2015 Bob Marshall Wilderness Open

I was thinking about running really fast at the start of the BMWO until I was out of sight, then duck into the forest so Dan could spend the next 90+ miles chasing a printless ghost.

If everything goes as planned and my family and I are able to make the drive up North on Friday night I'll be at the Holland Lake start point taking photos and wishing everybody a safe, swift, and successful tramp across the Bob. I'm excited for ya'll!

Dan D. Sounds like Greg is full up, so I'm still on for the shuttle, unless someone else is already going and has extra space.

Beautiful country to see anyway, so doesn't really matter whether I'm hauling one guy or three; just out for a nice drive. And lots and lots of gear talk :-)

I like gear talk :) Sounds good!

Dropped a truck off at Swift last weekend so I guess it's about time to walk over and retrieve it. We walked around the reservoir and along the SF – pretty neat area despite the crummy weather. I probably won't be enjoying it as much the next time I am there, but the cold beers I left chilling in the creek near the TH should give me a little extra motivation.

Looking forward to seeing everyone. It sounds like a good crew heading up to Upper Holland Saturday morning.

2 guys from Bigfork are in.
We are dropping a rig off at Swift Friday afternoon and then will head to Hungry Bear Friday evening.
Will have room for 2 or 3 people, anyone that wants a ride from Swift to Hungry Bear, just let me know.
-Nick

I made a short video of my gear for the BMWO:

Into Cascadia – Packing for the BMWO

Dan- thanks for the video, had to chuckle at the mismatched poles :) curious, did you remove some of the plastic decking on the Swifts?

Your food choices this year sound much more appealing than two flavors of Snickers!

Mike

Looks like we'll have a record number of participants, probably by a fair margin.

I don't anticipate too many other folks at Owl Creek Friday night, but even so lets make a point to consolidate into as little space as possible. It's not a big campground.

Looking forward to seeing everyone.

Dave, is the jumping off point for the hike directly from the Owl Creek packer camp on the South side of Holland Lake?

Yes, the trail leaves right from that parking lot.

Sweet! I can wake up just a few minutes before the start.

Mike: Yeah I cut some holes in the decking with a hot knife. I did this back for 2013. It didn't save much weight, but it was something to do.

Every little bit helps :)

If anyone wants to stash a beer or two for me and Justin down at swift reservior while running their car shuttle, we wouldn't complain. :)

See you at holland lake!

Maybe Tanner will post GPS coordinates to his stash :)

appears the original bluebird forecast has been revised, now calling for a little less bluebird :)

^ spring beer hunt!

Yeah, I see there a HIGH probability of a little moisture in the air. I may have to leave the golf clubs at home. So much for my Guinness Book attempt at speed golf across The Bob.

Morgan,
That is a simple request since I will be picking you guys up. Any favorite brands? I've heard that naturally cooled beer tastes better than ice-chest cooled beer, though. If my arrival timing is good maybe I can transfer it to a creek to boost the flavor!

I'm going to have to drop. I took ill Monday night. Things are going better today, but I still have a mild fever and had a waking heart rate this morning of 83, so I don't think I'm going to rally by Saturday, as much as I try to talk myself into it.

Sorry to hear that John, get better and maybe we can meet next year

Oh no, John. That's terrible. Well, I guess you won't get to see my Fat Bike setup in the Gedney Shuttle Friday. Wait…did I just give away my sub 30hr finish tactic? Jk, that'll be next year. Watch out Pack rafters. (For real though: Gear Nerds stay tuned for a Fat Bike, "Ultralight Bikepack Gear List", coming soon- I've got BIG plans and some serious coin set aside for it ;)

Sorry to hear about your plan disruptions John. Don't worry, I'll secretly record everything Team Beaverton is planning with their Mad Max II bike design. Thinking of arriving at Swift a day early to do a little beer fishing.

Dave said, "ask Justin and Morgan about their food plans this evening." So, Justin and Morgan what are your food plans this evening?

Well, unfortuanately, I twisted my right knee fairly early on Saturday when I slipped hard on wet grass while climbing up out of Upper Holland Lake. After traversing around Lena Lake and reaching the base of Feline Pass, the twisting action of working through the snow was starting to wear on the knee. I elected instead to head downhill on Big Salmon Creek rather than pull another mile or two of snow pack over Burnt Creek as had been the plan. I pushed through with a head lamp until midnight on Saturday to try and make up some time from the delays I had in the upper drainages.

This all added miles and made it difficult to consider rafting on the South Fork, as I did not reach the rIver until 8:00 pm. I did not really feel the damage on my knee until after mile 43 Saturday night. Sunday morning I awoke just before the Bear Creek Packbridge and knew things were not going well. I reached Meadow Creek after a blazing 1.6 mph transit following Derek's footprints and elected to packraft down to Spotted Bear Ranger Station, arriving at 3:30 pm. Once there, the knee was not getting any better and I concluded it would be irresponsible to continue up the Spotted Bear and over Gunsight Pass to the headwaters of Shafer Creek, when my knee did not like any kind of downhill pressure. So I elected to call it off before I did any real lasting damage and used my SPOT messenger to signal in a pick-up call. Kate arrived at 8:00 pm and my adventure was over.

The knee is sore this morning (I'm back at Swan Lake) but does not appear to be actually damaged, so I'm going to take that as as good news – something I expect would not be the case had I continued as planned.

I came across a few interesting things out there. One was a site where a Grizzly had ambushed a Moose last fall in the deep woods, nothing left this spring but picked clean bones. You could clearly see where the Grizzly had scraped a large amount of the forest floor into a pile to cover the kill. Bones were sticking out of the debris pile at odd angles, many still articulated together. Another item of interest was a dead Golden Eagle in the middle of the Big Salmon Creek Trail, kind of odd, I thought. There were a couple of occupied Osprey Nests on top of old snags along the banks of the SF Flathead. The birds would swoop out of their nest when I floated past and circle overhead with cries of disapproval; I suspect there were young ones in the nest. At one point one of the Ospreys stopped screeching at me long enough to suddenly flip inverted and dive straight down into the river to try a snag a fish. No luck this time, however.

Looking forward to hearing how the other trips went. I will post a trip report with photographs after we get home to Denver.