Journal July 29 – A Little Sleep Deprived
Slept in, but the body still needed rest. As happens often, we stayed up later in town and return to the trail needing to sleep.
Long climb out of Ontario creek, but eventually the trail leveled out and we rolled along alternating between trail tread and jeep tread. Surrounding us is a forest of mostly young Lodgepole pine and an understory of Whortleberry. Occasional ripe Strawberris continue to delight The Carrot.
We entered the Little Blackfoot Meadows proposed wilderness area and took an alternate walk down to the meadows and up a creek basin – our first walk along water in well over a week. We lunched in the shade near a delightful creek; unfortunately, so did the mosquitoes.
The valley seems remote, and we are told the upper reaches are a likely Grizzley Bear denning site. We haven’t seen a soul since seeing a couple of day hikers just south of MacDonald pass yesterday. Our feeling of solitude is broken only by the tire tracks on the trail from motorcycles, who aren’t supposed to be in this area.
We return to the crest and the trail follows the divide. Here the divide is mostly forested, with an occassional meadow. The slopes are gentle and there are marshy pockets amongst the meadows. The water in the marshes is brackish and liberally laced with Elk sign – not good for drinking, but excellent breeding ground for hordes of hungry mosquitoes. They follow us closely as we walk faster and faster. We’re unable to out walk them. When we need to stop and consult the map in an unmarked meadow, we first pull out the deet, then read the map quickly and move on.
We gain a dry ridge, forested but with a light breeze and fewer mosquitos. It’s a bit lumpy, but light is fading, so we’ll make do and make camp.
Miles – approx 18.1
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