2015 Bob Marshall Wilderness Open

What would you all recommend for food storage and bear safety practices in this area?
My only experience is with california black bears.
Do you generally eat far away from where you sleep?

I hang my food; roughly 10' off the ground (and 5'-ish from the tree), try to keep a fair bit away from where I'm sheltering

I typically eat near where I'm sheltering, boil in the bag food- not cooking- if I was going to fry up bacon I'd probably locate that activity away from where I'm sleeping :)

Dave,

Can we postpone the BMWO for a few more weeks? I'm not ready (things runners say during the last few weeks before a big race).

In the meantime, I'll be hiking along the Chattooga River this weekend (where the movie Deliverance was filmed).

One more month!

Derek

Justin and I are trying to figure out our transportation plan, we were thinking of flying in either Thursday or Friday into Kalispell.

When are others flying in?

Does anyone want to either offer a ride or split a rental car?

On flying out, we were thinking on budgeting ten days, with a goal of a sub week finish. We would fly home either June 1st or 2nd. Anybody else thinking the same time frame?

Also I was thinking it might be better to fly into Kalispell and home from Great Falls. Great falls is a little closer to the finish line and worst case might be an easier hitch.

Thoughts?

What if we gave ourselves an extra day to hitchhike back to the airport? It's a 20 mile road from swift reservoir to the highway, I don't know if there are going to be people out there.

No worries Dan, it was an ambiguity worth clearing up.

I hang my food and cook at least 50 yards from where I sleep.

There is not too much traffic down the dirt road to Swift Reservoir, especially mid week. Not a ton of traffic on the highways south from there to Great Falls, but it is fairly regular.

Morgan and I had the idea to fly in to great falls. We could rent a car, leave it at the end point, and hopefully get a ride to the start point. Is anyone leaving a car at the end point and driving back to the start point? Mind giving us a ride? If so, what about what time would you be stopping at the end point and leaving?

Justin and Morgan,
I will be happy to give you a ride. I've actually made a commitment to hike another trail the week after Memorial day, so won't be joining you all on the BMWO; however, I've won't be leaving until Sunday, so I've set aside Friday to provide shuttle service. Can't miss the opportunity to meet some fellow BPLers at the social Friday night!

I have room for you two and a third with gear, no problem. Could squeeze a fourth person if we were all feeling friendly.

Would also suggest flying into Kalispell and either out from Kalispell or GF. Drive time is only about half an hour longer to Kalispell and it's a much nicer place to be than GF (I may be a little biased here). Plus, driving from Kalispell takes you past the southern border of Glacier Park and tantalizing views of the peaks there. Come to think of it, you would see that on the shuttle drive anyway, but it's worth seeing a couple times. Still, if you're intent on spending time in the flatlands, it would certainly work to meet at the trailhead/Swift Res. too. (Attempting fairness here: coming from GF gives a nice view of the "front range" and you can visit Egg Mountain if you're interested in dinosaurs –where Jack Horner found evidence that dinos nurtured their young. He was the inspiration for the archeologist character in Jurassic Park. TMI?)

Lots of options.

Thanks Dan!

The reason for flying into GF is so we can rent a car there and drop it off at the end point. Then we could get a ride to the start point. When we finish we wouldn't have to worry about hitchiking or getting a ride and we would be on the right side of the mountain range to drop off our rental car.

If we flew into Kallispell we would have to drive all the way to the end point, get a ride back to the start point, and at the end of the trip we would need to drive back to kallispell instead of great falls (shorter drive I'm assuming). But either way could work.

I'm about to meet up with morgan and plan our route today so we can talk about it.

Dan, do you live in kalispell or whitefish?

Do you think hitching from the exit trailhead to Great Falls or Kalispell would be reasonable? Avoiding renting a car for a week to have it sit at a trailhead would be nice.

Would one be simpler than the other?

I know its a twenty mile walk from the trailhead to the hwy, on google maps it looks like there is a rest stop there and a little town not too far away with at least a tiny store.

Dave, do you have a headcount? How does gordon creek seem for packrafting?

Hitching from the end to either Kalispell or GFalls could be an all day affair or longer. GF would probably be a little easier. I think flying into either, renting a car, and leaving it at the end is a good plan. Fly into whichever is cheaper.

My hope is that whomever is in for real will begin to make their transport plans and needs known, so folks can meet up and get organized. I do not want to be so formal as to ask for a headcount.

Justin
If you chose to fly in to Kalispell, I could meet you at the airport and caravan to Swift Res., then drive you back to Holland Lk. If you prefer to fly in to GF, we can just meet at Swift and I'll take you to Holland. Either way is fine for me because my driving would be identical. Your driving time would be about 30 minutes less from GF; might seem farther from Kalispell because of the backtracking, but really not much difference.

Morgan
I actually live in the woods west of Kalispell. +1 what Dave said about hitchhiking. Local detail about that area: most traffic flowing from the west (Kalispell/Browning) toward GF would take a cutoff road through Valier (hyw 44), about 10 miles north from Dupuyer. Anyone south of Dupuyer would probably be heading to GF and would go south on 89; not much reason to drive north on 89 from Choteau to Browning. Which means, that section of highway (89 from Dupuyer to the junction with 44), is a bit of a vortex where parties have been lost since the days of Meriwether Lewis (Clark never made it that far north/west, having split up to explore a more southern route on the return. Also, the same general area where the only Native Americans were killed during the entire expedition). More bad Juju.

About this time you're rethinking the wisdom of spending four hours in a car with me prattling on. Just turn up the stereo, I'll figure it out.

Looking at rafting options it seems that a raft would be most useful at the beginning of the trip to float Lick and Gordon creeks, to the south fork of the Flathead, and the Flathead until the White River. I haven't found any reports of packrafting on Gordon Creek.
Dave have you ever run it?

Per Google Earth, Gordon creek doesn't look time effective to packraft. I haven't seriously looked into it, but there appears to be a decent amount of wood.

Dan G.: If you have an extra spot in your car let me know. I'm happy to chip in for gas.

Dan D. –You are very welcome to ride along. That rounds out the group nicely. Don't worry about gas, I've benefitted so much from the comments you've made on BPL over the years, after taking you on this shuttle, I'll still be in the minus column.

Thanks Dan G. That would be great!

I'll be driving to Swift Reserviour, ideally getting there in good time on Friday so I have time to socialize with everyone.

Regarding Gordon Creek again, Dave C's packrafting guide rates Gordon Creek as NTB (2/4) at moderate flows and it says "lots of wood makes for slow going".

If the levels aren't high it could be fun to try Gordon Creek, but not if you're in a hurry. A neat packrafting route would be Gordon Creek, SF Flathead to the White River, over White Pass, rafting WF Sun, SF Sun and then walking north. Long but fun.

Thanks for all the local recon. Dave, Greg, John, Mike and Dan. It's been invaluable for Alex and I in trip planning.

To chime in on the food storage and cooking: I'm using an Ursac (lined with an opsack for odor control) and tying it to a firm branch, head-high, 2 or 300' feet from camp. Alex and I are going stoveless. We are however bringing a small cookpot for boiling water/noodles on campfire coals at night.

Oh, that reminds me. I've been meaning to ask you guys: What is the moisture content like for NW Montana deadfall this time of year? Is everything between 5,000' and 6,000' pretty dry by now for quick fire starting and sustaining?

regarding moisture in deadfall, it's going to really vary, some of it still going to be very moist- there should be a lot of spruce and fir whose lower dead limbs will be bone dry, there may be newer downfall that should also be drier

Carry a small fixed blade like a mora. You can use it to split down larger branches to get at the dry wood in the middle.

Gordon Creek is typical of many creeks in the Bob; the volume and gradient are ideal for packrafting, but the flows seemingly rarely or never get big enough to clean things out.

Finding good firewood in the Bob is pretty easy. There are places which get PacNW style damp, but generally those drainages are so steep and thick you won't be camping there anyway (hopefully). Ridges and valley bottoms get plenty of sun and arid weather, and wood on the ground is rarely saturated all the way through. As Mike mentioned, looking under spruce trees is often a good strategy.

I am planning on being available for shuttle needs on Friday to bring people from Swift to Holland lake. I have one person who has requested a ride and likely have room for more. Don't have a time yet to depart Swift Res. but 2:00pm is good for planning

Hey Greg,
Yes! I just spoke with Alex and he and I are VERY interested in your shuttle offer from Swift to Holland. Count on us being there at the southern TH terminus by 2:00 on Friday. Consider this our formal "For Sure" RSVP. I'll PM you later with some contact info, if necessary. Just let us know how we can help or contribute and it's done. Looking forward to brews and pizza with you all at the Hungry Bear Friday night too.

Thank you, sincerely.

~Alex and Chase

How are trails marked? I imagine the CDT is well marked, but what about the other named/numbered trails in the area?

Less than 3 weeks…

Sorry to say but I am out of this one. Basically I got sick a bunch this spring and didn't run/hike nearly as much as I wanted too. I tried to push myself and felt a hint of an old injury in my ankle (an injury that took me out of hiking completely for a couple months). If it was my only big trip of the summer I take a chance and just do it. But I have some really cool trips planned for later in the summer and I don't want to jeopardize those by pushing myself so hard I get hurt. Add to all that my work schedule changed and taking the time off would be tricky.

It was a lot of fun going through the process of planning a route. It also motivated me to train more then I would have otherwise. Thanks to Mike for some advice. I hate that I'll miss meeting all you guys.
If any of you are going to the APA Packraft Roundup I'll be there. I bought a second used packraft so if anyone wants to try packrafting maybe we could meet up and do a trip.

Good luck too you guys!