Retracing Bob Marshall's footsteps

For the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, I got this bright idea to “retrace” Bob Marshall’s original hike in Northwest Montana from 86 years ago.

In 1928, Marshall hiked from the Echo Lake Ranger Station just outside the Jewel Basin to the Seeley Lake Post Office in a little over a week.

He went 288 miles through the Jewel Basin, the South Fork of the Flathead and then through the south end of the Mission Mountains.

His was a 288-mile journey and he averaged 36 miles a day. Mine was 200 miles and took about 20 days, including several day hikes.

My “retracing” covered many of the same trails, but quite a few that he didn’t hike as well. For example, he wandered around the Jewel Basin that first day, then dropped down to Handkerchief Lake and hiked down the South Fork to the Spotted Bear Ranger Station.

Today, that route would have meant a long slog down the West Side Hungry Horse Reservoir Road to Spotted Bear — not exactly a photogenic experience.

So I chose a different route.

I started at Bunker Creek and hiked the Swan Crest back to the Jewel on the first leg and then made two more day hikes in the Jewel.

I knew there was no way I could keep Marshall’s pace. I didn’t want to anyway. The goal was to take pictures, not run, which is basically what Marshall’s pace had to be to cover that much ground in a day. The Swan Crest took me four days and covered 48 miles.

The biggest problem was snow.

I wore a pair of sneakers and I had to skirt around massive snow drifts on more than one occasion. The snow wasn’t a problem so much as trying to re-find the trail at the other end through bogs and brush.

Fortunately the hills don’t have ears and my cursing went unnoticed, though I suspect a critter or two got an education in the darker side of the English language.

About a month later, I hiked roughly 96 miles through the Bob Marshall Wilderness from Holland Lake back to Bunker Creek. It took nine days and rained four of them.

Two days in, I figured the journey was over. On the edge of White River Butte in the pouring rain, I ran into Forest Service packer Bill Workman on a narrow section of trail.

Workman’s horse spooked and he went over the edge along with two mules. It was at least a 60-degree slope. I thought for sure he and the horse tumbled to their deaths.

I waited for the sounds of agony, but nothing. I dropped down off the trail to have a look at his tracks but saw no signs of a wreck.

The slope was so steep it was hard to even stand up in the slick hard-panned soil. I waited a bit longer and then went back up on the trail. There stood Bill.

It turns out he and the horse and the two mules had somehow ridden it out.

“There’s something to be said for having four feet,” I said.

“There’s something to be said for living,” Workman said.

The rest of the pack string, about five mules, needed straightening out after the pigtail broke, but everyone was accounted for and was no worse for the wear.

The rest of the journey still had reminders of death.

I found a memorial to a packer on an off-trail excursion.

Someone had put his boots down next to a cross with a horseshoe. The cross had no name, just the year — 2014. It snowed like winter when I hiked along the Chinese Wall. That was highly unpleasant.

I had sneakers on again and the mud was up to my ankles. A miserable few miles, it was.

The Bob was beautiful and full of pleasant surprises. Who knew Brushy Park would be a delight? Or Black Bear would actually have a black bear run through camp, along with a thundering herd of elk at midnight?

Picture Ridge lived up to its name, but Picture Lake was a mosquito haven.

The Missions proved the most challenging. Marshall climbed several peaks on his route, including Daughter of the Sun. But on my first foray it rained and a black lichen that grew on the high elevation rocks turned to slime, making climbing treacherous. During the next attempt, snow blanketed the higher terrain and an attempt to make it around Turquoise Lake ended in a big black cliff.

I only made it up one peak — Point St. Charles. I guess you could look at my Mission excursions as a failure. I look at them as an excuse to go back. It’s not like those mountains are going anywhere, right?

This project also culminated in “A Walk on the Wild Side,” a single-copy collectible hardcover book to benefit the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation.

It is being auctioned on eBay at: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Walk-on-the-Wild-Side-Photos-of-a-200-mile-hike-in-the-Spirit-of-Bob-Marshall-/161475633513?ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

In addition, a softcover version will soon become available.

Folks interested can e-mail Peterson at editor@glacierparkmagazine.com to be notified of its release.