At the end of August 2019 I did a roughly 100 mile (160 km) solo crossing of Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness at the border of Montana and Idaho in the US. This wilderness is the third largest wilderness area in the lower 48, that is, not counting the wilderness areas in Alaska. It took me 9 days to do the crossing. This long blog post is a dump of my experiences during those days, accompanied by pictures.
I used to visit the US during my PhD. studies and also later with several employers. Most of the times during those visits I was based in California, and it gave me lots of opportunities to visit local areas over there. However, after some time I started eyeing various other places, especially in north-west, and I very quickly got attracted to Selway-Bitterroot and the surrounding areas. It was just a matter of time before I organized myself and decided it was time to do a serious backpacking, multi-day trip in Montana and Idaho. I decided to do it solo, not because I like being alone in particular, but mostly because it would be extremely hard to get someone on board this trip, to go together.
Therefore, happy reading…and even in case you don’t want to read, you can just check out the pictures at the end of each day.
Day 0 – Missoula
I arrived to Missoula in Montana on August 23rd, a day after we finished the work at the DARPA subterranean challenge which I attended as part of my current job. I had one day to prepare everything for starting tomorrow: buy food, a bear canister, gas cartridge, waterproof matches, and lots of other small things from a really long list I compiled back home. The most obvious way in the US to buy outdoor equipment is of course REI, which was my main shop for the day.
I was quite worried about the weight of food I was going to take with me. Normally, for 2-3 day trips you don’t deal with this for more than 5 minutes. My plan was, however, to spend 9 full days in the wilderness, with 2 extra days of food in case I got stuck somewhere. That is a lot of food to carry! And because I had only one day to prepare, there was no way to optimize, or buy anything special and lightweight. I decided that the best bet would be to buy the usual modern freeze dried food for each meal, while having a bit of bread and cheese for lunch for the first four days to keep some variety.
Originally, I thought I would go for 3500 calories per day. When I got to REI and started counting the calories of each meal, including the sweet bars, I was laughing. There was no way to reasonably pack 3500 calories a day of freeze dried food for 11 days. No way. I would probably have to have something like 15 kg of food! I lowered my expectations, I factored in the fact that I’m not an average adult but much lighter – I weigh about 57 kg. After about half a day of shuffling the food and going back and forth between the hostel and REI I settled to about 2400 calories per day.
As I was sorting out the food in REI I constantly had in mind the bear protection. In Slovakia we have bears and I’ve hiked with my friends and solo in bear country there, but the US parks in the northwest are pretty famous for having lots of bears. In Scotland there are no bears of course. One of my priorities was to make sure I am able to ideally not encounter any bears or to lose any food to them.
The most obvious idea was to buy the bear canister, but it is really heavy, and for 11 days worth of food it is not that easy…with the food I was going to buy, I could fit in maybe 5-7 days into the biggest can which itself weighed 1.1kg. I therefore went for the second option: smell proof bags and the Ursacks. These are sacks made of a bullet-proof fabric, are much lighter than bear cans, and are hung on tree branches to make the food unreachable to the bears. I didn’t really like these sacks, because how do you actually get the sack, when you are solo, high up to a tree branch maybe 2-3 meters above the ground? But anyway, bear can was not really an option due to its weight and the fact that I’d have to buy two of them to get all the food in. Having some of the food out essentially means the same as not having any bear can at all.
As I was browsing through bear cans and Ursacks I stumbled upon bear bells, which are small bells used to make noise to make the bears aware of you. I thought this was a good idea, since I was going solo, so I took one as well. As I was leaving, I started chatting to a REI employee:
“Looks like a nice trip you’re having here, where are you going, to the Glacier?”
I replied: “No, Selway-Bitterroot, for up to 9 days.”
“Cool, do you have a bear spray?”
“Nah, it’s too heavy, I’m going to Selway-Bitterroot, and there are no grizzlies, I think I should be fine.”
“Yeah, but we had one grizzly wandering there this spring, and besides, the grizzly territory is really close, just north of that.”
I start hesitating. Should I get the spray? Maybe he’s right. 330 grams is quite a lot, but maybe I can still carry it. But I know I am quite bear proof and the probability of a direct encounter is generally quite low so I think I’m fine:
“I’ll think about it, but I think I should be fine. But I’ll give it a thought, thanks.”
“No worries, you know, I really am not trying to make a sale here. I know it’s $45, quite expensive, but you never know.”
“The price is not a problem for me, given a couple hundred dollars I’ve already spent on all I have here. The weight is an issue – it’s super heavy.”
“Of course, but you know, the spray is like an insurance, like a seat-belt in a car. I don’t think you’ll need it, but you never know…I just don’t want you to be that guy they write about in the news, you know?”
At the end I decide not to buy it on this trip to the shop, but I returned there in the evening and bought the spray. I thought I would take it if I have some spare space in the pack or just leave it in the hostel. The guy was really happy…
I ended up the day very late: packing, unpacking, reducing the amount of food and clothes. I am happy I didn’t have a scale with me, otherwise I would know how heavy the backpack was and I think I would not go for this trip. That would be a pity.
At the end, when I was getting happy with everything, I tried to walk with the pack for 5 minutes inside the hostel, and it felt fine. Sort of. It had maybe 23-25kg – a pretty lame weight optimization, even for a solo trip. But, eleven days is eleven days I guess.
And I didn’t take the bear spray due to weight…which I regretted later, although nothing really happened.
Day 1 – Starting Up And Big Creek Lake
In the morning I still wasn’t happy with the backpack and the weight, and so I removed quite a few cereal bars and decided to remove lunches from my two extra days of food. My original plan was to start as early as I could in the morning, but due to more content shuffling I finally got to leave only around 10 am.
Since in this part of the US there are literally no buses (sigh!), I took an Uber to a place called Lolo and started hitch hiking to get to Big Creek trailhead, about 30 miles down south from Lolo. I was super lucky because after 5 minutes a nice guy stopped for me and drove me all the way to the trail head, where we got at around noon. Unfortunately I don’t remember his name anymore.
With all set, I fired up my Garmin inReach, sent the first message to my family and friends, and started walking along the trail. Generally I was quite curious how busy it would be and whether I would see any wildlife. Not familiar with a US wilderness, it all looked pretty wild all the way from the beginning, quite unlike the hiking trails in Europe.
In the first two to three miles I met maybe four or five people. Most were curious about how long I was going for – I guess mainly due to my backpack size. I thought I really wouldn’t be that solo after all. How wrong was I! In fact, the five people I met right close to the trail head were the only people I saw for the next seven days…quite interesting!
This initial part of the wilderness is generally quite straightforward and easy – with steady climbing along Big Creek, and some nice views into the valley. I was making a good progress and I was quite surprised that the weight of the backpack was not giving me that much trouble in this section. I guess my body was not yet realizing what it was asked to do…
I arrived at Big Creek lake around 6pm and immediately started to prepare for making dinner to be able to find a good spot to hang the Ursacks before dusk. From day one I decided I was going to be meticulous about keeping my sleeping area absolutely free of any food and cooking. No cooking in or near the tent, ideally 25 to 50 meters away, and hanging the Ursacks ideally at least 30 meters away. This was a rule I followed for the whole duration of the trip and nothing happened to me during the nights generally. I also made fire every night it was possible.
After each meal I packed all the food to the Ursacks, including creams, gels, toothpaste and toothbrush and whatnot. In the mornings, because I had lots of food and it was not possible to just stuff the full Ursacks into the backpack, I had to pack and repack everything. This was probably the most annoying thing during the trip and it slowed me down quite a lot.
Day 2 – Packbox pass
The first night was pretty quiet but still, I kept wondering whether a bear would visit me or not. Nothing happened and nothing moved during the night. I woke up to a beautiful morning with clear skies, a bit cold so I had to put some clothes on for breakfast.
The goal for the day was to get to the junction of Colt Killed Creek and Big Flat Creek (trail no. 50 and 71). The next day I would continue to ascend to Hidden Creek Ridge. For that I had to first climb to Packbox pass. During the ascent I started feeling the backpack and it slowed me down a little bit but it wasn’t a big deal. My priority was to keep a slower but steady pace to save my knees for later.
The views during the ascent were very nice. The lake was beautiful and I could see all the high peaks on the north side of the valley: Ranger Peak, Old Stormy and Heavenly Twins, all of them climbing up to 2900 meters. Before the trip I was contemplating to include the ridge which has all these peaks and just get directly to Packbox pass but there generally is no trail. With a 20+ kg backpack this might not even be a good idea due to potential for some scrambling. Add to that a solo status, and that is quite a good recipe for a disaster.
Getting to Packbox pass, I was quite happy I didn’t go for the high ridge to get to the pass. It was just enough to satisfy my appetite, and the backpack weight was starting to take some toll on me. I enjoyed the views and started descending further south along Packbox Creek.
This was where the trail started to get a bit more challenging. During my preparation phase I read there are frequent forest fires in this wilderness. This valley must have suffered a massive fire. As I kept descending from the pass the greenery slowly disappeared, until I was walking in between grey, dried out and needle-less trees, mostly spruce. It looked like on the Moon and I was very sorry for all the animals who had to leave. I was also very sorry for myself, because the part near the ground was covered in thick bushes which often blocked my way or made me lose the trail. Still, the work parties that operate on the most frequented trails did a good job, because most of the fallen trunks were cut and cleared away from the trail. This allowed me to still make a relatively quick progress along the path.
The path along Colt Killed Creek was never ending, and I constantly kept losing the trail because of thick and high bushes that covered the ground, after the fire. I arrived at Big Flat Creek pretty late and was happy to find a little green sanctuary among all the standing dead trees. It was really beautiful and I felt happy, after almost the whole day walking in a moon country. I started preparing the usual stuff for the night: wood for the fire, quick dinner, packing the Ursacks, hanging them (sigh…), make fire, pitch the tent, send Garmin message, and enjoy the mesmerising stare into the evening fire. The only thing that slightly worried me was the fact that I camped next to those standing dead trees – surely they must fall at some point. Hopefully not at me tonight…
Day 3 – Hidden Creek ridge and Frog lake
My plan for today was to basically do the Hidden Peak Ridge and descend to Big Sand Lake. That meant to take trail #71 to ascend to the ridge, then continue along trail #906. Normally this is a solid 12 to 13 miles, but I knew it would be harder because apparently trail #71 was not cleared this year. Unlike yesterday, that meant lots of fallen trees blocking my path.
The morning was quite cold with a little bit of frost on my tent. I was lucky to have had a strong fire yesterday night, and the coals were still hot, so I could quickly get a new fire going in the morning by just blowing a bit. This was quite nice.
After the usual breakfast and packing procedure, it was time to tackle the first ford of my trip. As usual I tried to find stepping stones, but the water was too deep, and I had to change to sandals and ford that way. That really slowed me down, but not by much compared to what was next.
As expected the trail was much rougher than the previous days. First only a few small trunks appeared to be crossing the trail but after about half an hour I was in the middle of a recovering burnt forest. According to the map, the trail was supposed to zigzag its way up the hill, and I could at first find a few turns, but after a while I completely lost the path. On top of that the foliage was getting really thick and high. I was not too worried about navigation as I knew where I was going, but what worried me was the possibility of having a close encounter with a bear. I was therefore really cautious and made sufficient noise with my bell.
After some time the terrain got really bad. There was no greenery, only dead trees lying on the ground. Some of them had trunks as wide as 50-60 cm and these were especially difficult to cross. My progress was getting really slow but I was in a relatively good mood. Mainly because I knew about this from other people who have done this route and so I was mentally prepared for this situation. I quickly developed a technique to have faster progress: usually the trees do not fall in a random direction but they follow the wind patterns that caused them to fall. So the best way was to zigzag along the direction of the fallen trees, crossing only when I needed to make a course correction. Sometimes it was also possible to keep walking on connected trunks, but this was quite dangerous. I was especially worried I would slip and fall either on the ground or fall on a sharp branch sticking out of the trunks. With my massive backpack, because it’s so much harder to keep stable, the worst case scenario could even be life threatening!
In this section I was also a bit worried about cougars, but I couldn’t see any tracks or any other signs of them. Not that I was particularly keen on meeting a cougar anyway…
The #71 connector has about 3.5 miles and it took me about 5 hours to get to Hidden Peak Ridge. That’s a very slow progress, but it looked like the ridge trail was cleared when I got to it. I had to make a decision: either continue east through Hidden Peak, Frog Peak, and down to Big Sand Lake, or go west down along Hidden Creek, and arrive at Big Sand Lake from the west. The first option is more scenic, but I wasn’t sure if the trail was all clear. If it wasn’t, it would slow me down even more and I was already behind my schedule after having had finished this last section. But I decided to still do the ridge because it was an important part of my plan, with nice views and isolated areas where no one goes. I decided that if the terrain was too bad, I would back track and try to go from the west side. This would leave me with a full day behind schedule, but I thought that was fine.
In this section I quickly made my way to Hidden Peak and started, on the side of the ridge, to get to Frog Peak. Here the forest was still burnt, but the trail was clear and I was able to make quick progress. In one place, however, I lost the trail because of thick foliage again, and had to continue in a rather dense forest. This section was making me scared, and I was extra vigilant to watch out for hidden bears and cougars. Fortunately, I knew roughly where I was going, and so after fifteen minutes I found the trail again and resumed my fast progress to Frog Peak. At this point I was getting really tired so I didn’t really get to the top of the peak and started descending down to Frog Lake straight away, after taking a few photos.
When I arrived at the lake I was welcome to a superb clearing along its shore, with some stones lying around and ready for me to make a fireplace and get some nice fire going again. I quickly dined, hanged the Ursacks, and enjoyed, as usual, staring to the fire, as I love.
I think the Frog Lake was probably the best camping spot out of all the nights I spent in the wilderness. It was very quiet and remote, with the most beautiful sunset one can imagine. It is also interesting how the wilderness changes one’s perception of remoteness. It was very different from anything I have done before, and I think it was because I knew there was no one around. It really felt different even from the most remote places in Scotland I’d visited.
Day 4 – Big Sand Creek and Dead Elk Creek
As usual on this trip, I woke up to a clear sky and it was going to be a beautiful day. The night was quiet and without any animals visiting me. Today I had a big decision to make. Either continue down south from Big Sand Lake all the way through Cox Creek and Big Creek, and towards Wahoo Peak, or continue through Blodgett Pass to Blodgett Mountain and then head south on an unmarked ridge all the way to Twin Lakes, then continue along Wahoo Creek to rejoin the former plan. I knew I really wanted to do this unmarked ridge, but at the same time I realized that this plan just wasn’t going to roll safely. The ridge itself was something like 25 miles, I would have to do it alone split over 2 days, there was no water, and above all on such a remote ridge I think the possibility of meeting up with a cougar was quite high. I therefore decided to continue the Cox Creek way. Thinking about it now as I’m writing this blog, it was a good decision. Maybe next time with a group of friends…
Having had finished the usual breakfast and packing, I started ascending an unnamed pass above Frog Lake. The views were lovely and I was making good progress. After 3 days I could noticeably feel some weight off my shoulders as I have eaten some good amount of food.
I quickly descended to Big Sand Lake and had lunch at a very nice campsite. I almost wished I would have made it all the way here yesterday, but at the same time Frog Lake was nicer and there is generally higher chance of bears visiting man-made campsites than the wild ones. My original plan was to also climb Jeanette Mountain on this day, but because I was already half a day behind schedule I decided I was going to skip this mountain. I refilled water, and set off to get to Little Dead Elk Creek and eventually to Dead Elk Creek. On this trail along the Big Sand Lake I kept seeing either some canine or feline tracks and I wasn’t sure. The tracks looked bigger and generally had different shape than a dog or wolf, so I assumed it was a cougar foraging along this trail. Whether it was a cougar or not didn’t matter, it still felt spooky to me because I felt like I was not prepared for a cougar encounter at all. I knew what I was supposed to do in these scenarios theoretically, but in the worst case I didn’t have any last defense.
The ascent along Little Dead Elk Creek was fine and the trail was well maintained so I had quick progress. One section was burnt down but it was short and again, well maintained. In here however, I saw the big tracks again. They for sure were not a bear and were lonely, big and different than dog tracks. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t take a picture just for later verification, but when in big animals’ territory I usually keep my camera in the pocket and try to move away as soon as possible. Still, I was quite worried and was extra vigilant, and also kept looking behind me frequently, just in case something would be stalking me from behind, as is sometimes the case with cougars.
Nothing happened and at the end of the day I arrived safely at the junction of Dead Elk Creek, Cox Creek, and East Fork Moose Creek, where I had to make a camp. This was not easy because most of the forest was burnt down and it was quite unpleasant, and I thought also quite dangerous to pitch the tent next to dead trees and inside an ash field. It wasn’t too bad though because after about 20 minutes of searching around I found some healthy patch of trees with a clearing and decided that was my spot for the night. In a few spots in the clearing the grass was was lying down flat, so I wondered if maybe someone camped there the last night. The spot was also very close to Moose Creek and so I could take water as much as I wanted for cooking.
I did the usual cooking, hanging and sending Garmin message procedure, but for today because the weather was so good I decided I wasn’t going to pitch the tent but instead just sleep outside. The sky was clear and I was looking forward to watching Milky way after the fire had went off. I collected a few branches, just enough to keep me warm for a little while, prepared planning for the next day, and jumped into the sleeping bag, now ordinarily watching the evening fire as normal people watch TV before going to bed. A strange thing was that I constantly kept hearing something moving around, and I heard small branches cracking every now and then, but I haven’t really paid attention as I thought it was just squirrels feasting on some of the left over nuts high up in the trees. As the fire was just about to die out and I was so much looking forward to see the Milky Way, suddenly, about ten meters away, something really massive started moving towards me. It was not a run, but a steady and careful pace, and my first thought was, obviously: “F**k, it’s a bear!“. I shuffled around, grabbed the bear bell I always had next to me when sleeping, and made what I though was a sufficient noise to be heard. The animal stopped moving, and so I got calmer and thought it wasn’t anything serious. I stepped back into the sleeping bag, and as I was doing it, it started moving again, this time on a perimeter of the campsite, but still way closer than my comfort zone would be, even if it wasn’t a bear. At this point I thought it was getting quite serious, as I didn’t know what it was, just that it was enormous. Definitely not a squirrel type or some other rodent, and wolfs would never come that close to a human!
I jumped out of the sleeping bag, grabbed my torch, and very quickly donned my pants and boots on. If it was a bear and either wanted to go to me or to the Ursacks, or in the worst case scenario got aggressive, I wanted to be sure I could retreat from the camp if necessary. It was quite cold and running bear feet along the forest is generally not very efficient and pleasant. At this point I still didn’t know what it was, but no matter what I did it kept moving along the perimeter, closer and closer to me. My heart was racing, but I was keeping myself composed. I shone the light from my torch towards it, and perhaps five, six meters away from me, divided only be a few small trees, I saw a pair of shiny eyes, watching me. At this point I thought that fire was the best thing to do, so I blew into the coals and put some wood on, and made some flames going. The animal was in the shadow all the time and started moving to the Ursacks, away from me, but still within just less than about ten, fifteen meters away. I shone light on it again, but I still didn’t see. At some point, because of the shadows, it looked like it was slowly moving towards me, just as I saw on some of the YouTube videos when people film cougars hunting them. This was just a few seconds, but these few seconds were the worst time of my life. Imagine being stalked by a cougar, at night, alone, and at least 3 days away from any people! No big knife, gun, or bear spray to protect yourself, just a small fire and a bunch of sticks. My pocket knife was in the backpack, but it wouldn’t have made any difference anyway…
After a few seconds the animal turned perpendicular to me so I could see its body. As it did, I recognised the shape, and knew it was just a deer… It was much bigger than the ordinary deer I saw in Scottish Highlands many times, and so it must have been an elk. It was probably either just curious what was going on, or wanted my food, or maybe just the free passage to the river, and I was blocking it with my camp. I calmed down a bit, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep for the rest of the night and I saw that fire had an obvious effect on it. I gathered some more nearby wood to last for the whole night, arranged it to be able to reach it from the sleeping bag, and more or less happily went back into the sleeping bag. I was determined to have a half-an-hour to hour cycle of putting wood on, then trying to sleep in front of the fire, until I wake up with almost no light, and then put more wood on to keep the fire going. I knew I wasn’t going to get much sleep this way, but the adrenaline was already in my veins, and I didn’t know if more animals such as bears would be coming as well, so I wanted to be safe.
Later on I also realized that I have made a basic mistake when hanging the Ursacks: I have put them upwind of my sleeping place. This is generally a bad idea. If the animals smell your food and want to get to it, when you’re downwind of it, there is a high chance that your tent is on their path to your food. Even such a relatively docile animals as deer, when they run over you, you are unlikely to survive. If this elk stepped on me I think I would be dead on the spot.
After this incident, the elk kept moving around for some time, but I could hear it was retreating from my site. I maintained the fire but around 3am I gave up on it, and slept for a few hours at least.
No wonder this valley is called Dead Elk Creek. But this one was very much alive!
Day 5 – Cox Creek and Big Creek
My plan for today was to go along Cox Creek, descend into Big Creek, and if time permits go along Wahoo Peak (trail #430) up to maybe Indian Lake. It was a bit too ambitious but I thought if I pushed myself during the day a bit it would work.
The morning was a bit harsh given my animal interactions last night but otherwise it was to be another beautiful day, with a forecast of some small showers in the evening and overnight. Straight from the start I had to ford Moose Creek, but luckily I found some stepping stones which saved me from having to change boots and lose time. As I was ascending along Cox Creek I ran out of water (I decided not to take water from Moose Creek because I was worried about contamination; it’s already quite a large river) and so the obvious place to get it was Cox Creek which is much smaller and very rapid. However, the creek was situated deeply in a gorge and I had to descend maybe fifty meters down to get to the water, down a steep terrain. I first just went for it without a backpack, no problem, but then I realized I was really alone, and I took the Garmin device with me, just in case something happened and I needed to call for help. This might seem like an overkill, but to me the feeling of wilderness was really strong after so many days without meeting people, and I took every action quite seriously and thought about it, before committing. Especially if I had to be separated from my backpack, which equaled my life…
The trail in Cox Creek was nice, with a steady increase in altitude and I was enjoying the views. At some point I met a small female deer hanging in the bushes. She wasn’t afraid of me, and when I tried to ring with the bear bell, she just ignored it and started chewing on some branches nearby. I tried to speak on her, but she ignored that as well. She only moved when I stepped closer. It’s quite good to know that deer don’t react to bear bells. I now wonder if bears actually react to them at all either…
When I got to the junction with Battle Creek (#462) the trail was again getting more and more challenging due to a complete burn down from the previous years. As usual, at first I was able to follow the path but at some point it simply disappeared and all I was left with were big tree trunks to cross over. I was a bit worried because I didn’t check how much of this trail was cleared, but I had a bail out plan along Wahoo Creek (#430) in case I got stuck here for more than a day. Wahoo Creek looked like a popular trail so I assumed it would be fine and clear. If I had to bail out I should be able to get to Twin Lakes in about a day along that creek.
This part I would say was the most challenging for me, because the terrain was also getting increasingly steep, as I was approaching the high point – a saddle in between Cox Creek and Big Creek. The section from the Battle Creek junction to the saddle is perhaps less than 2 miles long (about 3km), but it took me about 5 hours just to get to the saddle. So far I was navigating only with the map, but because of the very slow progress I started having doubts about where I was and whether I was heading in the right direction. After some time just to make sure I was not going astray I had to switch to the GPS navigation, which meant using both the Garmin and my phone (Garmin inReach Mini doesn’t have map support). I didn’t like that very much because that meant I had to recharge much more than I thought. However, it was getting late and also the weather got worse, and it would be absolutely impossible to camp in this area. Also, the wind started picking up, to the point that it was howling as it was blowing against the bare trunks of the trees which were still standing. If a storm came at this point there would be a real danger of falling trees and so I really wanted to clear this area as quickly as I could!
When I reached the saddle I was relieved to see that the forest on the other side was healthy and green. It was easy to find the path again and I started, finally, descending towards Wahoo Creek. It was after four, and it was clear I wasn’t going to make it to Indian Lake today, unless I would continue even after dusk. I wanted to avoid this, and anyway even if I didn’t get to Indian Lake I would still be on time for everything.
After about two and a half hours I reached the junction with Wahoo Creek and found a good camping spot with a fireplace. For tonight I was much stricter about following the triangle rule: tent and sleeping at one point of the triangle, hanging food at another, about 30 meters away, and cooking and eating at the third point of the triangle, somewhere away from both the tent and hanging food, ideally also at least 30 meters away from both the other ones.
I think at this point I was getting really paranoid, because I started associating every little sound that I heard in the forest with a bear or a deer, or whatnot. At the same time, something changed, because I started listening much stronger to the sounds in the forest. For instance it was easy to tell that some crunching sounds were just squirrels eating the nuts high in the trees. They occasionally dropped the cones and seeds, and even small branches, onto the ground. These sounds are similar but really different to a branch that cracks under a load of a deer hoof. I was quite happy I started to be confident about classifying these and it also gave me a little more piece of mind. I also paid good attention to tracks on the ground. Around this area, and also in my previous camp, the paths were full of deer or elk tracks, but I never saw any bear tracks or poo. So I assumed this was the elk area, and that if something big in the forest moved, it would most likely be a deer that is either trying to avoid me or is just curious, and it was perhaps best to let it do what it wanted, and not fret about it. That is unless it wanted my food which I wouldn’t be very happy about…
I tried to make fire but it started raining and I wasn’t able to keep it going, so after I dined I just retreated to the tent, did my planning for the next day and went to sleep. I had a good and quiet night, with some good amount of sleep.
Day 6 – Around Wahoo Peak and Horsefly Meadows
For today I planned to do at least ten to eleven miles, at least until Horsefly Meadows. From there I would decide whether I am able to continue to get closer to Freeman Peak, or just stay at Horsefly Meadows overnight. In this section of the wilderness I had quite some troubles keeping myself hydrated. The problem was that apparently at the end of August and beginning of September the weather gets very dry and lots of the small streams just dry out. That was my case as well and I was struggling to find water, which was generally not the case in the previous sections. From after Freeman Peak I could see on the map there would be just one small creek on my way where I could get water from. And given the really dry weather I wasn’t sure the creek would be there. The worst case scenario would be that I wouldn’t have any water source for the whole next day. So the most logical target for today was Horsefly Meadows where there should be fresh water.
The ascent along trail #430 was pretty smooth and the forest was green and healthy, with nice views back to the valley. I was quick, but I still decided to skip the peak itself (it’s a diversion) and just continue on the main trail. I’m not exactly sure why but I think it was because I really thought I could push today to get until after Freeman Peak. When I arrived to Indian Lake I was greeted with some very nice views. The lake was wild, with nice places to camp, and I was really sorry I didn’t make it here yesterday. At the same time it could also be a frequent drinking ground for various big animals and so maybe it was good I had stayed in a different spot.
From Indian Lake the path was nice and clear and I had good progress up to the meadows, where I decided to stay for the night, even though I arrived quite early. I performed the usual evening rituals, and went to sleep. Today I didn’t make fire because I couldn’t find any rocks to make a fireplace. In this section everything was very dry and the risk was too high.
During the night nothing happened, except that around midnight a deer or elk suddenly jumped off, really close to my campsite, and stormed away to the woods, making a very loud and strong barking sound. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I thought that it might have perhaps been scared by other big animal foraging in this area. I therefore made a really loud noise by rattling with my pot, full of metallic stuff I had in it. This was so loud that I could hear a loud echo from the other side of the valley. I hoped it would be enough to scare away any other animals in the vicinity. Fortunately nothing happened and I could sleep fine for the rest of the night.
Day 7 – Freeman Peak and First people: Moose Creek Ranger Station
Today’s morning was just as usual as the other ones, except that it felt a bit spooky because the meadows were quite foggy. The forecast was that it should be more than thirty degrees and I expected a very hot day. I therefore didn’t rely on any potential water sources along the way, which might not exist, and had to backtrack about half a mile to the latest stream to get fully stocked with water. Expecting the worst case that I have to walk for thirteen miles in this weather, I even filled one of the empty food sacks with water to be sure I don’t suffer during the day. These are waterproof so it was fine, I just had to carry the sack in my hand.
The trail was superb, clean, and well maintained and I had fast progress. Also my backpack was getting much lighter, which helped me to keep a fast pace. I quickly reached Freeman Peak, took some pictures, sent a Garmin message, and from there essentially started descending towards Moose Creek. I was super happy I took the extra water because the day was extremely hot, and it got hotter and hotter the more I lost altitude.
On this ridge, after Freeman Peak, I started seeing the big tracks of some animal, which I thought again was a cougar. I took a picture of some of them, but they are quite distorted and generally not very useful. I doubt they were a dog’s tracks though because I think they would simply be accompanied by human footprints, but I didn’t see any. So it was either a wolf or a cougar. Again, thinking about the worst, I was feeling a bit uneasy about this section and hurried to get out of there as soon as I could, frequently looking back to make sure I was not being stalked.
Midway through the ridge I found the only water source for today, a small creek I mentioned before. I quickly refilled, and continued.
In general I found this part of my trip the wildest, most remote, and to be honest a bit uncomfortable. Maybe it was just that being solo was getting into my head a little bit, but I constantly felt the remoteness to give me a sense of uneasiness. It was a weird feeling, because on one hand everything around was so beautiful to look at, but at the same time I fully realized the seriousness of the situation, and the fact I had no means of defending myself against big animals. Here, they ruled the world, not me…
Nevertheless I did this part real quick and I arrived at Moose Creek ranger station around 4pm, to my delight. I exchanged a few words with the staff, and it was a pity they didn’t allow me to camp at their ground. On one hand it was annoying, on the other I understood they cannot allow it, otherwise people would turn their ranger station to a big campground. Also, they had a situation there, with some black bears visiting them to find food. I thought it would be best to simply move on from here and find some other spot without people and thus garbage and stored food to be found by bears.
I decided last minute that I would continue for another three miles to a place called Cedar Flats Campground (on trail #4). It was already half past six and it was getting dark but I thought it would still be fine if I hurried. I expected this campground to be a nice flat clearing with a lot of grass and maybe even some nice little creek to take water from. To my disappointment, when I arrived it was a dark spooky place, yes there were cedars, but also lots of deer tracks which I wasn’t comfortable with. I had no choice but to make a camp though. For today I again decided to make fire and sleep outside, just next to the fire, and maintain it for the most of the night. The place felt so spooky that I didn’t even make dinner to avoid attracting any bears.
Today I did in total seventeen miles (about 27km), and having to carry the heavy backpack I was really destroyed. Tomorrow I had to do roughly the same distance but the trail would not be very demanding.
Days 8 – 9 – Along Selway River
Despite my worries the night was completely fine but I over slept quite a lot and had a late start. I had double breakfast to account for the lack of dinner yesterday and got prepared for a very hot and long walk to the trail head. This part of the trip was quite smooth and I had fast progress. I was surprised I didn’t see any rattle snakes, despite the hot and dry local climate in this area along the Selway River. Today was probably the longest in terms of mileage and I finished very late just about one mile before the Race Creek trail head. There were tons of people along the path, and it took me some time to find a good spot along the river to camp. Here I was able to have a proper bath, for the first time after 8 days of literally not washing myself at all. I made dinner, got into the tent and quite quickly fell asleep. During the night I had another encounter with some big animal, this time it happened because for some reason I lit my headtorch to look at something in the tent. When I did that something quite big started moving across the river. It might have been a deer or a bear I guess, but I didn’t see it and to be honest I was too tired to check it out. It didn’t move towards me so it was probably fine.
The next day my plan was to quickly get to the trail head, and try to hitch hike to highway #12; or, worst case scenario, walk about 20 miles to the highway if no one gives me a lift. I was really, really, really, hoping I didn’t have to walk this…
After about an hour I was very lucky to get a lift from a family in a pickup truck and a dog. At first they stopped, asked me what I wanted, but it was obvious they didn’t have space as they were pretty full. So they continued on, but after 30 meters the guy reversed back to me, his wife moved their dog from the back of the truck to the front, and I hopped into the pickup part of the truck. It was quite interesting to sit like that for 30 km 🙂 .
On highway #12 I only managed to hitch a ride to the Lochsa lodge, about 30 miles northwest of the junction with Selway river. I decided to get a cabin in the lodge, even though it cost me a sky high $135 for that night. But it was worth the shower and a nice double bed, which I didn’t have for almost nine days! And anyway, being for that many days just in my tent, I surely saved up for that night, no problem.
Day 10 – Back to Missoula
From the lodge I got back to the highway, started hitchhiking again, and, lo and behold, after 15 minutes a young couple gave me a lift all the way to Missoula airport where I rented a car for myself and could get accommodation.
What the hell, what an amazing trip! I think I’ll never forget this!!
Afterthought
Anyway…this trip was one of the hardest backpacking trips I’ve ever done in my life. Some people climb super-hard routes (I’m also a climber myself), some people go to Himalayas to tackle 8000-ers, others go to jungles, do base-jumping, shooting, name your thing. You wouldn’t think spending 9 days on a backpacking trip would be challenging, but add to that words like solo, constant thought of bears and cougars, even seeing an elk, losing trail in a burned out area, and the fact that you know there is no one around you, no one to save you if something goes wrong, except that maybe you can send an S.O.S. satellite message and hope for help.
Only after the trip, when I was back home in Lausanne, I realized how awesome but at the same time, very serious trip this was. I used all my previous experience to pack the right things, except that I had quite a fail with the food, which was very heavy and slowed me down. I also used my previous navigation experience to a good degree. I constantly had in mind the fact that I was on my own, and in those situations, I am usually much more cautious than when being with friends. I think twice before I do things, and analyze possible consequences much more than usual. This is necessary in order not to do something stupid along the way.
Acknowledgements
One thank you goes to the guy whose name I don’t remember, and who gave me a lift from Lolo to the Big Creek trail head. This saved me a massive amount of time. We also had a nice conversation.
All the people who gave me a lift on highway 12 on the way back to Missoula: a lonely guy whose car broke down after 20 kilometers, a couple in their vintage Volkswagen, and a couple with a small packed car (given the american standards), in which I got a lift lying on their bed all the way to Missoula.
My family and friends who didn’t get crazy while I was solo in the wild.
Indirect thanks to Mick Krussow whose blog about the crossing I used as an inspiration. I’m not as good a writer as the author though…
Another indirect thanks to Dan Noakes whose vlog from Idaho Centennial Trail I used to get a better idea about how wild it is in Selway-Bitterroot.
Gear list
- Tent: North Face Tadpole small 2 man tent (more like 1.5)
- GoreTex packlite waterproofs
- Backpack: Deuter AirContact Pro 65+15
- Inflatable mattress
- Sleeping bag: REI Joule regular womens – I always buy women’s bags because they have more fluff to weight ratio than a standard men’s sleeping bag
- Super lightweight Leki carbon trekking poles
- MSR pocket rocket stove, MSR lightweight titanium pot, spork, gas canister
- One Ursack Major and one Major XL
- Two odor-proof OPSaks
- Firesteel, 2 normal lighters, spare waterproof matches, emergency storm proof matches, small tinder block – Yes, I wanted to be able to make fire in any conditions 🙂
- Katadyn BeFree 1L flask with a water filter, another 1L water container
- Small first aid kit
- Swiss knife with scissors and a small saw
- Garmin inReach Mini satellite messenger
- 10’000 mAh battery bank – massive overkill, half of that energy and weight would be enough
- Food for up to 11 days
- Mostly freeze dried Mountain House food, Backpacker’s Pantry, and some other brands
- Backpacker’s Pantry breakfast sacks as well
- About 500g of nuts for high calorie snacks during the day
- Chocolate and cereal bars
- Spare and warm clothing
Lukáš Soľanka 