Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Well, tell us how your trip went. We all want to hear about your special experience.

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Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by Jay w »

Note: This was written last night.

Avast Mates

With a brandy Manhattan in hand, I’ll start another inebriational tour of Glacier….and bonus, it’s Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Arrg, it that a reef?
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It felt like circumstances were throwing up road blocks to leaving town. It got to the point where all I could do was laugh, so I’ll start reporting a week from the departure date just to set the stage.

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Freakouts were going on at work (about my work), so I went home, which caused more even more freakout. Basically, I was being asked to repeat some work and it was going to be really difficult to get it done before I left town. The reason I headed home, was because it was a major day on the construction project. As I walked up the alley, the framers yelled at me, “Grab the center,” which meant grab the center of a truss. The 5th framer didn’t show, and I walked up just in time to help hoist the final three trusses. If you didn’t catch it, I’m trying to work normal hours, general contract a two story garage, and carry on normal life. The backyard:

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I headed back to work and the freakouts died down to a point where my commitments to three solid days of work had been cancelled due to a phone conversation with my vacationing supervisor. So it was off to the local big-box home improvement store to pick up four 2x6x14s and four 2x6x10s, a box of Lucky Charms (magically delicious), Sun Chips, you know, the staples.

A New Swabhand
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Our oldest produced a second child, and I asked Julie, “What’s my time commitment here.” “Well, you better show up at the hospital.”

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Better set sail for port
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My brother of TN flew into town for my parent’s 60th wedding anniversary. Hmmm, I better show up for that one. (90 min drive-one way) A nice gathering, but I also need to pack a backpack.

Skipper, barnacles are dragging on the port side
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Of course the car wasn’t ready for the trip either. The front caliper was dragging and old Betsy was due for an oil change. Ralph J set this dude up, Thanks Ralph (he’s on this group).

Walk the plank
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Monday I got a call that I’m testifying in court on Thr, which is a day scheduled for our annual training at work. All I could do was laugh. My parole officer said that either I testify, or it’s back to the big house. (Just kidding.) Like someone with ADHD OD’ing on adderall, my testimony was calm and coherent since it felt like a break in my schedule.

Rum for the Mates?
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From last year’s precedent, I better state what booze was in the hull.

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Better to sail with torn sails than to not sail at all
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Packing was a hurried affair. I stood in front of the shelving unit (with camping gear), and threw the stuff on a table. Not much time for double-checks, not much thought, not much for a list, just get ‘er done.

Aug 23rd--Setting Sail
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The alarm went off at 4:30 am, I filled with fuel and left town at 5 am. After a couple hours of driving, I thought about what I may have forgotten. Hmmmm, poles! Dammit. I got on the phone to Julie (oh, I’m going solo this trip since Julie has to work). She was the “smart” feature of my phone. I got directions and stock quantities of hiking poles at Gander Mt in Fargo. I had to wait 10 min for them to open, but I got a set of cheap ($40) Kelty poles since the Leki poles seemed to have poor quality control. The cashier asked, “Do you want to extend the warranty on the poles for $2.50 a pole?” “No, that’s ok.”


Back on the road I realized that I also forgot a charger for my computer. Dammit…well, I do have a car charger for the computer, but this left a nagging feeling that I forgot something important. I arrived in Harve, got a room, picked up some groceries and a DQ, and got to bed about 10 pm.

Aug 24th—Permit Day
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The alarm went off at 3:30 am, and I had some breakfast in the parking and left by 4 am. I picked up coffee in Shelby, filled in Browning, and it was still dark. I made it to the St. Mary ranger station at 6:45 am, and got let in the door about 7 am. My plan was to get a walk up permit for Upper Kintla, Boulder Pass, Hole in the Wall, and then exit at Bowman Lake. I brought a mt bike to facilitate the 22 mile transfer between Bowman and Kintla, but I had no back up plan in case I didn’t get the permit. Basically my real goal was a break from work,

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and if I didn’t get the permit, I’d drive to Many Glacier and see what happened.

Ok, out of time for today. Did I get the permit? Stay tuned for the next episode of “Better to sail with torn sails than to not sail at all.”

Jay
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by Ear Mountain »

Aye Matey, did you hit the reef?
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by mikie »

I can totally relate to the drama before the trip. There always seems to be so much drama before the trip. If the drama follows you on the trip, then it really sucks. Look forward to reading more.
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by toddnick »

Awesome start!!!! :D

As they say in "Summer Days" from Grease...."tell me more, tell me more'...

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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by Jay w »

Hang on men, I just unloaded a couple garage doors and I need to install them, read the directions, and then reinstall them. :D That's the only way to learn.

Jay
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by Jen »

I love it when Jay W gets to go to GNP. It's almost as great as when I get to go.

I am making popcorn so I hope you are typing tonight.
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by Jay w »

Garage door is not quite installed, but here we go.

Sat 9/24/13

-Hike: Sun Rift Gorge
-Distance: Maybe 2 miles
-Vertical: It’s uphill
-Bike: 24 miles in boots

First things first, I got the permit,

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and I’d say THAT was the highlight of the trip. To this point, I hadn’t emotionally invested the backpacking trip, but once I got the permit I was pumped, and I had a basic plan for the trip. (BTW, I played with the personal info a bit. I’m not one to put my info out there.) The only day that concerned me was the 16 mile day heading out. That seems kind of long with a 45 lb backpack.

FYI, I’m not a backpacker. I did an overnight in King’s Canyon in 1984 with my brother, a couple trips into the BWCA in the 80s, and a couple trips (3 miles into) the Superior hiking trail, but all my gear is old as the hills:

-Backpack: Borrowed from a co-worker
-Tent: 1980s
-Sleeping bag: 1980s
-Cook kit: 1980s
-Stove: 5 year old MSR Whisperlite to replace a 1980s stove
-Sleeping pad: Brand NEW! Big Agnes (to replace a Thermarest that’s used for the dog bed)
-Boots: Brand NEW! Salomon

Sun Rift Gorge
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It was 8 am, and instead of having a beer, I decided to hike up Sun Rift gorge a ways. I’ve always liked the gorge section as I’ve finished the Siyeh Pass hike, but I found out the light is nice in the evening and not the morning. Basically, the evening light is all shade and the morning light is spotty sunshine. I didn’t get much that I liked.

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I normally shoot on a tripod (new one this year, which I like), use live view and focus manually. I quickly found that I forgot my Hoodman magnifier and glasses (readers—they’re in the car), so my normal mode of shooting was out. After a couple of hours of farting around, I thought, “Holy smokes, I have a lot to do today, I better leave.” Once in the car, I started thinking that I better check my backpack before getting to West Glacier in case I forgot something big…like a tent. Logan Pass was packed, so I stopped just past the pass and went through the pack.

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Everything seemed ok, so on to Polebridge. I stopped at the Merc to make a call (inform Julie of the plan) and pick up a bear claw. As I stood at the counter with money in hand, I watched as a woman moved pastries from the back counter to the front counter and ignoring me. Finally, I left without a bear claw and headed for Kintla Lake.

Once at Kintla, I talked to Lyle (the Ranger) and told him I was planning to leave a bike there while I did the Hole in the Wall loop. I said it’s old (1996 Litespeed), but I’d hate to lose it. He assured me it would not disappear. Then he said that when he was 70, he and Charlie Logan did that the Hole in the Wall loop to check out the campgrounds. They started at 6 am and finished at 5 pm, and after the hike Charlie could hardly walk because he had such bad blisters. I had looked at every which way to do this hike (Bowman, Kintla, Goat Haunt) as a day hike and decided to do a backpack because 38 miles was too far for a dayhike. Here Lyle does it at age 70. I tip my hat.

My tent was getting some attention…I think because it is rather large for a backpacking tent.

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I call it the Taj. As I’m setting up the tent, a couple college women from WI roll in wearing black lycra leggings and fluorescent sports bras. One looked like an Indian squaw due to the pigtails, and the other had on mirror aviator sunglasses and looks like…maybe a cop from the Village People. (grin) They were nice, but didn’t seem like the normal folk at Kintla.

With the tent set up

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and the pack stored in a bear locker, I drove to Bowman and then hopped on the bike to ride back. The bike suddenly decided to have a mechanical problem. It wouldn’t shift into the large chainring. Huh, what’s up with that? Also, my big boots were not working so well in the toe clips, but I forged on. I gotta say that I’ve ridden logging roads that are smoother than the sections of dirt road in the prairies.

By the time I got to Kintla, I was running on fumes. I had already been up for 16-17 hrs and hadn’t really had a meal (other than a bowl of cereal), so the pasta dinner (no sauce) on the cook stove tasted lousy but was really needed. Lyle was talking to the WI woman and he said to me that I might see these two on the trail since they’re heading to Boulder Pass. I said, “That’s a big day,” (it’s 17 miles and 3000 feet or so) and he replied, “Yeah that’s a big day.” I got the feeling that we both thought they were never going to make it.

After a beer the neighbors (guys) I was off to bed, but still wired. Even with some Z-Quill, I had a hard time going to sleep, and a few hours later there was a thunder storm. Actually, it was pretty cool because the thunder was bouncing around the mountains and giving a real acoustical treat. Was I worried about the bike in the rain…well, just a little.

Real hiking starts tomorrow.

Jay
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by MarxMN »

I will be chuckling the rest of the day imagining that tent (the big orange one) somehow fitting into the Kintla Lake campground.
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by calicotraveler »

Fun reading this! Waiting for more.
We've been through an addition to the house and kitchen remodel this summer so can relate to you're wanting to get away for awhile. We also got away this summer to Glacier leaving the contractor to finish up the last month of work.
However, I think your Glacier adventure is going to be quite different from ours. We flew into Kalispell and stayed in a cabin in Apgar. No amazing tent. Only day hikes. However Glacier was SO good for us and I was just what we needed.

More of your story please!
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by Jay w »

Sun 9/25/13
-Hike: Upper Kintla
-Distance: 11.6 miles
-Elevation: Not really, the trail wanders up and down

Rolling out of the tent kind of late (maybe 7 am), I found the tent bottom was half wet. Fortunately my new air mattress did its job and only the foot of my bag was wet. I was lazy and didn’t stake out the rainfly last night, but I think the floor of my tent is well beyond waterproof anyway. Maybe a coat of ScotchGuard will help.

While taking a few pictures, I had a strange conversation with a woman. From that conversation, I found she may need help and that the ranger (Lyle?) had been practicing “aversion training” on a black bear last night and I never heard a thing. So once I was out, gunfire wouldn’t wake me up. Morning photos:

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About 8am, the WI women headed for the upper trailhead (with their car) while I headed for the lakeshore trailhead. After that, I didn’t see them until Monday. The vegetation was covered with water, and my new boots were soon soaked, like “walk in a puddle with tennis shoes” soaked. I also felt like crap and had a headache. That gave me an excuse to stop and change socks, which of course were soaked once I put on the boots. My socks were acting like wicks pulling water into the boots.

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The wet socks also gave me the excuse to stop again at the Kintla (backcountry) site to dry out my boots. It didn’t take long to realize that I hadn’t brought any coffee on the trip, and this headache felt like a classic caffeine withdrawal headache. It couldn’t be because I pushed myself yesterday, or the day before, or the week before that. Nah.

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Along the lakeshore, I ran into a black bear (almost literally). I was whistling at the time, but the bear didn’t seem to notice, and the bear spray tied to my shoulder was completely inaccessible. After talking to the bear without a reaction, I yelled and then the guy stood on his hind legs and seemed surprised to see me. Man, do I have to light off fireworks? After shooing the bear away, I tied the bear spray to a more accessible spot and continued.

At the Upper Kintla site, I talked with Ken and Rita for quite a while. They were measuring campsites and when Rita saw my tent she let out a “Whoa,” to which I responded, “I call it the Taj.” While I was talking with both of them around the food site, Ken said, “Would you look at that,” and ran off chasing a black bear. (Really.) A few minutes later he came back and said that the bear ran to the latrine, stood up, and then he hit him with the bear spray. He knew he got ‘em good because he could hear the bear coughing and snorting in the woods.

On the way south, the rangers ran into the new group heading to Upper Kintla and told them that there’s a black bear in the campground. “If you see him, go ahead and hit him with a stick” (yeah really) “or spray him because we don’t want bears in the sites.” So Lance had his bear spray in hand as he was hiking. I think the bear was down at the water washing up and then headed towards the trail when Lance approached. Lance said the bear was one step and a swipe away from him in the brush, so he nailed the bear with his spray. Man, twice in a couple hours, I feel bad for the guy. And the second time was at point blank.

So Lance, Marie and Alden (?) were some great people with great food, and even gave me some wine. Unfortunately, the wine didn’t take away my headache, but it didn’t hurt. Shawn was at the other site and we both got the exact same walk up permit, but he must have been a minute or two ahead of me. (The ranger told me I filled each site.) After dinner, I walked around and took some pictures.

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And then a sunset. It has some color, but here’s a B&W.

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That’s about it for the first day of backpacking. Oh yeah, no blisters!

Jay
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by orin »

Jay W wrote:
I drove to Bowman and then hopped on the bike to ride back. ... I gotta say that I’ve ridden logging roads that are smoother than the sections of dirt road in the prairies.
I did the same trip a couple of years ago. As you say, the road was pretty rough through the prairies but then I got behind a road grader. I suppose the grader was improving things for cars but it almost ended my ride. The graded road was covered with so much deep loose wheel sucking gravel that I could hardly ride at all. I ended up walking a few stretches until the grader stopped for lunch and I was able to leave it behind.
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by Jay w »

Yeah, I called it a dirt road, but it's really a rock road. Some of those rocks are the size of loaves of bread. In MN, they have more dirt which holds it together.

As for the building process, I found out what general contractors do....take care of problems. When a semi-truck shows up to deliver materials, you need a plan! One of the biggest problems was getting the framers to commit to a time frame. I like the TV commercial where a contractor is talking to a (female) home owner and says, "We're gonna show up, tear out the kitchen and leave your house open to the elements. Then we're going to disappear for three days. Don't even try to call us because you won't be able to get ahold of us. Then we're gonna come in and complete the job and you'll love it so much you'll want to kiss me on the lips." The bit about don't call it about right.

Jay
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by paul »

On the way south, the rangers ran into the new group heading to Upper Kintla and told them that there’s a black bear in the campground. “If you see him, go ahead and hit him with a stick” (yeah really) “or spray him because we don’t want bears in the sites.”
Wow, they really said that to the backpackers? I mean hitting any bear with a stick could turn out pretty badly. Even telling people to run after and spray the bear is a bit much.

Nice report Jay! Can't wait for Boulder Pass and HOL.
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Re: Better to sail w/torn sails than to not sail at all

Post by sj in cal »

Chased a bear to use their bear spray, really??? Wish I had been there, but it might be time to find somewhere else to backpack.
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