What lays ahead in the following month is literally a dream come true. At the start of the first week of August, my younger brother, Benton, and myself with four other friends will be setting out into the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex for a 10 day horse and mule pack trip. Benton, with our friend Otis, and I have driven from Santa Barbara with four mules to Pray, Montana where we are staying at our friends ranch before we pack up and start the ride. The others are still on their way to the ranch, so I’ve had some time to kill and settle in. Our goal is to cover 100 miles of trail, (in a system that has over 1,000 miles of trail) but because some days will just be day hikes or day rides, we will most likely walk more.
I have back packed California and South and Central America, and have rode my fair share of horses and mules from growing up on a ranch in Big Sur, but since I was little I have always wanted to do a LONG distance horse pack trip in pristine wilderness. And now its happening! We will be mostly west of the Continental Divide, traveling deep into the Montana wilderness, a country so vast and wide and said to be ideal horse country.
The Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex is the last habitat in the lower forty-eight states for the grizzly bear and provides crucial habitat to the endangered gray wolves as well. Hopefully we wont have any grizzly “problems” or dangerous encounters. Our groups knowledge and experience combined gives me faith that we are going in well prepared and will be safe. As a biology nerd and avid naturalist I am ecstatic at the chance of getting too see a whole array of wildlife and biodiversity in one of the best months to visit.
Rocky Mountain summer weather never fails to be constantly changing between rain storms, hail or hot and dry temps. We are expecting to cross high passes that will still have at least 5 feet of snow and may possibly have to re-figure our path if some rivers are too high to pass. As the result of late snow melt, we are figuring that we need to pack in extra horse feed, so that will limit the number of ride-able mules for the first few days. As a result, Benton and I (as the youngest in the group) will get the pleasure of hiking a considerable amount of miles on foot. If being in such a beautiful place isn’t enough to give me a new perspective on life, I’m sure that walking behind a farting mule for 50 miles will clear my head!
Follow the link on more information about the B.M. Wilderness Complex if your curious:
http://visitmt.com/categories/moreinfo.asp?IDRRecordID=730&siteid=1
"There is just one hope of repulsing the tyrannical ambition of civilization to conquer every niche on the whole earth. That hope is the organization of spirited people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness. In a civilization which requires most lives to be passed amid inordinate dissonance, pressure and intrusion, the chance of retiring now and then to the quietude and privacy of sylvan haunts becomes for some people a pyschic neccesity. The preservation of a few samples of undeveloped territory is one of the most clamant issues before us today. Just a few more years of hesitation and the only trace of that wilderness which has exerted such a fundamental influence in molding American character will lie in the musty pages of pioneer books...To avoid this catastrophe demands immediate action."
— Robert Marshall, co-founder, The Wilderness Society
I have back packed California and South and Central America, and have rode my fair share of horses and mules from growing up on a ranch in Big Sur, but since I was little I have always wanted to do a LONG distance horse pack trip in pristine wilderness. And now its happening! We will be mostly west of the Continental Divide, traveling deep into the Montana wilderness, a country so vast and wide and said to be ideal horse country.
The Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex is the last habitat in the lower forty-eight states for the grizzly bear and provides crucial habitat to the endangered gray wolves as well. Hopefully we wont have any grizzly “problems” or dangerous encounters. Our groups knowledge and experience combined gives me faith that we are going in well prepared and will be safe. As a biology nerd and avid naturalist I am ecstatic at the chance of getting too see a whole array of wildlife and biodiversity in one of the best months to visit.
Rocky Mountain summer weather never fails to be constantly changing between rain storms, hail or hot and dry temps. We are expecting to cross high passes that will still have at least 5 feet of snow and may possibly have to re-figure our path if some rivers are too high to pass. As the result of late snow melt, we are figuring that we need to pack in extra horse feed, so that will limit the number of ride-able mules for the first few days. As a result, Benton and I (as the youngest in the group) will get the pleasure of hiking a considerable amount of miles on foot. If being in such a beautiful place isn’t enough to give me a new perspective on life, I’m sure that walking behind a farting mule for 50 miles will clear my head!
eFollow the link on more information about the B.M. Wilderness Complex if your curious:
http://visitmt.com/categories/moreinfo.asp?IDRRecordID=730&siteid=1
"There is just one hope of repulsing the tyrannical ambition of civilization to conquer every niche on the whole earth. That hope is the organization of spirited people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness. In a civilization which requires most lives to be passed amid inordinate dissonance, pressure and intrusion, the chance of retiring now and then to the quietude and privacy of sylvan haunts becomes for some people a pyschic neccesity. The preservation of a few samples of undeveloped territory is one of the most clamant issues before us today. Just a few more years of hesitation and the only trace of that wilderness which has exerted such a fundamental influence in molding American character will lie in the musty pages of pioneer books...To avoid this catastrophe demands immediate action."
— Robert Marshall, co-founder, The Wilderness Society
No comments:
Post a Comment