We started out at the foot of Bowman Lake on Sunday morning. The cool weather and intermittent showers were perfect for the 7 mile ramble to our campsite at the head of the lake.
We awoke the next morning to cloudy skies that just kept dropping lower. From Bowman Lake we proceeded to climb up towards Brown Pass. The rain came in waves, pushed in by gusts of cold wind. The trail wound up through a thick green tunnel of brush that ensured we were constantly soaked, even when the rain abated. This was our lunch stop, before the last push up to the pass.
To get to Hole-in-the-Wall campground, you have to follow a spur trail for almost a mile, dropping down into an open alpine bowl that serves as an excellent example of a hanging valley. By the time we rolled into camp it was sleeting sideways and we were all narrowly focused on staying warm, getting fed, and huddling in our sleeping bags as soon as possible. This is the food prep area at the site the next morning, and you can see that we were just below the freezing level. I'm extremely proud of that tarp shelter, by the way.
Day 3 brought the promise of better weather with sucker holes of blue sky passing overhead. On the way back to the main trail we heard a mamma grizzly huffing at us from the brush. It's a sound few people get to hear, and it was all the more disconcerting because we couldn't actually see her. Making lots of noise and singing silly songs, we began our trek up to Boulder Pass. This is the view on the way up - you'd never believe it was 90 degrees only a week ago.
The trail up the pass was marked with rock cairns and took us over jumbles of pillow basalt (a rarity in a mostly sedimentary area), around stromatolites (a fossilized blue-green algae, one of the first forms of life), and up boulder fields covered in 4 to 6 inches of fresh snow. In the picture below you can see the west side of the pass, looking up from Boulder campsite. That's Boulder Peak to the right, and by the time we started coming down the other side the weather was definitely on its way out. This time we went about setting up camp in a much more leisurely matter, laying out wet clothes to dry, sunning ourselves on rocks, and enjoying the views from the open air toilet. It's amazing how relaxed you feel when your survival isn't in question.
The next morning a delegation set out to explore Boulder Peak. The sucker holes were winning over the clouds and it felt wonderful to walk around without feeling like a pack animal. Carmel is the gal on the left, Scot is the gentleman in the middle (luckiest guy in Montana right there), and yours truly being really bright on the right.
From the ridge we had some spectacular views, such as Pocket Lake and Kintla Peak in the photo below.
From Boulder Pass we shouldered our packs once more and descended another 2800 feet to Upper Kintla Lake. Below you can see an example of executing a bear hang. As big as that bundle looks, imagine how big and heavy it was three days ago.
One of my favorite things about backpacking is the backcountry pedicure. Simply mahvelous, dahling. (Actually, it's a bit of Second Skin on top of a blister. Details).
Day 5 took us from Upper Kintla Lake up and over its terminal moraine to Kintla Lake for our last night in the woods. On our final day we had about 7 miles ahead of us and a 12:00 lunch date. You only get these kind of pictures when you're up before the sun is.
3.5 hours later we interrupted Kiandra from her spot in the sun so she could serve us some grub. That deli lunch as never tasted so good. From L to R: Kiandra, some stumpy kid, Jamsheed, Terry, Judy, Scot, Peter, and Tyler (Carmel is behind the camera).
One last look at Kintla Lake. Note the absence of snow on the mountain tops. The wonderful thing is that after persevering through conditions like we had, it made the rest of the trip that much better by comparison. You can't truly appreciate the beauty of a place until you've experienced it in a full spectrum of its moods.
Thanks again, Carmel, for the photographs, and thanks to everyone for a wonderful trip!
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