In the drop: walking through the desert of Bob Marshall and scapegoat

Welcome back to the outskirts of Bob Marshall and Wortebat Wilderneses! We had nine days in the CDT that definitely felt harder than the Disneyland of Glacier (apart from permissions). After leaving East Glacier for the third and last time, Beanie Baby (Bella) and I ventured in Bob Marshall Wilderness, a remote section of the path away from the cities and with few rescue options. We learned many farms (when the fallen trees block the path) in the bob, but in reality we discovered that the path was quite well maintained in general. However, there were several burns areas that required technical skills of tree jump, as well as some crossings of rivers thrown.

However, our time at Bob Marshall Wilderness was not all burns sections and a brush covered with rivers crosses. We had a beautiful climate most of the time and took a beautiful view of the incredible mountain and forests in the area, as well as tons of impressive wild flowers. Although we had some long days in the Sun sometimes brutal, the beautiful landscape we were going through reminded us why we are here first. One of our favorite Bob sections was a section of the path that was right next to a huge rock wall called Chinese wall. We even saw a mountain goat walking along the edge of this cliff!

While he was in the Bob, Beanie Baby had her three days of backpack in a row, and it was the biggest mileage that had fired in three consecutive days as well. We arrived at a late schedule, often arriving at the camp around 7:30 or 8 pm, but also allowed us to take longer breaks during the worst heat of the day, which drained us completely in sections exposed as burning areas.

Arriving at the camp every day, taking off our shoes and socks to emit our feet and drop on the floor without intention to get up at any time soon felt like the sky. However, in some especially swampy camps, mosquitoes would begin to swarm and had to cover our silly insect networks on our faces to cook in peace. One of our most memorable camps was a beautiful Alpine lake I jumped after walking 23 miles through heat and climbing 2,000 brutal feet just before the camp. The lake was cold and of course, and if we had had time, it would have been fun to float on it in a sleeping pad!

Beanie Baby and I met and camped with several other hikers in this section of the path, including some new faces that we had not met before. Some of the hikers we finished overlap in the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat desert included Upstate, Pepto, Shepard, Raspberry, Thomas (there are no name of trails), sunglasses, Quickdraw, Pedi, Frizz, Capital, Caboe, Sarah and Kate (there are still no names of trails). We also met a woman named Lucy who is from Australia and is walking along the Americas with her Wombat dog! She will be the first woman to walk on this route, and began her walk in 2017, which makes our breeze. It was very inspiring to meet Lucy and really witness how much we are capable and how far our bodies can take us. It was a lot of fun camping and seeing so many other hikers along the way, and definitely helped the Bob feel less remote and out there. Beanie Baby and we still did not update me with the Sprouts Tramilia (our original path), but we are learning that it is important to «walk their own walk», as people say, especially given how many alternatives and limits there are on their way.

Our most memorable section of the Bob Marshall desert was not the beautiful mountain peaks or the pine forests, not the alce we saw along the way (still without bears) or the wild flowers in full flowering. No, they were pancakes! We ran into our first real magic on the path after leaving the Bob, and let us fly. Tripod and Sprinkles, whom we had met before in East Glacier, were in a camp near Benchmark waiting to sprinkle some magic of trails in the life of us hungry and dirty through hikers. Beanie Baby and I camped with that night, which was not our original plan, and they also joined us around 6 or 7 hikers. In the course of approximately 24 hours, we ate four meals (including delicious breakfast burritos, pancakes, grilled cheese and spaghetti), we learned to thread a blister, we took a trip to collect our box in Benchmarkmark Ranch, and we talked with other hikers while sitting in some really comfortable chairs! The magic of the path was a real pleasure and we are very grateful for the tripod and the sparks and everything they did to help us all after such a hard section of the path.

After spending the night camping with the best magic of trails, we entered another zone of burns in the scapegoat desert. However, the dead trees soon faded in the living and we camped by a beautiful transmission the first night in this new desert.

In the camp, Beanie Baby and I devoured a delicious Tofu Curry that we had dehydrated and rested our tired feet after another day of 23 miles. The stream of the stream was clear and cold and knew incredible, and we will definitely lose us when the water sources are not so abundant along the way.

The last two days of the scapegoat desert were above the tree line on a beautiful crest where it felt as if we could see all Montana! Sometimes it was very windy in such a exposed section of the path, but it felt so well to be above all the living and dead trees and look to the forest and far away to the horizon in the irregular peaks of other mountainous chains.

However, the beautiful ridges in the scapegoat desert did not arrive without a challenge. On our second day in this section, we walk 22 miles and 6,400 feet of elevation gain. The last three miles of ups and downs on the path were especially brutal, and when Beanie Baby and I arrived at the camp we sat down for a while and we did not get up. We also drank one of our breakfast shakes as a recovery milkshake, which definitely helped our bodies to feel better faster.

We finish this section of the path in Rogers Pass and we took a very necessary zero day in Lincoln, Montana! We arrived in the city just in time for a weekend rodeo on July 4 and saw a wild event «Ring of Fire» in which the audience volunteers tried to overcome a bull aggravated by money. We also ate a delicious breakfast in Lincoln, we went to the local library and played a wingspan of the board game, and we went out with Sarah, Kate and Capital. We even caught the radio when leaving the city, which was really pleasant!

Today, Beanie Baby and I will go to our next path of four days before Helena. We cannot wait to see even more of this beautiful path: the CDT has been an incredible adventure so far!

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