20+mph and would have been insta-death if we slipped. We crashed down to the Middle Fork sometime after 3 a.m., soaked to the bone, to find a sloping cobble bar to set up a shelter and shiver bivy for the night.

We woke up the next morning, still reeling from the beatdown, to find that the river had dropped a bit, to a level that appeared a lot more manageable. So we put on, with me picking my way through the splashier sections. Eventually we made it to just above the “daily” section, where I opted to portage to avoid the class four sections. We made it to West Glacier that evening to an early campsite to ineffectively try to dry out our soaked everything and assess damages thus far. We then got up early for the seventh day, with ~65 river and lake miles remaining to the finish. The first 40 went without hiccup, albeit with some degree of tedium, until we reached the braids and meanders south of Kalispell. Admittedly I had neglected to check the gradient of this remaining section, assuming foolishly that there would be flow until just before the lake. Boy was I in for a surprise. The river effectively stops 20 miles before the lake proper. Hayden, being of sound mental standing, decided to head for the road and call it instead of enduring a nauseating amount of flat-water paddling. I however, stubbornly, was more hesitant to quit, after already traveling 230 miles. So I began paddling at 4pm, unsure how far I would get, but determined nevertheless to try until my sanity returned or I injured myself. At 8:30 I made it to the Sportsman’s Bridge just above the lake, sure that I was ready to bail. But for some reason even I cannot comprehend, I opted to descend into the sixth circle of suffering and continue the last 7.5 miles out and across the lake to Wood’s Bay FAS, arriving at ~11:10pm, after almost 25 miles of flat-water paddling.

I decided to attempt this rather ridiculous and heinous route this year as a more aesthetic variation to the direct path to the finish, having struggled to find inspiration in the face of a jungle of private property, paved roads or endless dirt road walking. Thus the idea to use the South, Middle and Main Flathead rivers as pathways to Flathead lake. Plus, I’ve wanted to do a route from Rogers Pass to West Glacier for a number of years now. ~255 miles in total; 175 miles floating and 80 on foot. This makes the fourth Bob Open I’ve completed, (including last year with my girlfriend) and also the longest route I’ve completed to date! The Open will continue to be one of my favorite trips of every year.

Long live the Open.

ps: I’ve neglected to pay for the BPL membership in the past. I am based out of Choteau, and if anyone is ever looking for a partner for some clowning, I am always looking to get out.

Jacob, holy shit. That is a wild tale. Congratulations! Were the lake currents in your favor? We floated the lake from south to north, and the currents were mostly working with us. If they hadn’t been, there would have been no way to power against them.

Ed, I don’t think we crossed any water in Tom’s Gulch. I remember topping off on water near the top of the first climb out of Alice Ck.

Here’s a link to my full trip report. Its way too long so click at your own risk >

https://docs.google.com/document/d/104XJguk2ajhhSzpPrKxLHhfaKqrCsmKX/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106708981956794223881&rtpof=true&sd=true

Jacob!  You made my day by taking the full Middle Fork route.  Never thought anyone would do that.  Especially with the lake having flooded the bottom 20 miles of the Main Flathead.  Loving the 5+ day finish times, as well as the alternate routes.

There are no “rules” about routes repeating or not.  Route selection early on was purely driven by my desire to see (and float) things I hadn’t, and more recently has just been restlessness and curiosity, often with mixed results.  Next year I’m leaning towards a more traditional/sprint course.

Regarding snowshoes; back in 2010 I found some MSR Shifts (snowshoes for older kids) at a used gear sale and they’ve become the default for spring stuff like the Open.  They’re cheap, durable, and bindings work well in spring conditions (ie they don’t freeze), and they have just enough traction and float to make punchy conditions easier.  The new ones are actually better than the previous versions, in that they accommodate bigger feet.  I have 11.5 feet and had to grind a bit out of the opening on that first pair to make them work.  I now have a pair of pink ones I bought a few years ago, and for the 2-4 days a year I use them they are always indispensible.

John, Peter, and I started up to the CDT with the main pack. We made a last-minute audible after Green Mountain to drop off the ridge and take an off-route climb back up to the Alice Mountain ridgeline to avoid going around the full Alice Creek drainage, gaining a solid 3000′ in a single push. This helped us avoid the strangeness of the public/private land interfaces and we ended up camping not far off Landers Fork. The maps and trails didn’t quite line up after the peak of Silver King, but we found our way to the Mainline trail taking us from Heart Lake pretty directly to the NF Blackfoot.

I had the good fortune of catching up to Jacob & Hayden on Sunday as they were crossing the NF Blackfoot, telling me of their 50 pound packs. I remember the horror of packing 35 lbs. on my back across the Bob in 2019 and I was pleased with this year’s sub-20 pack weight by avoiding the full course and the required boat gear.

John opted to bail at that point, having had a sufficient taste of long days to sustain him for another year. Peter and I soldiered on with another direct route to Big Prairie with a peaceful overnight hammock hang on the Dry Fork Divide. This year’s drier conditions had us hauling several burn & prairie miles without water approaching Big Prairie, but we managed to get past the burn up Bartlett to find solid enough trees for another hammock hang Monday night.

By Tuesday I was pretty tired, so it was slow going up Bartlett with eventual snowshoes going on my feet to make it a bit easier as the trail disappeared. The 30°-45° slippery wet snow covered slopes were tough enough in snowshoes, so I’m not entirely clear how Peter managed to even get up some of these climbs. After picking our way from the Bartlett drainage to the Shaw drainage, we circumnavigated Lena Lake for a long sidehill around the upper reaches of Gordon through a burn. Luckily enough, the sidehill was snow free, but it was back to snowshoeing for the last push up the ridgeline south of Waldbillig and a drop down to Upper Holland then Holland Lake proper.

Fortunately, no spectacular carnage occurred other than the usual unpredictable water, unpredictable trail conditions, unpredictable snow quality, and the usual springtime temperature & precipitation swings. This was my longest Bob Marshall Open at a bit over 100 miles, but so far the most straightforward.

P.S. I also use the MSR Shifts because they’re as light as running snowshoes, but much more durable.