Return to Civilization

Well, we're off the Trail. This time no navigation error is to blame. During our preparations for the next segment many factors led us to question the feasibility of continuing our endeavor. Sadly, but reasonably, we decided not to push on. Apologies and thank you to our loyal readers. Nick returned to Cincinnati directly to resume his schooling and I undertook a small road trip on my own to get back to my destination of Santa Fe. I spent nearly a week exploring the National Parks of southern Utah before returning to "reality." Now we are back, and excitedly undertaking this next phase of our adventure. We hope we didn't let you down too badly and are proud to say we hiked over one thousand miles and covered the entire vertical length of the state of Montana, and had a blast doing it. Don't worry, we'll be back to take on Wyoming and the rest before long, not much could keep us away, I mean, did you see the pictures?

Thank you all sincerely for your support, it really means alot.

Check back later for more images and revamping

and if you feel like it, click the link for my site

Love Alex

Yellowstone Part Duex + THE TETON WILDERNESS

Well thats all the time we had, more pictures and words soon, hope you like what you see

The Centenial Mountains and The Land of the Yellow Stone

Wow, it feels like forever since our last post. We hiked the Centenial Mountain Segment to Mack's Inn, ID thereby completing the entire state of Montana and a large portion of the Idaho border! We finally tried our luck and ate some wild berries, we have been missing out, they were so delicious in our fruit deprived state. Nick stopped on the trail smelling huckleberries before seeing them, farther on was a patch of wild rasberries, mmmmm, so good! We spent some time walking through the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station, thats right, our government is experimenting on sheep, no but really, research is showing that grazing of sheep does not impact the ecosystem or affect water quality the way that cattle grazing does. So less hamburgers more lamburgers. Hit the east summit of Taylor Mountain, and worked our way into the secluded canyon of Hell Roaring Creek, the top of which is "the Utmost Source" of the Missouri/Mississippi. We recorded our visit in the logbook hidden in an old ammo box. Before that we camped at Blair lake where we hung out with a moose for an hour or so. Then a very relaxing and contemplative day spent around the shores of Lillian Lake below majestic Mount Jefferson, it was bea-utiful. The next morning from inside my tent I hear "Alex, theres bears out here," and unzipped my vestibule to see a mother and two cubs a hundred feet away! Whats more is we both agree they were grizzly. It wasn't scary, more like a dream, they looked over and then calmly strolled out of sight. Wow!
After we hit Sawtell Peak, we hitched down into Labor Day weekend around Yellowstone, just use your imagination. We made our way up to West Yellowstone and scoped the place out before Meghan and David arrived! After an IMAX double feature we grabbed some supplies and headed into the park. we actually drove all the way through it to find an open campground at Eagle Creek, it was a nice perch north of the rim. We stopped off at Old Faithful and walked around the geyser basin there, inspecting an array of peculiar smoking mounds and bubbling craters. What a strange planet we live on. We got to the trailhead and headed in. Five miles to a perfect campsite along the Yellowstone River. We had a sandy beach all to ourselves at a calm part of the river, ooooh, that water is cold. The next day we dayhiked down to Knowles Falls and climbed around on the rocks in the mist of the thundering water. After a late lunch back at camp we walked over to the shore of glistening Crevice Lake. The hike out was harder, all uphill, but in the middle of rolling grasslands. We spent our last night in a campground by gigantic Lake Yellowstone. Stayed up way too late laughing around the campfire and woke up before sunrise to get David to the airport. We saw herds of bison, elk, and all of the steam rising off of the lakes and streams in the early light. Now we are but three, but just as determined to explore more of this magical place, and with that we depart back into another corner of the park for more other-worldly sights.

Nick Sharp speaking, hello world. We are in Lima, Montana, soon to arrive in Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming. We will meet Meghan, Hoo Ras undercover lover, and David some weirdo that thinks he fly.............boy. It will be a family adventure. The last section was solid. We left Leadore with Teddy bear and Dads Grin, on very full stomachs, and went straight up a mountain. We have been acclimating very nicely to these up and downs, down and outs. We floated around numerous large open ridges, very Marsish. On one occasion ascending a slope we heard plane noises, not a commercial jet. We look over and eye level is a F-16 jet fighter plane cruising past us, sideways, through a canyon, very close, we could pretty much see the pilots name tag. The rest of the day I sung Take My Breath Away, by Berlin made popular by the Paramount release Top Gun in the 1980's. I also attempted a solar compass but that didnt really pan out. On another occasion Alex requested a ride from two gentlemen at a lake to cut off a couple miles. Zach the younger gave us a pound of Elk meat he killed, we ate that. We have been considering hunting out here. Apparently sage grouse, a big bird, you can run up and beat with a stick. I dont know if we should but we hear its tasty, and September first is hunting season. ?. What do you think could you kill an animal? Anyway the guys gave us a ride, funny guys. We showed them a a cave where buffalos had fallen. They showed us where to look for Indian artifacts like arrowheads. We saw a herd of antelope, and a large coyote. On another occasion we saw two moose on a date, eating branches, if only it was that easy for us humans. We were about a 100 feet away it nwas fine they were not trying to start anything. We ended up cutting out through soem flatlands, cow country to the high way at the end. Cows were in abundance and kind of scared me, in Lima ALex read about how there have been Cows killing people the last few years in a mailicious manner. We climbed a solar powered electric fence to get away from them. Ironic that it is an energy efficient method for the containment of one of the most energy intensive industries. Horses also backed us down into a corner knowing we were aliens. Now we are back to Fox news. Glenn Beck sucks, but hey MSNBC does need to get some hotter female newscasters if they want to be taken seriously. Anywho we'll talk to you later, bye.

LIMA

One Hundred And Twenty Miles Later

Greatings from Leadore, Idaho. It seems so long since we strolled back into the wilderness from Chief Joseph Pass. We've been through so much terrain, its hard to even concieve of it all at once. We got a ride to the pass from Chris, the very helpful and generous shuttle driver. after campin a few miles in, we hiked most of the next day in thick clouds. After that we got some nice views but the wet plants dumped buckets on our shoes. We made camp next to a strange old cabin, that definitely gave us the haunted vibe. Made a fire to dy our shoes and socks and feet but I was a bit overzealous and melted one of my new trail-runners. Needless to say i felt really smart. Fortunately it mostly superficial damage and I was able to continue. So up we went, climbing all day long almost 3,000 vertical feet to Slag-a-Melt Lake, well worth it. The next day gave us some beautiful subalpine basins and a close mule deer sighting before we dropped all the way back down and had a senseless mile of switchbacks to get over to Hamby Creek, somewhat exasperating. First thing the next morning was fording the creek, barefoot, as we had ditched our water shoes. I was not looking forward to it but as soon as I got my feet in the water I remembered "Oh yeah, this feels really nice." The day was primarily a detour around the jagged divide since no trail had found a way to stay up hugging the peaks. So roadwalking it was but we moved fast. We met a group of ATVing Russians from Missoula and discussed the possibility of them being spies. They were cool though. We ran into them again while checking out some of the abandoned mine builings just above Darkhorse Lake, our very nice campsite. From there we pulled off a 22 mile day that began with a steep bushwack to a scary and dangerously precipitous talus slope followed immediately by a climb to our highest elevation on the Trail yet, 9,731 feet, the top of Goldstone mountain. Encound our first northbounder, Rustop, who had come all thway ffrom Mexico, he said we were about 300 miles back from th rest of the sobo pack. We camped at the Sacajawea Memorial Picnic Area at Lehmi Pass where Lewis and Clark passed through on their westward voyage. We learned finally how springs work, the rainwater and snowmelt sink through the soft rock until they pool on the hard clay layer below and travel outward through small cracks. The huge milage we did was rewarded with two easy days, the first of whichas not so easy, very sunny and very hot and very steep uphill with very little shade but after some afternoon clouds, the scenery got better as did my mood and we finished strong, camped at the base of rugged Goat Mountain. Finnshed segment with an easy twelve miles to Bannock Pass complete with an owl sighting, bigger than a five foot wingspan. No shade so we sheltered in the 3 x 4 foot shadow of a road sign. We expected to wait all day as there was no traffic but no sooner had we sat down than a logger came down from a side road and let us jump on the unprotected open bed. he proceeded to drive at over fifty miles an hour into Leadore, far more exciting than sitting inside the cab. And so here we are, waiting for the post office to open and take on our next hundred miles, wish us luck

-Love Alex

Images of the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness