Death March

Jeff and I recently went on one our annual hikes into the wilderness, but this one had an entirely different ending...

We had plans to return to the Beartooth Wilderness out of Red Lodge, Montana. We went last year and it was an incredible trip, beautiful scenery, great fishing, and just a great hike. Just before we were scheduled to leave we checked the weeather and it was pretty ugly. 29 degrees with snow, rain and a high of around 48 for the entire week.

So............we decided to take another hike. This one was up the Kootenai Lake trail in the Bitterroot Mountains. Several years ago we had hiked a parallel drainage and had always wanted to go up Kootenai Creek so we decided to do it....the only glich is we decided to do it in three days. NOT a good idea.

These are the things I learned....

50 is not the new 30 when it comes to hiking
You CAN wear the same pair of shorts all week.
You do not STOP unless absolutely necessary.
The guy who writes for the Falcon Guide Wilderness Hikes is a goat....not human
He has entirely different definitions for:
"GRADUAL GRADE", "GENTLE SWITCHBACKS", "KNEE HIGH WATER", AND "SOON"

Jeff overheated about 4.5 miles in and he struggled through feeling light headed, sick to his stomach and weak throughout the rest of the trip.

We hiked 10.5 miles in the first day, (actually, we crawled up the mountain), fished a bit the second day and ended up hiking out 5 - 6 miles that day and the last 3-4 on the third day. We got out on Saturday and left for Texas City, Texas early Sunday morning. We were a little slow and sluggish and achey, but we survived (just barely) to tell the tale!

We have drawn a line in the sand about how much we will pack in a day....learn to lighten our load and try not to kill ourselves while we are doing something we love to do!