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Primal Quest Montana - Trek 3 - Crazy Mountains

Page history last edited by Dr. Ron Eaglin 15 years, 9 months ago

Primal Quest Montana

Trek 3 - Crazy Mountains

This trek started as we reached the bike drop. This was not really a TA and did not have support.We simply changed from biking to trekking, our crew would come later and pick up our bikes. The trek started up a relatively flat road leading into Big TImber Canyon - the road was good and our progress was very fast (5-6 km/hr). This would not last - but it was good for a starting pace.

At half moon camp we left the raod and headed onto trail. The trail was in pretty good shape for the first few miles. It was dark - but we could hear some pretty major water running in Big Timber Creek. We were about 50 feet above the creek on the trail - so really had no view until we came to some of the bridges. Even in the dark the waterfalls and incredible water columes were amazing. At Twin Lakes we started up - and I mean up. It was straight up a huge snowfield. We could see headlights of a team in front of us and they seemed impossibly high up. We ended up going over the pass on the snowfield and the top was skree and large boulders that we had to pick our way through. Eventually as dawn broke we came out and had an amazing view of Glacier Lake. We started down the canyon heading north and eventually found the trail. At one point we could see the snapped trees from a major avalanche - the breaks were relatively fresh.

The trek around the mountain was pretty easy, including the trek up TR 123. There were even regular marks to designate the trail. When we reached Moose Lake we were on snow pack (primarily ) again and had another huge climb up to Campfire Lake. We pretty much followed the trail route here - not so much the trail which was invisible under the snowpack. We came out south of the checkpoint - but found it quickly, it was then up again and over the pass at 9800 feet. Getting down the other side was tricky at first as it was so steep. We did get a great GLissade opportunity here.

At this point it was down, down, and down. First through snow, then trail, and then raod and after what seemed like forever - out to the TA. It seemed like forever because it was genuinely a long way.

The TA is not shown on the maps here - but it is only another 3 K from the edge of the map. At this point the team was suffering from a bout of "Are we there yet" - really wanting to make it to the TA. I was probably a bit short with my answers a few times - of just around the corner, it was always further than it seemed.