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Thursday afternoon, and we have arrived in beautiful Augusta, Montana, at the Bunkhouse Inn. This is a "bathroom down the hall" place, but very nice. The idea was to get close (like 20 miles or so) to the trailhead, so as to get an early start.
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Nice rooms.
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Roger sipping wine and eating gourmet snacks, if you call Cheetos "gourmet." He had forgotten to pack some salty snacks for backpacking, so opted for these.
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8 am Friday morning, and we have driven to the Crown Mtn trail head, and are on our way.
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Crown Mountain is pretty impressive thru the breaks in the trees. I was paying attention, and we were climbing about 100 feet every 8 minutes. Not super, but we were comfortable with the pace.
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You can see that Roger has stripped off clothing and is seeing Crown Mtn Pass in the distance.
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Susie at the Scapegoat Wilderness Boundary
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After joining with the Petty Creek trail, the last few hundred feet to the Pass are steep and not so pleasant. Overall, the trail gains a net 1900 feet, but with the downs, it is a bit more.
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This part was two steps up and one step sliding back down in loose scree. As the guide book says, not many views from the pass, but such is life.
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Looking back down the Petty Creek Valley. We will be climbing over one of those ridges in a few days.
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A mile or so below the pass, the trail enters a burned over area. Though not an expert, this looked like it had been burned over just a few years ago.
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In many places, it was hard to follow the trail, or what was left of it. It looked like the fire was so hot that it burned up the soil, and thus, a lot of rocks were exposed. Not pleasant hiking.
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We eventually dropped down to Straight Creek and the Continental Divide Trail. Most of it had been burned over. This particular stretch was crossing a long talus slope. Talus slopes in the sun, on a hot day, are not our favorite place.
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We had been hiking over 7 hours, and turned up the Green Fork Trail, past the Guard station. On the north side of a meadow, we found a super campsite, thanks to our friend Zack. It had everything. Trees, pine needles, a nearby creek. Roger is treating water right now with our Steri-pen. Actual distance today was about 9.5 miles, 2600 feet of real elevation gain.
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The view from the campsite included non-burned over trees.
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Roger doing something concerning dinner.
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We suspect that this was a hunting camp. It even had a food hanging log.
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Next morning, we are off. Hiking up the Green Fork trail. We had considered camping at a lake in the upper part of the valley, but changed our minds and decided to camp in Half Moon Park.
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There are breaks in the trees, that afford views of the valley.
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Susie motoring along.
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This was probably one of the prettier places. No burned over trees and limited horse s#!t.
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We have started climbing over the ridge that will lead us to Half Moon Park.
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The climb over the ridge is deceptive. You think you are at the top, but then, you still have more to go. Fortunately, there is not much of a descent. Unfortunately, the campsites near the trail junction are covered with equine fecal matter. I think further up into Halfmoon Park, it would be possible to find less overused campsites.
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OK, we are cleaned up, it is cool and it is dinner time.
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If Roger cooks, then Susie cleans up.
