…and a hell of an adventure. We spent 4 days packing in, camping, riding, and packing out of the Great Bear Wilderness (part of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex), which is the vast wild area south of Glacier National Park. Notes of interest:
- It is very difficult to take photographs from the back of a moving horse.
- 15 miles in the saddle at one time can make the butt sore, along with utilizing various muscle groups in ways they don’t normally get.
- Advil and Vanquish really help with butt soreness.
- For reasons I don’t quite understand, heart-attack food and wilderness go together. (We ate breakfasts that consisted of french toast and half a pig’s worth of bacon, or biscuits and gravy, or pancakes and sausage…).
- Draft mules can carry simply amazing amounts of stuff. Not only that, I watched with admiration as each mule carefully maneuvered its high’n'wide panniers or packboxes to miss all the trees crowding the trail.
- A good saddle horse is worth a lot when you’re back in the wilderness.
- Horses and mules get awfully fresh after 2 days of lazing about on a high-line with occasional turns loose in the meadows and forest. (Pack string rodeo is disconcerting, to say the least).
Our hosts were Jay & Kim Diest; Jay has spent half a lifetime packing for the Forest Service in northwestern Montana and living in the wilderness while so doing. His vast experience with stock, campcraft, knots, dogsledding, hunting, and packing is humbling, and he probably represents a dying breed. Jay had stories galore and we clamored for more.
A study in contrasts and irony: this is a wilderness airstrip which Paul (my husband, and the guy on the red roan) had flown us into when we owned a bush plane.
You better have good steady stock when you’re riding a scree slope like this one.
I’m still sorting through the 1100+ photos that I took, and feeling a bit let down to be back in civilization. Though that first hot shower after being in the back of beyond is always damn nice…
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September 11th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Hey, welcome back! I’m envious. You’ll have to post some more photos. (I promise not to copy.)
Josh Been is involved with a show down in Salida, CO the end of this month and I’m planning a three day whirlwind down there. It’s been way too long since I was on a horse, so I think I’ll stick to places I can get to on my own feet. Maybe a little cafe’ with a patio where one might judge the state of the economy in Salida.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Don, I was in Salida in mid-August and had the pleasure of meeting Josh and visiting his gallery. Talented, very nice young man. As for Salida, sales at the art fair I attended there were bad - unless you were a jeweler or a photographer with low priced pieces. The highlight of the trip was the big horn sheep we saw (and I photographed and sketched) on highway 50 going up through the canyon. What a treat!
September 11th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Dang, we forgot to solve all the world’s problems (including the state of the economy) while we were in the back of beyond! I knew we were forgetting something.
Instead we drank a lot, played with horses, and listened to Jay tell stories from his many years of packing and law enforcement in the Forest Service; he used to be stationed at Shafer Meadows, so it was a treat to hear him describe what it was like (particularly in winter…). Paul and Jay also taught each other a lot of knots, and I got better at half-hitches and western saddle rigging; my years of dressage and jumping have been of marginal value in Montana.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Cool stuff, Julie! I’m sure my western adventure won’t be quite as rugged as yours, but 18 hours behind the wheel makes my big ol’ butt a little saddle sore too. HA! BIA is amazing this year (I’m posting in my room during a break)… I’ll hopefully see you in Jackson Hole. Glad you’re back.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Julie - I’m really glad you had a good time. Nothing like time in the wilderness to settle the soul. There’s an email from my yahoo! addy that might shed more light on the “economy” reference.
Marti - Sorry about your unfortunate festival. Isnt that just a beautiful area, though? Cant wait. I’m not looking for anything in the way of sales, per se. Just some down time. No phone or responsibility. You know the drill.
September 15th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Sounds like a great trip.
based on my experience at Triple D, I can’t imagine better people to have for “guides” on a pack trip than Jay and Kim.
Bob Marshall looks like a great place.
I too would like to see more photos.
When I lived in Utah, I spent a lot of time in the Wind River Mountains (S-East of the Tetons) hiking, peak bagging and climbing over a period of ten years or so.
I mostly packed in my stuff, but the last time I went, my friends and I had our stuff packed in on horses.We still hiked, but with small day packs instead of the usual “stones”. That was glorious! (and a totally new experience for me).
I felt sorry for the horses, though, carrying all our climbing gear, steak (I know what you mean about the heart-attack food) and drinks.
the biggest mistake we made was not having the horses come in to pick up our stuff for the trip out. I think my pack weighed about 80 pounds on the way out from all the stuff I had thrown willy nilly on the horse (poor thing) at the trail head. We had way more stuff than we needed. One friend even had a small inflatable kayak! That got some funny looks — fishing from a kayak on a lake at 11,000ft!
September 16th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Yeah, I’m spoiled now - I can’t imagine backpacking anymore, way too much work. I did get off and walk my horse for a few miles on the way in, which felt good…but on the way out the horses and mules were WAAYYY too fresh for me to keep up walking, so I just stayed in the saddle.
Most fun: Jay sending me off to blast ahead of the string - we were at a very narrow, steep trail section and knew there was an outfitter’s string headed in towards us, but didn’t know for sure where they were. No way was there room for the strings to pass each other on the trail! So Gus (my gorgeous big paint chestnut) and I blasted up a set of switchbacks at high speed - and ran smack into the other pack string. The trail was SO steep and narrow that I could barely get Gus turned around - had to practically rear him up and spin him. Yowza.
September 16th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Sorry for getting political and I realize most of the residents of Montana are probably embarrassed by this, but it simply can’t go without comment (delete if you want, Julie)
(Baucus) “Health Care Proposal Mandates Coverage, Drops Public Option”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/16/health.care/
Wow. It’s a dream come true (if you are in the health insurance business)
September 16th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Yes, I’m embarrassed by the fact that Baucus is turning a deaf ear to the many, MANY residents of Montana who have pleaded for a public option. Much more I could say, but I’ll stop now. Instead, just read this brief blurb: Montana health care by the numbers.