Barefoot & Homeless at Last...Adventures of a Young Sasquatch

[dieselbigot]

The rest of the journey through Manitoba into Saskatchewan was 7 hours of flat wheat fields, so no pictures until I got to Grasslands where I saw a heard of about 50 Bison and hundreds of super chatty Prairie Dogs.

While related to Gopher’s, the Black Tailed Prairie Dogs are much bigger and look and act more like a small Marmot. They are an endangered species and unique to this park (which is the only place you can find them). Apparently they live in colonies of 500-600 and the underground tunnels they create are used by other ground dwelling creatures like rattle snakes and weasels which is why they are protected. They are quite curious little buggers and have no fear of people and make all kinds of racket as you approach them. I always disliked gophers but I found these guys to be very comical reminding me a lot of Marmots.



Wild Bison


Went for a hike...no trees to be seen


So now I’m in my old hometown of Calgary where I’ll spend a few more days with family & friends before meeting up with my CA buddies near Waterton / Glacier NP. This is where we start our 3 week trek down the Continental Divide. I can’t wait to get back into the mountains again!

Cheers,
B

 

[XPEDBC]

I'm busting out the popcorn for each update... Being from BC I found the prairies to be a nice change, but I was ready for trees and mountains again within a week or so. Plus, there was nowhere to camp! We had to pull into a grove of small trees on the SK/MB border in the corner of a farmer's field and crash in the back of the truck for the night

 

[dieselbigot]

Continental Divide Trail Update

Been a while since I've had the combination of both time and reliable wi-fi to update this thread, so here goes!

CDT - Thursday Aug/18

Left Calgary pointing south to Eureka MT. This was like a trip down memory lane...I did a lot of skiing down here in my 20's. My route to the boarder went through High River, Chain Lakes, Pincher Creek, then west into Sparwood & Fernie in BC.

I had a few things to take care of in Eureka including some maintenance on the Taco, and just as I was wrapping up I connected with Brian and Ken who were meeting me for this part of the trip. I had checked some near-by freebie camp sites on https://freecampsites.net/ and found a place just a few miles out of town. We met at a nice campsite overlooking the Tobacco river and posted up before breaking out the next day to start the trail.

 

[dieselbigot]

Tobacco River

 

[dieselbigot]

CDT Start - Friday

After last nights rain, wind and cold we woke up to a beautiful clear morning. Went into town and had a great breakfast at Jax cafe...you have to stop here if you are in Eureka! We started on the trail and decided to make it official, we just had to get to the US / Canada boarder (off pavement) and take a pic.

The dirt track we took south of Eureka took us east and had some great views of Glacier NP. When we finally hit the main north / south road, we took a left and headed for the boarder. This is an unmanned remote boarder crossing guarded by nothing but a ditch and a cut-line up the mountain. Ken's Queensland Shepard (Boog) trotted right across the CDN boarder and proceeded to poop two times on CDN soil. The Canadian in my had to yell at Boog (to protect the mother land)...but we all laughed hard at the irony of it .

From the boarder we drove south to the Polebridge Mercantile…there is a cool little restaurant, a playground for the kids (Ken and his wife have a 2 and 5yr old in tow), a fresh vegetable market and a bakery where we all bought lunch and baked goods.

After lunch at Polebridge we headed south and did one more mountain pass before dropping into Upper Whitefish lake. We found a gorgeous campsite right on the water. I broke out the SUP and went for a paddle before making dinner and scrounging for some firewood. Ken set up his new drone and dazzled us all with the cool images it could take of the lake and campsite. We finished the night with a big fire and chatting by the fire. A great day one on the CDT!!

 

[dieselbigot]

CDT Day 2

Saturday morning was another clear Montana day with not a cloud in the sky. The water on Upper Whitefish lake was like glass and fish were jumping all around. We packed up and drove south on the gravel county road until we hit pavement near Whitefish. As we hit the shoreline of the larger Whitefish lake, multi-million dollar "cabins" began to dot the landscape. We passed through Whitefish and crossed the Flathead river in the town of Columbia Valley. The CDT takes you southeast through some of the most beautiful farms and acreage homes you will ever see...and almost all of them have detached shops that are as big, or bigger than the homes. These people have their priorities straight!

The balance of the day was spent picking through heavily forested gravel roads with nothing more than the occasional filtered view of western Glacier NP. We ended the day in Seely Lake MT eating dinner at a greasy spoon roadside burger shack before heading back out on gravel and finding a campsite in the forrest a few miles out of town

 

[dieselbigot]

CDT Day 3

We woke early (well, early for this group and had a big day of gravel roads ahead of us. After a quick breakfast we started out on what would be our longest stretch so far. As we left the forrest behind, rolling hills gave way to grassy farmland with mountain views all around.



As we worked our way further south the trail became rougher which slowed our progress, but this area was really pretty, so that was fine with me. We stopped at Empire Mine to check out the ruins, then started looking for a flat shady spot for lunch, but there was nothing.



Finally we pulled off onto a side trail that was perfect, but quickly realized it was private property. The owners happened to be there, so I approached them to ask permission to stop. They could not have been friendlier or more accommodating. The owners were Rita and Amy...two older gals from Helena who were working on their 16x10 cabin. Super nice old gals...here they are posing with me on the porch of the cabin.



After lunch we had more rough gravel track. Met a few MTN bikers on trail, then met Emma…a young girl from London UK who had seen the movie Wild and figured hiking the Great Divide was a good idea. Started in mid April from Mexico and was just a couple hundred miles from end. She was out of water, so we gave her water along with some fruits and veggies since she had been living on tortilla's and slim jims .



We ended the day relatively late finding a nice spot by a small lake. After dinner we watched the sun set against a smokey sky. We didn't know it then, but we were surrounded by fires burning seemingly everywhere. One of these fires would catch up with us in a few days...

 

[myblackfx4]

I registered here for the sole reason of viewing the pictures you share in your updates. I'm living through you on this journey :smiley_drive:

 

[kamicrazy99]

This is awesome. If you've got to be in Ontario it's hard to beat Kenora, but now that I moved to BC I have no desire to go back. Great report!

 

[galvyork]

Keep up the great work. Looks awesome. I'm glad you stumbled upon that woman from the UK. I'm sure she loved the donations. How do you like the hard shell RTT? Any wear on the fabric from open and closing every night? Safe travels. Thanks, Don

 

[Searay180]

Cool trip. Glad your having a great time

 

[dieselbigot]

I registered here for the sole reason of viewing the pictures you share in your updates. I'm living through you on this journey :smiley_drive:

This is awesome. If you've got to be in Ontario it's hard to beat Kenora, but now that I moved to BC I have no desire to go back. Great report!

Keep up the great work. Looks awesome. I'm glad you stumbled upon that woman from the UK. I'm sure she loved the donations. How do you like the hard shell RTT? Any wear on the fabric from open and closing every night? Safe travels. Thanks, Don

Cool trip. Glad your having a great time

Thanks for all the comments and for following along . Don's question about the RTT is a good segue into reporting on the gear and set-up I used on this trip. To directly answer the question, no...absolutely no wear or breakage on my Columbus RTT. I've had several RTT's of different flavors over the years and the Maggiolina Columbus is by far my favorite. I can set up or pack down in under 60 seconds and the level of comfort is second to none. Rain protection has been great, even through mountain monsoon type storms. The only issue I've had has been with condensation in a few situations...but if I crack open a side door for some ventilation, that pretty much resolves it.

As for the Leitner Designs rack and gear pods, I am extremely happy with outcome and performance. I keep everything used on a regular basis in these lockable, weather-tight pods so setting up or packing down a campsite can be done in a matter of minutes. I do wish There was a double or triple width pod available to accommodate longer items, but I've talked w/ the owner Bernard and he is working on a solution for that. Otherwise I've had no complaints at all. I can leave the majority of my bed packed while still being able to quickly access cooking gear and other basic essentials making set up and tear down a breeze.

The truck itself has been amazing. It drives like a sedan on the tarmac, has plenty of power over big mountain passes, and floats through boulder strewn washboard roads. The only thing I would change is my awning. The 4' ARB that's on it now was only added because I already had it sitting in my garage. First thing I'm doing when I get home is ordering a 270 degree awning. It will be nice to have a world larger than 32 sq.ft when it's raining.

 

[dieselbigot]

CDT Day 4

Monday was another beautiful clear Montana day…we broke camp and headed south covering lots of dusty gravel road before hitting 28 miles of pavement to Butte MT. We spent couple hrs in town gassing up, buying groceries and having lunch before hitting the dirt again. This next section of dirt proved to be the most fun thus far.

We started climbing into a rocky section with some relatively steep climbs and great scenery. Near the top of a high elevation foothill pass we met a local couple on dirt bikes. The wife had their dog riding on her gas tank serving as co-pilot . We informed them of our intended path and they both warned us about a very steep descent on the other side they were certain we couldn't possibly navigate. We thanked them for the insight and pressed on anyway.

What followed was a 4x4 trail that quickly degraded into an ATV track at best...but we were too far in to turn back...so we proceeded in 4 low under heaving braking. As we got to the bottom it became very tight in spots...but after relocating a few downed trees we were through it. It was obvious that full-sized trucks had not been through here in some time. The reward for our perseverance was one of the nicest dispersed campsites we'd found so far. Plenty of flat places to park, lots of shade trees, a beautiful creek and plenty of wood to keep me and my Husky chainsaw busy .

We cooked up a delicious dinner followed by a big campfire to keep us warm. Another awesome ending to a great day on the trail.

 

[Foy]

Fleecer Mountain

There aren't many moto riders who ride the Fleecer Mountain segment of the CDT. Nice work.

Looking forward to your report and pics from the Big Hole, Big Sheep Creek, and the Centennial Valley.

Foy

 

[galvyork]

Thanks for the reviews. I'm gonna make my own pop up camper but it's good to know the magnolias are a great tent. I'm not super happy with my tepui quality so if I get another RTT it might be a magnolia.