Welcome to Bear Rehab
A week ago, I was standing with Bunny Bugs in the parking lot in many glaciers, and we were having breakfast. We had just met a ranger reviewing our permits and asking for the bear encounters around Lake Elizabeth. There has been a problem in that area and a team was currently looking for it, to scare and nebular him to scare humans again.
«I probably shouldn’t tell you this,» Bugs said after the ranger left, «But do you know what they do if the rookies don’t work? They reassure them and put them elsewhere.» After a fast pause, he asked: «Do you know where the ‘in another place’ is?» And we both begin to laugh. «Yes, I do it. It’s Bob Marshall, right?» «MHM. Welcome to Bear Rehab.
Cold, wet, hungry and not only: pushing Benchmark Wilderness Ranch during the rain, I felt relieved when Bugs Bunny reached me.
I did not need to verify this anecdote to know that there were going to be many bears in the Bob Marshall desert. There has been a lot of information about that.
But, in contrast to the Glacier National Park, we did not see bears throughout the section. However, we saw many clues. And two weeks later, a fellow hiker, the steam engine, reached us: «I have been following your starting tracks all day. Any other track has been dragged in the rain touched. I knew that you could only be you.» After following our fresh starting tracks for a while, the third track appeared: huge brown legs that cover each of my Altra impressions. «That is a great mother Pardo and has been stalking you for a while.»
Heroes of Path
In addition to the large population of bears, I have read a lot about the challenging conditions of paths. There is a lot of burns zone in the Bob Marshall and, consequently, a lot of fall. Last year’s sobos had difficulty climbing all the falls, navigating and making a bush on a barely visible path. But right now, the maintenance of the path was incredible. You could see the fresh and bright pieces of wood that disperse on the path, where someone pirate the trunks of fallen and burned trees in two. Let’s imagine: Someone carried out the team and worked vigorously from the record to the registration to clear the way for us. In the heat, there is no shadow that is in a burnzone; Instead, errors prosper and are relentlessly, well, errors, who stays still or does not move quick enough. Anyone who pirate the records in these conditions is nothing less than a hero.
Thanks to those heroes, we were walking faster than expected.
Walking together
Bugs Bunny was establishing a quick rhythm in the apparently endless burns zone that were the first days in the Bob Marshall desert.
Both in our shared PCT section and in the Glacier National Park, Bunny Bugs and I met several times during the day, but we walked mainly individually.
Now in the Bob, we somehow begin to walk together most of the time. We both wanted to walk for a longer mileage, but also relax and talk, and maybe even soak during lunch. That little soaking intensified in us by pressing each other to jump to each lake available or a deep stream.
Our bodies are not accustomed to super long days, but we are walking quite fast. As we average 26 fast miles a day, we can not only take long and relaxing lugs. I also sleep more here in the CDT than at home or on the PCT. A luxury could have to give up, as soon as I feel ready to walk longer days.
It worked very well, especially because the bugs walk a little faster than me. It established a fast and fast pace, difficult for me to keep the pace, but it also keeps me moving quickly enough, to walk a whole day faster than originally planned. That will help me get to Colorado in time before snowstorms.
Find homes and find answers
Hey, cuties!
There is lemonade in the pitcher. I am working uphill in the water supply.
A little beautiful note. Bugs and I just placed our packages on the porch of the Gooseberry ranger station, where the stained bear alternative goes out of the official path of the red line. I looked through the small window to the dark interior of the trunk cabin. While I climb the close hill to the toilet, I imagine the type of life that could be had in such a small cabin by the river.
And what happens has happened to me around the world while traveling. I think for myself: «I could build a house here!»
The pretty cabin of the ranger station.
30 minutes later we have packed all our belongings again and began to wade the river.
That is an essential point of hokeing: we don’t stay. We packed and continue. But for me, it is often bittersweet. It is often difficult to let it go.
I think about how I released my beloved apartment in Switzerland. «It feels like destroying the nest of birds more coszos. And I will only be able to keep some essential twigs.» I told my family. It is ironic that now, being along the way, I renounced my stable life at home and dreamed of other houses.
While walking with the weight of my essential elements on my back, the tent as a temporary home included, I asked me: was I looking for something specific here?
I didn’t have an answer. After all, it is my second week along the way. Maybe find an answer eventually.
Although the lifestyle through Hiker is not built to find a house, it certainly helps find answers.
Beautiful landscape and muddy rain
On the fourth day in the Bob Marshall desert, we arrive at the famous «Chinese wall», the east side of Cliff Mountain.
Lunch with a view (of the ‘Chinese wall’ which is the northern side of Cliff Mountain)
The whole day was intensely beautiful and we were both energized by the scenic panorama that surrounds us. We had sun and dramatic clouds in the middle, exuberant meadows with a lot of flower grass, but also other wild flowers, tons of butterflies and the impressive wall of the cliff on our right.
After this wonderful day, the weather changed and the rain began to roll. He cooled and soon wet. One night, since all my first layers were wet about rain or sweat, I put on my swollen jacket, pants and socks and wrapped myself in my first aid blanket before dragging myself in the sleeping bag.
«Oh, my, bugs. I see this sheet and all I can think is ‘burrito’! I am so hungry!»
«I know, hunger for hikers is already activating for me too.»
But since we are through hikers, we could fall asleep, wet and cold.
The worst type of air air: humid and dirty socks.
The next morning we woke up before the alarm, opening our vestibular doors to talk a little, both clearly demotivated to go to mud and rain. Everything was covered with earth.
«It’s probably not how your students imagined your adventure, right? Are you trying to hide in your wet earth store?»
«Actually, they sang on the adventure in the sun and rain.»
«Sale of garbage gardening from the hiker»: dry our team in the sun.
But finally we had to leave. Finally, the sun rose again. We climbed high mountain passes and in truck beds to reach the next city, where we had showers, laundries, a lot of food and energy outputs that were waiting for us.
Heating after swimming in the river. Note: Follow the instructions and restrictions of fire, have prepared water, drown and stir to turn it off.
