Darby, MT

We broke camp while all the RVers were still sleeping. The trail was eay going, starting in Anaconda Pintler Wilderness and following Seymour Creek to Upper Seymour Lake. We stopped for a quick break, dried out the tent, then climbed up towards Goat Flat. This climb was spectacular, reminded me a bit of the Sierra Nevada. We lost the trail in snow on Goat Flat, so we climbed to the ridge and followed it down to the trail, where it crossed over heading down to Page Lake. This next area really reminded me of Northern Washington of the PCT. The climb up to Rainbow Pass was windy, but once on the other side and down in the Queener Basin, it wasn't too bad. The climb to Cutaway Pass was cake, and the views of Beaverhead Mt. and the Goat Peaks were fantabulous! We thought we had an easy descent to Warren Lake, but actually read the map wrong and it was a steep climb! We trudged up it, then found the perfect campsite near the lake. The mozzies were HORRIBLE!!! We made a smoky fire, which helped out a bit. I was in the tent, prepping to journal, while DP went to relieve himself and came face to face with a black bear! I heard him yell at it, and it ran away, not even realizing that DP was there. A few minutes later, we heard more noises, but it turned out to be a small herd of deer going to the lake.

I awoke to the sound of something by the pot outside the tent. I quickly pushed my hand out towards the pot, and caught a mouse between the tent and pot. Not knowing what I would do with it, I let it go, and it bolted. I laughed at all the dead mozzies squished on our tent between the bug net and vestibule, but there were more waiting for us to come out. We packed up inside the tent, put on our rain gear to protect us from the bugs, and got the hell out of there! We climbed up a little saddle, then down towards Fishtrap Creek. We came to a junction and turned NW up the West Fork heading for Rainbow Lake. We climbed up the ridge, then quickly descended to Johnson Lake. From there we climbed up to Pintler Pass, where across the way we saw a herd of 17 mountain goats! We made our off the pass and decided to take the alternate route to Oreamnos Lake. From there, we scrambkled up a ridge, contoured over to another ridge, descended quickly towards Sawed Cabin Lake, up and over until we ran smack into the trail. That area was beautiful and well worth the extra effort. The rest of the day was pretty nondescript, since most of the area had been destoyed by fire. It was windy and dry, with a lot of sun exposure. We finally came upon a notch where water could be found and set up camp. The mozzies were bad here too!

Woke up chilled, and the mozzies were still there! We had coffee, packed up and hurried up the hill. Trying to get warm was a little difficult. We wound our way to Surprise Lake, went through a couple wet meadows, climbed back up to the Divide and stayed up there for most of the day. We wanted to camp at Gibbons Pass and knew it wasn't too far away. We stopped for lunch at Schultz Saddle. The rest of the day was spent going into healthy forests then out to burnt areas. We got to Gibbons Pass and decided to push just a little further. We took the dirt road to Trail Creek, grabbed some water, followed the road to a junction that lead back to the trail, then went a little further until we found a descent place to camp. The mozzies are getting worse...

Knowing a zero day was in our future, we got packed quickly and made our way down the trail. Checking the map, we saw that there was a dirt road that would lead us directly to Lost trail Pass, where we tried our lucj at hitching. A man who runs a shuttling business for fishermen offered us a ride, saying he couldn't technically charge us since he was on Forest Service roads, but he takes donations! He drove us into Darby, and promised to drive us back when we were ready to leave. We got a room at the Mountain Spirit Inn, but they only had one night available since it was Logger Days weekend and the next day was Bull-o-rama (rodeo). We washed and headed over to the Silver Spoon for breakfast. We were just about to sit when a local asked us if we would sit with him and his friends, so we did. DP and I discussed our situation in town, and we decided to not take a zero but do two nearos instead. So, we resupplied, got new shoes for DP at the PO, went back to the room to do laundry and send a package ahead with our warm gear that we weren't using. We had dinner at the Little Blue Joint, where we had the best tacos/burrito on trail yet. We relaxed with drinks and tv before bed.