Several months ago I was reading through a Backpacker magazine when I stumbled over an article requesting applicants to apply for an adventure of sorts to help map out sections of the CDT (Continental Divide Trail). The ultimate goal of the project was to provide photographs, precise navigation instructions and descriptions of each and every mile covered on the CDT. I immediately thought that this was the perfect opportunity, a calling of sorts, for me. Our team spent months upon months of planning and the name "Continental Dream Team" surfaced during our conference calling.
Our team included me(the only female) from Colorado, Mike from Texas, Jim from Idaho and Miguel from Panama who had every intention to map out a section in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Lewis Camp. Not one to challenge mother nature, the forest fire especially the Ahorn fire closed all opportunity of completing our mission. Even though plans had changed and new routes were suggested the team met in Great Falls on Sunday, August 5th then turned the Subaru Impreza Northeast for Glacier National Park.
The backcountry ranger at Glacier's Two Medicine office managed to set us up with, in her opinion, one of the best routes we could ever possibly route. We would later discover, she was right. Somebody must have been looking out for us. As reserved sites were cancelled at the last minute and openings that the ranger orginally thought were filled, were not.
After breakfast, we began our hike at the north shore trailhead of Two Medicine Lake and proceeded up over Dawson Pass to Cut Bank Pass, skirted the northern edge of Pitamakan Pass and camped at Morning Star Lake. Special treats of the day were the wildlife sightings of a nice bull moose and bighorn sheep. Miguel was like a kid in the candy store snapping photos and admiring the wildflife. As I would be to if I were hiking in the jungles of Panama where Miguel was from. Day two took us over Triple Divide Pass to Split Mountain where we were engulfed with the southern edge of the 2006 Red Eagle Creek wildfire.
The black charred remains was an upsetting sight but the life of the one year old ground foliage was a glimmer of hope for the burn area. We spent an uneventful night at Red Eagle FT campground where Mike and I played a round of 500 rummy before hitting the hay. I refused to lose especially to Mike who thought he was guaranteed to win. The morning rolled around with Miguel wanting to leave the depressing site of the burn area. Hoping to raise the spirits of my teammates I thought this would be a perfect morning to bake some hot, delicious homemade apple cinnamon coffee cake.
After breakfast and packing up our packs covered in soot and ash, we hiked around the mountain range to Saint Mary Lake, Virginia Falls and the Reynolds Creek backcountry campground. When we stopped for lunch we felt the need to compare our blistering feet with one another and rebandage as needed. Dreading putting the hiking boots on, Jim and I went ahead as the pain felt greater throbbing from their blistered heels and aching legs when we stopped. Onward to the campground.
While waiting for Miguel and Michael, who stopped at some of the most amazing falls to capture some photos, Jim and I were shocked when "Nate", aka "Fireball" as Miguel had rightfully labeled him, met at Morning Star. Nate whipped his pack off his back and propped it up against the tree by the entrance of our site. He began with small talk about how he had hiked onto the Going-to-the-Sun-Road, caught a ride to Rising Sun, showered and after that endulged in one of the best ice cream cones of his life. After the brief moment of envying him and feeling sorry for myself he open the lid of his Osprey pack and presented us with an ice cold 6 pack of Bud! Fireball bought our beer and made it back to Reynolds Creek well before we were reunited again with the other half of the Continental Dream Team. After we polished off the six pack, Firball pulls out yet another six pack! Those ice cold hops in a can made all our aches and pains vanish instantly! The next day, Nate exchanged e-mails then continued his solo adventure to Waterton Lake and eventually to Canada.
Day four took us to Gunsight Lake through an amazing valley with hundreds of waterfalls surrounding us. The coolness of the lake provided us with a refreshing opportunity to take a dip then relax by the lake side to take in the beautiful surroundings. While we sat on the shore, two fly fishermen were casting their lines. The lake, we were told, had some of the best fresh water trout fishing. As they cast and reeled in they finished the late afternoon with four catches that rounded off our evening dinner later that night.Steamed trout and a new trail concoction of pecan cranberry honey glaze was a special treat for the entire team! That night we experienced our first rain storm during the evening, thankful that it happened then versus when we were camping in the burn area earlier in our trip. The vast openness from Gunsight Lake to Gunsight Pass was spectacular. We passed several snowfield and stopped for a few Kodak moments. Miguel had only read or heard about snow and to experience this massive snowfield and Miguel experiencing it was a vision I was excited to witness.
We stayed our last night at Sperry campground where we met a park ranger named Liz and her girl friend who were hiking out to Lake McDonald the next morning. After dinner we went to Sperry Chalet for “social night” with hot coffee, tea and cocoa. Board games and cards were played throughout the chalet while a competitive game of Uno took place at our table. Our park ranger friend was good enough to shuttle us all the way from Lake McDonald to Saint Mary. We spent the evening at her ranger house ate pizza, talked and watched Michael entertain us for a few hours before deciding to call it quits.
Although Michael and Jim had to leave Miguel and I continued on from Great Falls toward the Teton range. Along this road trip through backcountry roads we happened to pick up a man with a boat oar. Through our conversation with this gentleman we discovered that the night would be filled with a meteor shower. We made our way to Yellowstone where we first pulled into a resort of sorts. We thought we might luck out and they would have some rooms available. To our dismay the answer was no. We went back to the car and put the shifter into gear. We started to roll out of the parking lot but a spur of the moment decsion Miguel and I went back to pick up two bottles of wine and some wine glasses.
To the campground we went where we discovered there were no more sites avaible but the ranger at the campground agreed to let us stay in the day time picnic area which was far better than any site. We had a wide open view of the dark starry sky. I will always wonder why me? Why was I selected to be part of the Continental Dream Team and not some other girl? The team, the people I met and the experiences that I had on my journey has made a great impression on me.
Maybe the right question to be asking should be, why not me?
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