Backcountry in Banff, Alberta (TR with p ics)

“Physically back from Banff but not ready to be mentally back. What an amazing trip we had! There were some, uh, roadblocks...but in the end, everything came together and we had a spectacular trip. I'm working on the TR and uploading my pics. The scenery there is sheer backpacking porn. Absolutely unreal.

I need to move out West now...”

“Pics?”

“Man this is like saying...here's this awesome babe in playboy and...and...and....and...there's no pics??

What's up lilmountiangirl!”

“"I need to move out West now..."

lilmountaingirl
11:23:45 AM
8/16/05

Please speak to PSoul immediately, perhaps you can share moving expenses.”

“I have my pics on the pc, but I need to get them uploaded to webshots...I'm working on it. ;-)

“Man this is like saying...here's this awesome babe in playboy and...and...and....and...there's no pics??
trailpacker
1:28:50 PM
8/16/05

Funny you mention that. The 5 days in the backcountry were labelled 1. Centerfold, 2. Softcore, 3. Wet tee-shirt contest, 4. Skinemax, 5. Playmate of the Year and then Day 6 on Eiffel Peak was Pay per View. Porn, I tell ya! As soon as I get them up, I'll post them.”

“Cool!”

“My Pay per view got scrambled at 9500' :(”

“LMAO ~ but at least you got to see the trailer. ;)”

“Sounds like a pretty good trip then!

I think I'm going to start offering a "TT'er Move West" logistics service!

C'mon and join us out here - you'll love it!”

“Can I help you move and then never come back?”

“We need to set up a formal "TT Denver Relocation Services" organization.”

“They just had a big article in Golf magazine about the good golfing in Banff. :D

You on 56k or something? Get those damned pics up!”

“This thing working? I wanna see LMG's porn pics.....”

“That reminds me there was a lot of discussion on the Glacier trip about what it would take to get Y2 out here. I think we might just resort to kidnapping.”

“These are just some miscellaneous pics from Bozeman, MT pre-trip and our touron day at Lake Louise and Lake Morraine. I freakin' love Lake Morraine. It's a tease. ;)

Pre-backcountry:
http://community.webshots.com/album/424531879izYOri”

“Great pics!

They let Phil into Canada? Even after we warned them?”

“they were too polite to turn him away!”

““We are completely harmless, I just wish the Canadian Government would see it that way.” ~MsKatieBear

MsKatie picked me up at home on Thursday afternoon, 8/4/05 around 1:15pm. We had a plane to catch in Philadelphia at 5:30pm and wanted to be sure we had plenty of time. Though we arrived at the airport without any trouble, it seems that trouble was gaining fast on us. Before we even had our e-tickets in hand, the flight had been delayed by about an hour due to “a storm in Minneapolis”. We decided to grab a quick bite to eat and then headed into a little Irish bar in the terminal for a drink (or 3). Feeling pretty happy, we set off to our gate only to discover the flight had been delayed yet again. It was now 2 ½ hours off…exactly the amount of time we had for our layover in Minneapolis.

Needless to say, we finally took off around 7:45pm, after calling Monty to let her know that there was a chance we would be missing our connecting flight. We didn’t really think we would…since Northwest Airlines has about a 55% rate of delay. Our connection was to leave Minneapolis at 9:27pm. After asking the flight attendant what gate we needed (F-10), we inquired about the tight connection and what to do. His response? “I guess you could run really fast.” Gee, thanks.

We landed at 9:21pm, giving us six minutes to get to our connection. After pushing our way through about 22 teenagers who had an hour to get to their flight, we ran…and I mean we RAN through the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. As we passed under each clock, I yelled out the time… “4 minutes! 3 minutes! 2 minutes!” Could they put the gates any further apart? We came screeching to a halt at our gate at precisely 9:27pm, just in time to hear a fellow passenger scream “F***!!!” The flight had already left. We were stuck in Minnesota and since Northwest Air apparently does not control the weather, they refused to put us up for the night. Earliest flight out was 9:20am the following day.

MsKB and I plopped ourselves in the airport, ticked off and ready to cry. We called Monty to let her know we wouldn’t be arriving until the next day. We were ready to call it quits when yet another stranded passenger (this one from Seattle) came to our aid. Katie and I have a history of strange men coming to our rescue. Anyway, he told us to get up and follow him. So we did. Right into a cab. He handed me his cell phone and I reserved a room at the same place he was staying. We checked into the hotel and then met up with Kurt from Seattle who took us into Minneapolis, bought us dinner and drinks and took our mind off the situation.

Friday morning came and our flight actually left on time. It was uneventful which was incredibly helpful, despite the fact we had the two backseats of the plane, directly across from the bathroom. As we descended into Bozeman, MsKB and I literally started shaking with excitement. We all but ran through the airport and out to baggage claim where Monty and PJ were waiting by the giant grizzly bear. I let out a yelp and we went running for them. And the witches were united at last!!! We happily waited for our luggage…which didn’t show up. No packs, no boots, no gear. Ah hell. Thankfully, we found out our bags were coming in on the 1pm flight and would be delivered to Monty’s house for us by that evening. Phew…

The four of us loaded into Monty’s car and headed out for lunch. We ate at the Cat’s Eye which was reallllllly good. We spent the remainder of the afternoon in Walmart and the gear stores gathering the last pieces that we needed for Banff. Lots of food, plenty of fuel and a few odds and ends for the travelers. We were pleased to find our luggage and gear at Monty’s when we returned. Monty’s cousin, Anna, was arriving by car from South Dakota later that night so we went for pizza and Moose Drool, went to the doggy park with Ruffers (the greatest dog ever!) and back home. Then Anna called ~ she had to drive an hour back to SD because she couldn’t find her boots, only to discover her boyfriend had put them in her pack and she had them all along. (So you can see this trip started off really well for all of us). Monty then took us to Molly’s for a few beers before we went home to organize and do a final shakedown of our gear.

By 2am, we were all packed and Anna arrived. We had brief introductions before retiring for the night, excited about the drive and the adventure that lay ahead! If we only knew…

An early wake up call, a trip to Wheat Montana for some strawberry-cream cheese cinnamon buns & coffee and we hit the road! Five people, five states, five packs and five different tastes in music. We laughed our way through Montana ~ stopping in Great Falls for lunch before continuing on to the border.

We were detained at the border and had some technical difficulties which resulted in a difficult decision and about a 5 hour delay in our plans. We called Alpha Male, who was already in Lake Louise and let him know we would be very late. He calmly took charge of the situation, spoke with the people at the hostel and arranged our arrival. He also took time to secure a new permit since we were going to have to modify our route due to the late arrival. We decided to spend Sunday being “tourons” and checking out the sights near Banff.

At 5:30am on Sunday morning, we wearily pulled into Castle Mountain Hostel, fell out of the car and found our way to the beds. I’m quite certain that we were all asleep before our heads hit the pillow. In the past 60 hours, MsKB and I had a grand total of about 8 hours sleep. Ugh…this was going to be interesting.

More to come soon...”

“You left out the part where we sulked like two little kids when told we were leaving Molly's so we could go home and pack ;)”

“Sounds good so far...

Crossing the border into Canada can be a lot of fun. The last time I had to cross, I was visiting a friend who granted us an interview for I documentary I was producing. We got stopped, as I new we would at the border and asked what our business was. I gave the guy our spheel and he said that we would have to wait untill the customs office oppened at 8AM. This was because the gear we had was worth more than $25,000. Whatever.

While waiting we saw 2 guys get stopped and were asked to exit their vechicle. The brought these guys into a back office and about 5 minutes later, we heard groaning. Turns out these douchebags were trying to smuggle some herb across so that their fishing trip would be even better.

As they exited, the officer said, next time, don't hide it in your arse! That is the first place we look.”

“ewww!”

“Can you imagine two stoners sitting down and planning that?

Put it up your butt, man, they'll never look there!

Yah good idea! Gross but good!”

“The Canadian Border Patrol went slap happy pulling people over. I hope others had better luck than we did.

Katie ~ Well, mom shouldn't have made us leave. WTF. Did she not see the scenery IN the bar or notice the $1.25 Fat Tires? Sheesh...”

““And then there were five…” ~ Anna

Kate and I both got up around 8:00am, after a whopping 2 ½ hours of sleep in the Castle Mountain Hostel. We walked over to the little convenience store/gas station desperately needing some caffeine in our systems. We noticed Alpha’s jeep was gone and realized he had gone into Lake Louise to pick up our new permit. Yay! We grabbed a cup of coffee and a muffin and then simply ogled at the beauty of the Canadian Rockies that surrounded us. Driving in when it was dark, we had only seen outlines of these peaks but in full daylight, we were left speechless. “Oh my God” and “Holy Sh*t” were about the extent of our vocabulary.

We found Susan, our friendly hostel caretaker and made sure to thank her for the hospitality and special arrangements they had made for our late arrival. Monty and Anna awoke shortly, also in dire need of some caffeine. Alpha Male returned around the same time. After hello’s and some introductions, we decided to play the part of tourons for the day. The weather was absolutely incredible as we piled into the cars and headed for Lake Louise. Parking is apparently a rare commodity in these parts because it took us forever to find a place. After some skillful parallel maneuvers around a huge rock by AlphaMale, we walked over to the lake.

I’ve seen pictures on many occasions. I did a full research paper on Banff when I was in 6th grade but nothing could have prepared me for that first glance of Lake Louise. The clear blue sky, dark mountains, pristine white glaciers and turquoise waters were breathtaking, to say the least. The view nearly brought MsKB and I to tears as we stood in awe of our surroundings. People swarmed around us, but I was oblivious to most of them as I tried to process what I was seeing. As I snapped photos, I thought to myself “It doesn’t matter how these come out…they will never do this place justice.” I couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful.

We decided to go into the hotel and find a deli for some lunch. After ordering sandwiches and picking up some cold drinks, we headed back down to the lake and found a spot on the rocks. We ate in silence, watching the tourists (that’s us!) and blinking profusely just trying to take it all in. Men in kilts and carrying bagpipes walked past us so we sat and listened to their sounds, carried across the water.

After lunch, we headed to Lake Morraine. I thought Louise was great but Morraine was even more sensational. The colors were even more vibrant and the 10 Peaks stood tall and strong against the sky. Alpha, MsKB and I made our way over the logjams and scrambled up the rocks and boulders for a better view (or simply, another view). We made our way down to the water’s edge where we soaked our feet in the chilly glacial lake. Monty and Anna, evidently smarter than us, took the trail (there was a trail?) up to the rocks. We ran into them again when we came back down.

Eventually we tore ourselves away and headed back to Lake Louise Village. We decided on cheese, chorizo and beer for dinner. Yummy! After purchasing our goods, we went back to the campground (carefully avoiding the electric bear fence) and started a little fire. It was a great chance for Alpha, Monty and MsKB to catch up, as well as Anna and I having the opportunity to get to know everyone better. We decided that Alpha Male wasn’t the appropriate name anymore…he needed to be upgraded due to his cool and collected demeanor and willingness to take care of things in Banff and calm four stir-crazy and semi-frantic women. And so Alpha God was born. (the Alpha Male name is now up for grabs if anyone wants it…)

Alpha cooked up the chorizo while we snacked on cheese and toasted the Banff Buttkicking Adventure that we were about to undertake. Grasshopper beer! They must have known I was coming. After dinner and many laughs (much needed laughs, at that), we retired to our perspective tents. Alpha, Katie and I attempted to squeeze into my Marmot NYX tent in the hopes that we would only need to carry one tent between the three of us. Needless to say, the Alpha-sandwich was a wee bit tight. The poor 6’3” guy was getting smothered on both sides from witches. Hey…we warned him that we cuddle. Tomorrow ~ the backpacking begins!

Backpacking in the backcountry report soon to follow...”

“I demand more hot booty shots of Katie and Ann. Le Meow!”

“Wow, the pics are gorgeous”

““What the F*** do we do now?" ~Anna

We awoke fairly early to blue skies and chilly Canadian Rocky weather. I don’t think Alpha, MsKB or I slept too well since we were cramped in the tent. It was decided two tents would be the way to go for us. We all packed up our gear, did one final check and set out to shuttle the cars. Along the way to the trailhead, we pulled over when we saw a momma bear and her two little cubs frolicking on the side of the road. I was riding with Alpha and didn’t have my camera…but managed to get a decent shot with his. The cubs were really small for it being so late in the summer, we thought. Further up the road, yet another black bear was milling around on the wooded bank. Four bears in less than a mile! Yes!

We arrived at Mosquito Creek Trailhead. Monty and Alpha took off to Helen Lake Trailhead to leave Monty’s car. Anna, MsKB and I sat with the gear and waited patiently for their return, all the while slapping at mosquitoes and shivering slightly in the cool air. Within 30 minutes, they returned. We geared up and headed out! Watch out backcountry ~ here we come!

We were only on the trail about 5 minutes when we started to climb a bit. The trail was well maintained and easy to follow (but what’s this? No blazes???). We stopped about a mile in and regrouped. Monty was tired and nauseous and really struggling. Being sick on the trail is an awful thing and I think we all felt helpless at that point. We decided to take it easy and stop at the Mosquito Creek campground for lunch. I’m not sure where the time went, I was so busy ogling the scenery that it seemed we reached our lunch spot almost instantly, even though it had been 2 hours. There were picnic tables at this established sight which were nice to spread our gear out onto. I grabbed the topos and headed up a little hill to eat and gaze at our route. Alpha joined me shortly and we went over the maps, trying like mad to do our metric conversions and figure out how much climbing we would be doing and how far we were going. By the way, Mosquito Creek earned it’s name. I’ve never seen so many mosquitoes in my life. I think they are addicted to Deet because nothing was keeping them at bay. Miserable little bastards.

After lunch, we set out again…Fish Lakes Campground was our first nights destination but we would first have to traverse North Molar Pass. From the point we left lunch, we had some decent climbing. I’m used to the East and the rocks and roots. The clear paths and constant views really threw me for a loop. I kept wishing my head was on a swivel so I could take it all in. I constantly turned my head back, not wanting to lose sight of any of it. Alpha, Anna and I finally broke through treeline and found ourselves traversing through some rolling meadows. I’ve only seen pictures of places like this and being immersed in it was pretty overwhelming.

When we reached what seemed to be the highest point of the meadow, we tossed our packs down and relaxed. I wandered around the field a bit, snapping pictures and remaining in my constant state of amazement. Anna took an opportunity to catch a little nap. MsKB and Monty soon joined us and plopped down in the field as well. We could see the trail ahead of us, leading up to the scree and North Molar Pass. It didn’t look so daunting from where we sat. I could get used to this kind of hiking. BUT…the blasted horseflies were driving me insane. I stood and swatted and danced and tried to anticipate their next move. They were the size of CT…but not too smart. I think at last count. I had successfully taken out about 21 of them. Ha!

Back on the trail, we stopped briefly to filter some water before our climb. I forged ahead, wanting to check out the little lake. Soon enough, Alpha joined me and we began our ascent of the pass. We found a comfortable pace and stuck with it as we climbed. The nice dirt trail gave way to a scree field and lots of rocks. We kept turning around, keeping our eyes out for MsKB, Anna and Monty. At one point, we lost sight of one of them and stood waiting to see what was going on ~ at last we saw the third so we continued on. I’m not sure how long it took us, but we made it to the top of the pass. A cairn sat waiting, as well as a bit of snow which proved to be irresistible. We dropped our packs, slid down the scree and jumped into the patch of snow. We contemplated sliding down it, but decided it was too wet. Instead, we climbed up the opposite side of the pass, found a big rock and proceeded to sit while we waited on the others.

It was relaxing and amazing to be in the pass and have views in both directions. The peaks kept getting higher, snowier, more jagged and more spectacular. Alpha and I took the opportunity to play “throw rocks at the rock”, which he won, damnit. Not that I’m competitive or anything. I commented that as we sat there, we reminded me of the two judges on the muppet show sitting high above everything else going on. We were wondering how Monty was feeling and contemplating leaving our packs at the top of the pass (cause according to Alpha, there would be no bears there) to go back and make sure everyone was okay. It was unnecessary and soon enough, Anna, MsKB and Monty joined us. I watched as each of them crested the pass and saw the “porn” that lay before us. We took our first backcountry group shot at North Molar Pass.

As we stood up to get going again, Alpha pointed out a backpacker coming up the trail on the side of the pass we were headed to. But wait…there are two, and they are hiking so close together…and they are walking funny and…umm…wait a minute. It’s a BEAR! In about 3 seconds flat, Anna was on her feet, got her pack on and exclaimed “Oh F***! What do we do now?!?!” We get out the cameras! It was hard to tell from the distance whether it was a huge black bear or a grizzly. He stopped, he looked up the pass at us and I’m sure he heard the yelling and smelled us. Slowly he sauntered off the trail, up the bank and disappeared over the ridge. It was a huge adrenaline rush and we were hoping that when we reached the area, we would be able to find his tracks to determine what kind of bear it was. Though I’m not too sure Anna was that thrilled. And me without bear spray…yeah, I’ll lead. Good idea. Take luck! You too!

We descended anxiously over the pass, eyes glued to the trail. Eventually we found his tracks and we think he was a black bear based on what we could tell. I’m hoping someone has a picture that will be the final judgement call. Day 1 in Banff and we have our first wildlife sighting! And we ALL saw it! What a great moment.
We continued along the grassy field, my eyes were scanning the ridge and the valley below, half expecting our four legged friend to make another appearance. Unfortunately, he never did. We crossed over yet another creek and finally caught a glimpse of Fish Lake ~ home for the night!

Fish Lakes also had an established campsite, complete with picnic tables for cooking. Bearbagging here was going to be a breeze, thanks to the set up provided. A large pole with metal “rope”. Unclip, lower the loop, biner your bag to the loop, hoist bag, reclip. Done. Gotta love that kind of ease.

We set up camp quickly, trying to avoid the unrelenting mosquitoes that were gnawing at us. This is the only night where we were not permitted to have a fire. We decided early it would be dinner and the bed…none of us wanted to sit outside and be eaten alive. I found a convenient little area down by the lake where we could sit in the sun and cook our dinner. My Jetboil was debuted here and I’m thrilled to say that I am now on the bandwagon. As we ate, we watched the sun go down over the peaks. The air became chilly and with full bellies, we were ready to call it a night.

Food bags were hung and we mad-dashed for our tents, diving in before allowing the swarms of skeeters to get to us. Monty and Anna immediately got giggling in their tent, I’m thinking they just seam-sealed it and were high on the fumes. Alpha seemed to think someone put a quarter in them. Either way ~ the tired twosome turned into the giggle gals once they were zipped in. MsKB and I settled in immediately and were out cold in no time flat. Ahhhh…life on the trail.

More pictures for y'all to check out:
http://community.webshots.com/album/424649364rUPYsx

Day 2 to be posted soon...”

“DDX ~ no more booty shots for you! One is enough.

Ox ~ Thanks, but sadly, the pictures do not do any justice to the views.”

“I can imagine”

“my god! Looks like the greatest trip ever! Awesome report and killer pics!”

“Great shots LMG!!!!”

“I didn't know a leatherman was a cooking utensil...”

“Thanks y'all! It was definitely the BEST backpacking trip I've ever been on. My head is still spinning from it.

“I didn't know a leatherman was a cooking utensil...”
Leofric1
8:27:10 PM
8/16/05

Well...it worked! Backpackers get confused when they car camp sometimes. ;)”

“What happened to PJ? I thought he was going with you guys? He's in none of the pictures nor is he mentioned mentioned after the Grizzly bear.”

“BTW... I'm only 5'9"... I think I can fit in between two witches easily :D”

“Technical difficulties...pj headed back to DC and didn't make it to Banff. :(

I'll keep that in mind, DDX. :P”

“I wanna go back :(”

““I’m not coming out of the woods unless I’m carrying an entire tree.” ~Alpha God

I woke up around 7:30am and forced myself out of the tent. As I wandered over to the privy, I noticed peaks that I had managed to miss the evening before. How? I have no idea. I went back to camp to change out of my comfy fleece before going to get the food bags. On my way, MsKB and Monty were walking like zombies to get theirs as well. Night of the Living Dead meets Backpackers. Alpha’s bag was already gone and he wasn’t in camp so I wandered down by the lake to find him already cooking away. Early bird!

We huddled around the table, munching on breakfast and sipping hot cocoa out of the fun little origami cups. Have I mentioned that I don’t like Pop Tarts and don’t know why I brought them? Yick. As soon as breakfast was over, we filtered some water, packed up our gear and set out for the second day, already warmed by the hot cocoa, sun and blue skies. Today we would be hiking to Upper Devon Lake. Or was it Lower Devon…

As soon as we left Fish Lakes, we took a side trail past the wardens cabin so that we could take the highline route through the valley and past Moose Lake. This would save us from losing a ton of elevation, just to have to climb it all over again. You weren’t about to hear any complaints from me in this regard. Today, Alpha God took the lead and all was right in the world. We had originally thought that Pipestone Pass would be a great place for lunch but we ended up having some substantial ground to cover, and not wanting to bonk halfway up, we opted to have lunch before the pass. It turned out to be a good call.

Alpha scouted out a nice rocky sitting point on the top of the ridge. He and I tossed down our bags, and big surprise…pulled out the topos. Time for a map check ~ it was becoming customary to look at them every time we stopped. Once I had eaten, I was ready to check out the scenery. After locating the “Saturn”, I discovered a really cool area to scramble some rocks on the side of the ridge. While the others napped and relaxed, I had fun climbing on the boulders, negotiating my way around. MsKB appeared at the top of the ridge and noted that I should change my name to lilmountaingoat. The view of the valley reminded me of the winter scenes that people create. The spruce trees looked so small and insignificant against the landscape, though I know they were immense. We could make out the other trail that ran through the valley and were pleased with ourselves for avoiding it!

Once again, Alpha set out with me on his heels. The climb up to Pipestone was going to be a long, steady one. Although you can see the trail and it’s winding path, it amazes me how steep and tedious it can actually be. Much different than the straight up and downs we have in the East. As we left the grassy ridge, we found ourselves hiking on “the moon”, an area of rock that was barren and strange. I commented several times that I wish I knew more about geology and what causes these vast changes in terrain. After another steep incline, we reached a scree field. Now it seems, we were hiking on purple rocks…or Mars. Somehow Alpha and I managed to lose the actual trail and ended up traversing across an almost sandy embankment. We noted the tracks and wondered if they belonged to moose? Caribou? Deer? Elk? No sign of wildlife but there were tracks all over the place. Noticing the trail running below us, we cautiously made our way down the face of Mars. Immediately in front of us we saw the cairn, indicating that we had reached Pipestone Pass. And again…the views became even more spectacular.

Usually when I hike, I prefer to keep going for long spells and then stop for long breaks. I found myself more than willing to stop whenever and just take in my surroundings. I never tired of the scenery and kept my head going left, right and back to be sure to not miss a beat. MsKB soon came trekking across Mars so I snapped a photo ~ she looked so tiny against the incredibly steep purple scree and I realized how my perception was off. It didn’t seem that she was so far away, yet she was this little thing hiking her way to us. As always, we spent time on the pass, talking and laughing, and oh…looking at the topos. I think the most uttered phrase was “Kim, may I see the topos?” followed by “Allie, what time is it?” She was the only one smart enough to wear a watch.

From Pipestone Pass, we did not have much of a descent. MsKB took the lead and set a nice comfortable pace for all of us to follow. We sang our way to Clearwater Pass (#2 for the day). MsKB and I struggled with the words to Copacabana while AlphaGod kept it real with “Sunshine on My Shoulders”. Our eyes were peeled for the spur trail over Clearwater as our legs were being torn up by incredibly annoying shrubbery. Sheesh ~ don’t they do trail maintenance in the backcountry?

We managed to miss the spur trail…oh, we saw it, but we walked right on by it. My fault, to be honest. Nobody was worried since we knew we had to go over the pass and there was only one direction to do that. Being above treeline (almost), made it relatively easy. I finally decided to take a scouting mission straight up over a steep embankment to see what was there. It ended up being a wise move, as I saw the trail about 100 yards off at the top of the climb. The wind had picked up substantially and it was getting cold. I hollered down to the rest of the group to come on up. Again, we broke out the topos to see how much further we had to go. Maybe a mile, maybe less…and no climbing this time!

The headwind was less than pleasant as we traversed over Clearwater Pass. My hands and my legs were stinging from the cold and I was relieved to see Upper Devon Lake looming not far from us. Though as we passed over the ridge, about 9 people, without backpacks, emerged from a small lake to our right. They seemed to be yelling and walked toward us. Unsure of who they were and what was going on, we kept at it. I think they came out on the trail, but we never saw another tent or them again. Maybe they were “pod people”?

We quickly realized that being above treeline meant that bear bagging was going to be a challenge. We took note of a giant 13’ boulder as we searched for a nice flat, dry place to put up our tents. In between two small creeks ended up being the ideal location. We all set up our tents, almost losing mine in the wind, and pitched them as tight as possible.

Alpha and I went in search of firewood while MsKB, Anna and Monty filtered water for everybody. It was an easy way to disperse the duties ~ all of us helping in any way we could. The cold wind forced us into our fleece, wool caps and gloves. Storm clouds loomed in the distance and we rushed to get the fire going so we could have some warmth while we cooked dinner. It worked! Everyone but Anna had brought Enertia meals so we chatted about what goes best in each one. I had brought a summer sausage to chop up into mine and ended up sharing it with Alpha, who had spaghetti on this cold evening. Yummmm! I swear that backpacking food is the best food ever ~ nothing ever tastes as good as dinner on the trail. Alpha had brought along Enertia Blueberry Cheesecake and prepared it for us. I think it made two passes around the circle before it was gone. Yeah…it was alright.

After dinner, we washed up a bit and cleaned our dishes. Alpha, MsKB and I took pulls of Jack Daniels and Black Velvet to warm ourselves from the inside as well. When the drops of rain threatened, we decided to head to the tents. Alpha and I gathered the food bags and made our way back to the giant boulder to rig them up. I climbed to the top, securing the bags together with a biner while Alpha patiently adjusted the lines, readjusted, and readjusted some more. When all was said and done, we had a pretty efficient bearbagging accomplishment. We were still a bit nervous because there was a lot of digging around the area so we knew that there was definitely bear activity. We hoped that our system, along with the impending bad weather, would keep them away for the night.

MsKB retired to bed while the rest of us gathered in Monty’s tent to play cribbage and pitch. Alpha preceded the game by telling us whenever he and one of his friends play, if HE wins…they get crappy weather. Splendid. I had the greatest hand ever, sure to win the game…but Anna had other plans and she and Alpha ended up winning before I could count my hand. #*$&#( B# $#&$!!!! Just as well because the rain started to fall so we dispersed to our tents and called it a night.

Still more to come...long winded, aren't I? ;)”

““I wanna go back :(”
MsKatiebear
12:04:10 AM
8/17/05

PSoul is packing for a one way trip to Denver. Told him to swing by and get me. We'll stop at your house next. It's on the way. ;-)”

“I'm thinking a one way trip to Bozeman or Kalispell. We can stop by Denver on the way.”

“We're taking over the Rockies!

Don't forget to kidnap ENS.
last edited: 8/16/05 11:17:02 PM”

“Perhaps. We shall see...

But I've still got the Rockies on my mind.

Nice TR/Pics (so far) by the way. I think we're going to have to add Banff to our to-go list.”

“Banff makes Glacier look like the East.

You have to go there Phantom!”

“I like the one way trip to Bozeman or Kalispell idea.

PSoul ~ you HAVE to go to Banff. Have to!

And kidnapping ENS shouldn't be hard. He doesn't seem to have a problem with moving. We'll just lure him with the porn pictures. ]:)”

“Kalispell is closer to Glacier and Banff but, within striking distance of Yellowstone.

I vote Kalispell!”

“Second! Excellent points!

Do they have Wheat Montana there? ]:)”

“:O

NO! Shoot. I guess we'll have to go w/ Bozeman or Helena then.”

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Open
Mon through Sat: 6:30 - 6:00
Sunday: 8:00 - 4:00

Location
405 S. Main St.
Kalispell, MT 59901
(406) 257-6530

Right off the website...maybe you and I could open up a franchise? bwahahahaha”

“There is a GOD and he is a good god!!!!!!

Kalispell here we come!!!!!!!!”

“Helena is weird, i looked at it a few years back.

I've been thinking Missoula - a little better job market than Kalispell.

But, if your really lookin to check out of society in general and truly "live the dream" then we should just band together and go double the population of Polebridge, MT.”