I've Been in the Woods

I apologize for my lack of updates, but I have been busy in the woods and just as busy when I get back to town.  I have been on two hitches since I wrote last, the first being my first full hitch since I hurt my arm five weeks prior.  We were headed to Star Peak (formerly known as Sqaw Peak) for a nine day backcountry adventure clearing brush and fixing trail on a very pretty but brutally steep trail.  It was nice to finally be back in the woods with my crew and for the first time all summer my head was also completely on board with the whole adventure.  Despite some terrifying and wet weather, the hitch felt like a success and I made it out alive yet again.  What follows is an exerpt from my journal I keep while out on hitch.  I think it paints a vivid picture of what it's like out there when the weather is anything but cooperative.

8/4
Later that evening, on the day of my last entry, the rain started again.  And it didn't let up for 24 hours.  The morning didn't start of so bad, it usually never does.  You don't know how bad it's about to get as the day goes on.  You just get colder and more wet and more unhappy.  It's dangerous because you feel less like eating, drinking water and the early onset of hypothermia sets in.  We were taught the anti hypothermia dance (a feet tappin good time!) and the sure-fire method to get blood back into your hands.  I have "waterproof" gloves that don't keep my hands dry, but they do keep them warm and thank goodness for that!  By the end of the day everything I owned was soaked and I was quite unhappy.  Jed then informed us that we also had to move out tents from the meadow we stayed in to avoid the lightning storm back up to the top of star peak where our camp was originally for the remainder of the hitch.  There is no good way to take down a tent in the rain and still keep it dry.  No sir.  I tried to keep the rain fly up while I took down the inside but the sides and bottom still got soaked.  So alas..I set up my new and improved sleeping pad and curled up in my down sleeping bag hoping that it would stay dry and warm and that the following day would be sunny.

Here are a few photos from the Star Peak hitch:

Dats me!  And that tiny bilding in the distance is the first fire lookout ever built in Montana! And we camped alongside it.

Backcountry dinners are the types of meals kids have nightmares about when thinking about school lunch.

Last day, hiking back out of the woods!  That's about 40-45lbs on my back there.

We were lucky enough to watch each sunrise and sunset as the days passed.

Another view of the lookout.  It was super cool on the inside.

Our basecamp.

A little rock cabin that a couple lived in back in the early 1900's.

Our very luxurious outhouse.

Fixin tred

Finished!

The view of the lookout from our trail.