August 30, 2023 by Jaunting Jan

MT – Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, East Fork Rock Creek Trailhead (07/23)

After completing my initiation trip a few days earlier I was anxious to dive deeper into the wilderness. I obtained good information regarding road and trail conditions, as well as this trail recommendation, from staff at the ranger station in Philipsburg.

I hiked a clockwise loop, starting along Page Creek Trail.

I hiked about 7 miles through a lovely forest without taking a single photo until I got to the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) junction. It was a long slow ascent gaining about 2,200 feet. The trail was in great condition and I enjoyed the meditative plodding. My plan was to take a detour off the loop to visit Goat Flats.

Once on the CDT, I found myself surrounded by flowers.

Views opened up as I ascended toward Goat Flats.

The trail wove through a forest of larch trees.

At about 8.5 miles and 3,000′ elevation gain, I arrived at Goat Flats. To the left are Mount Tiny and Storm Lake Pass. These meadows would have been filled with high-alpine blooms a few weeks ago.

Arctic Gentian was the star of the meadows during my visit.

Views from Goat Flats.

If I had more time and energy, I would have loved to explore the trail that leads to Storm Lake Pass.

I wandered about taking in the views before heading back down to the junction and Page Lake.

Page Lake wasn’t anything special but I was glad to have it to call home for the night.

I was not happy to see smoke at sunset. There was a somewhat nearby smallish fire so I was hopeful it would be gone in the morning.

12 hours later all was good once again. Whew!

I found some monkeyflowers on my way to Flower Lake.

Flower Lake was a beauty and would have made for nicer campsite views and swimming, but I’m glad I didn’t push any further as my uphill tank was empty.

I found this mass display of Shooting Stars shortly after leaving Flower Lake.

While it was the last day of July, there was residual snow reminding me I was near the Continental Divide.

I was happy to find more spring blooms.

As I climbed up to the next trail junction, I had views back at Flower Lake.

From this viewpoint you can see Goat Flats in the distance, as well as both Page and Flower Lakes.

Nearly to the ridge at 9am. This is Rainbow Mountain at over 10,000′, which seems appropriate after visiting Rainbow Lake and Rainbow Pass recently.

Woohoo, I love ridge views!

Wandering this ridge and across Rainbow Mountain would have been great fun, but I didn’t think I had sufficient time and food to extend this trip.

Over there is my next destination, Cutaway Pass.

This is Cutaway Mountain.

All too soon it was time to go down so I could go back up.

There was a large section of avalanche debris. I was thankful for the trail crews, they are my heroes!

Cutaway Pass was another detour off my planned loop. I met two guys and a gal hiking the CDT.

The trail had nice Jan-friendly switchbacks.

I enjoyed being up in the granite.

Yay for views!

This White Bark Pine tree was amazing. I couldn’t help but wonder about the age. According to Wikipedia, the oldest is 1,267 years old.

I reached Cutaway Pass at 9,000′ after 20 miles with 5,000′ elevation gain and 2,300′ loss.

I wandered up the Hiline Trail a bit to gain better views. This is Beaverhead Mountain.

I was surprised and thrilled to find this Mariposa Lily.

I found a flat spot for a campsite near a creek for the night. The next morning I would be hiking down the East Fork Rock Creek Trail.

Trail magic!

Morning beauties.

Back at the trailhead, I met these guys hauling in bridge planks with their mule teams. It was great to be able to thank them in person for all their trail work. This was possibly the best condition wilderness trail and forest I’ve hiked through. The USFS districts seem to have prioritized their budget to maintain trails. What a wonderful but rare treat!

This loop ended up being about 30 miles with 5,000′ of elevation gain/loss.

Tips:

The best map is from Cairn Cartographics, Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness. It can be purchased locally from the Anaconda Outdoor store, and is also available digitally through Avenza.
The best source of trail and road conditions is the USFS Ranger Station in Philipsburg.

Resources:

USFS – Anaconda Pintler Wilderness

WA – PCT Section L . . . as in at Long Last – Part 2 (07/23)

With a mere 30 miles separating Joan and I from the US/Canada border, we were anxious to get started. Part 1 (blog link) includes the details of Joan’s journey; she was less than 60 miles from completing her 2014 goal of thru-hiking the PCT. I knew this was a section filled with eye candy, one that met my WOW per mile criteria, so I was thrilled to join Joan for the finale. I had a sneak peek of the initial miles of this section in 2019 (blog link), but I too had unfinished business and looked forward to marking most of Washington complete.

Besides wonderful landscape views, the flower blooms were an added incentive.

I always appreciate these on-trail, free, self-issue wilderness permit options.

Barely visible in the distance is the Slate Peak Lookout Tower. We hiked up there the previous day and enjoyed views of the distant peaks and the landscape we would be traveling through over the next few days.

The colors of these mountains offered so much WOW.

We enjoyed views of Mount Baker hiding between Crater and Jack Mountains. I couldn’t help but reminisce about the trek I took around Jack Mountain (blog link).

I was thrilled to run into Nick Fowler who I met on the Arizona Trail this spring. He was heading north to the border before beginning his southbound FKT attempt the next day.

This is why we needed the wilderness permits. Even if you have the PCT long-distance permit, you are supposed to obtain a permit so the USFS can track visitation (and hopefully obtain additional funding and resources).

Eye Candy! Jan’s happy place, oh how I love ridge walking.

The sun was intense at elevation this far north. Joan was happy to have her umbrella even at this early hour of 7:30am.

The Dr. Seuss mopheads were glowing in the morning sun.

They were trying to be scene stealers.

The larch trees really did steal the show. I imagined how this area would look in the fall when they showcased their yellow and gold color.

The long traversing sections were another happy Jan spot; however, we often discussed how sketchy this would be in normal snow years. We were so lucky with our timing. No snow, fires, or smoke!

Looking back at this traverse section.

My National Geographic PCT map incorrectly identifies this as the high point on the PCT in Washington.

We couldn’t resist making snow angels; after all, we were going for the SKT not the FKT!

Hopkins Lake provided another swimming opportunity, extending our lead in the SKT race.

The next morning we only had 6 miles remaining before we reached the infamous monument at the border.

What would the PCT in Washington be without stormy clouds and precipitation?

This was a day to drop elevation, not my favorite since I knew I’d be reversing course in the afternoon. But these bright monkey flowers erased those worries.

Monkhood

By 10am we were ready to celebrate at the border.

Joan was a member of the Class of 2014 and now can mark her journey complete!

Happy Jan!

Joan celebrated her completion and future freedom after spending the past 9 years thinking about this odyssey.

I was just happy to share the climb with these blooms.

Since Joan had a hammock for her shelter, we spent most nights in wind-protected locations. At the beginning of this year, I wrote a post about my spontaneous purchase, the Durston X-Mid 1 (blog link). After 6 weeks on the Arizona Trail plus multiple nights over the past couple of months, I can recommend this tent without hesitation and confirm it has exceeded expectations.

The moody skies provided some incredible lighting.

Goodbye Hopkins Lake, sadly it was too windy and cold after we returned from the border to take a second swim.

Frost was evidence of the chill we felt.

I was impressed with the number of blooms on the columbine plants.

Mount Baker was more obvious in the morning light.

We hadn’t previously noticed the snow tarn above Hopkins Lake.

Owl’s Clover.

Lupine.

Pasqueflower seedheads and paintbrush.

We found a few ripe berries and were super excited to find our first gentian buds.

Thank you trail builders for giving me switchbacks.

Joan and I both made a “happy accident” as Bob Ross would say. We neglected to remove our first day’s breakfast and last day’s dinner from our food supply. This meant we could stay out another night. As such, we decided to take a detour to Goat Lake, which we found on the map a short distance from the PCT.

We were surprised by the lack of wildlife. We saw several deer and grouse but no evidence of bears or goats.

On our bonus night, I enjoyed sleeping among the larch.

While Joan prefers deep forest camps, I prefer ones with views so this was a winner for me.

We had glorious views the next morning.

Our first order of business upon completing the trail was food in Mazama followed by presoaking our very dusty, dirty, stinky laundry.

My next chore was figuring out how to replace the tips on my hiking poles. This was a first for me. I’ve never worn down tips before. These poles are only 2-3 years old.

I’m forever grateful for these J&J Jaunts, and the sharing of time with my bestie Joan.

Links:

July 23, 2023 by Jaunting Jan

AB Canada – Kananaskis Country, Spray Valley Provincial Park, Buller Pass (06/23)

I’ll admit to being a little concerned about hiking this trail solo. It seemed like a low-use trail, and in fact, on this day there were only two of us, me and a trail maintainer.

It was a day to use my bear-alert voice. Many hikers say, “hey bear.” Another friend yells “whoop, whoop, whoop.” I’ve found A-O to be my preferred shout. I didn’t want any encounters of the grizzly kind.

A couple of days earlier I enjoyed seeing this black bear sow and cub in the Banff area.

Thankfully the trail opened up and it didn’t feel so intimidating.

The Mountain Avens continue to delight me and have become a predominant early June bloom.

White Globeflower (Trollius laxus ssp. albiflorus)

White Pasqueflower (Pulsatilla occidentalis)

They are super tall. Bino Bob is 1.25″ tall.

A juvenile.

Sitka Valerian (Valeriana sitchensis)

Silky Phacelia (Phacelia sericea)

This waterfall dropped into a seriously blue pool.

Views appeared as I began to gain treeline.

Look at those new needles on the larch trees.

Baby cones and some a bit more mature on the larch trees.

Buller Pass was finally visible.

Looking back to a lovely turnaround spot for those hikers not wanting to tackle the rock and screen ascent to the pass.

There were a few snowfields to cross and some nearby snowmelt creeks. Buller Pass is on the right side.

Buller Pass is in the distance.

This section was tedious with some sections eroded and of varying tread. Not my favorite but not horrible either. There were marmots and pika in these rock fields.

Juvenile marmot.

There’s my trail maintainer friend on the final ascent.

Woohoo, there’s the top, such a relief after first reaching a false summit.

Looking back at what I’d climbed.

That’s Mount Assiniboine in the distance. It’s the seventh tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies.

Views over the other side of the pass include Lillian or Galatea Lakes. A trail drops down to these lakes and on down to Ribbon Creek Falls which I hiked to from the other side a few days later.