Bob Marshall Loop Trail?

“I'm planning a trip into the Bob Marshalls the first two weeks of August. I have a party of four, and we plan to hike 75-95 miles over ten days. I'm hoping to set up a loop trail which includes the China Wall. Anybody have some experience in this area the can share? Thanks..”

“Bob Marshall. Didn't he ride in the pace car at the Indy 500 or Daytona?”

“No not that Bob Marshall. The Bob Marshall that helped to set aside 5.5 million acres in Montana for us hikers to find some solitude in this life.”

“It is just South of Glacier NP. Sorry, I can't help you, but surely someone will. I would like to hike there some day. I here it is quite pristine and very wild.”

“Has anyone noticed how little attention threads that have to do with real backpacking get here?

I have no experience with the Bob Marshall Wilderness, sorry. But I do hope you will share yours when you get back. I hear it is a great place. Have a great time papa!”

“PapaPat, have you already checked out GORP? They have some Bob Marshall loop trails that are 75-100 miles.”

“,,,who's "papa"?

Where do you hike, mg?
I've hiked the Sawtooths (Alice/Toxaway loop) and Lemhis in ID. Three days in the Lemhis, and I saw one other person - a ranger doing trail audits. The Tooths were surprisingly scarce, too.

I'll drive to ID again this summer, and would like to try a couple different areas. I'll likely do a trip in the Tooths with The Friendly Ranger (yeah - she works me like a dog!). Other than that, I'm not sure of other hikes. I have the hot springs web site bookmarked (thanks!), and might do an overniter to one of the more remote ones. I'm leaning toward the White Clouds, and maybe the Lost Rivers (I'd like to summit Borah as a feather in my highpoint hat), but again - nothing's chiseled in stone.

The Bob has always intrigued me. It looks DAMN REMOTE on the maps, but it doesn't seem to have a lot of high elevation. I likes elevation - treeline bores me - alpine kicks ass! My bro lives in Challis, kinda the gateway to the Bob.

Tell me EVERYTHING about the Gem State!”

“D'oh!
I got it confused with the Frank Church, which IS in ID...
/o:
Plus, I thought mg's post was the first (TT today).
I'm such a
a...
a...

A HELLUVA MAN!
hehehee!”

“I hope the trip goes well, I'm only familiar with the Sierra Navada, so I don't have much advice.”

“Don't feel bad gojo...a lot of people confuse Bob Church and Frank Marshall...
;-)

btw, I'm with you on the high country--I'm addicted to mountains that have a) glacial lakes, and b) peaks above timberline. From the maps I've browsed, Frank Church does have some areas of that--especially the Bighorn Crags (I've seen some pics, and they look great). I've also always been intrigued by the Selway-Bitterroot, which has some great-looking areas (the Bitterroots, and the Selway Crags).

But so far it's all armchair. I'm still getting to know the Sierra...and there's so much left to explore...”

“gojo:
I like the Frank Church / River of No Return Wilderness. If you are away from the Salmon river floaters it has great solitude and wildlife. The Frank is not as scenic as the Sawtooth. The Frank has airstrips inside the wilderness. Some special arrangement. They can land planes but can?t use motorized equipment to maintain the strips. A good trip is to fly into the Chamberlain Basin and hike out. If you want a wetter, more dense forest try the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness to the north of the main Salmon River. In the Sawtooth I like to go into ten lakes basin (Redfish to Cramer Lakes over the pass to the basin). Hell Roaring lake to ImoGene and over to the top to Toxiway is OK. ImoGene and Cramer are used pretty heavy but the 2nd day you are past them and alone. There are some lakes in the southern part of the Sawtooth that the Forest Service purposely has not build trails into. They are a bushwackers preserve. Another approach to the Sawtooth is to come in from Graham on the west side. The drive to Graham is tough but there is an airstrip there. Fly in and hike to redfish. (I need to learn to fly) The White Clouds are NOT wilderness by designation but wilderness by remoteness. There are two main lake basins that are usually approached from the east side. Don?t rule out the Seven Devils over by the deepest canyon in the US of A (Hells Canyon). The Lost River Range is high, rugged and desolate. If you are in Idaho you should partake of some of our whitewater. You can catch a trip for from a few hours to a week long. Of course there is also the little uses Gospel Hump Wilderness.”

“BTW - Not much snow this year in Idaho. The passes may be clear before August.”

“Thanks for the tip Tehipite. I did find the 75-100 mile loop on the GORE sight and it fits with exactly what I want. The only drawback that I've discovered after talking with a Ranger at Spotted Bear is that there are a lot of horse pack trains in that area. Should be a new and exciting experience.

Gojo--I do most of my hiking in SE Alaska and in Kluane Park in the Yukon. I agree with you about being in the alpine. Kluane offers a lot of alpine and wide open spaces filled with grizzley, caribou, dall sheep, lynx, wolf and many other of God's little creatures. I have spent 14 day backpack trips in Kluane and never see a person.”

“Idaho is great.

I did my Lemhi hike with a goat packer. A month after our hike, he went into the Church for 30 days. Thirty freakin days! Man... what a trip!

The Whites looked pretty inviting from the Tooths.

Lost Rivers - yeah, lots of elevation.

I wouldn't expect anywhere to be MORE spectacular than the Tooths. "The Tetons of Idaho". I could do them again (and again!). I've selected several multi-day loops on my map - armchair, mind you.”

“Gojo: Hey, being as I was born in Mullen, Idaho sounds like I need to go back to my home state and do some trekking. You have primed my curiosity in what is offered in the good state of IDAHO.”

“Papa -
Nowhere else have I experienced the sights that I saw on the Lemhis hike (my first in the west). I summited Iron Creek Point - 11,750 ft. From there I could see The Lost Rivers, Church, Bitterroots, White Clouds, Tetons, and others. Freaking mountains for 360 degrees! I can imagine how Lewis and Clark must have felt when they had the same experience.
Them: "Holy &%$#! Are we EVER gonna get out of these mountains?!"

There's one particular mountain in the White Clouds that I'd like to check out. It's a volcanic cone (so it appears) that looks like a perfectly conic-shaped pile of yellow sand - no trees, no color variation. I could see it from the Tooths at the divide between Alice and Toxaway. It's a big mountain - mebbe 10,000 ft.

Dang! C'mon July!”