Conclusion

Good day,

I am going home to Boston today from Bozeman, Montana.

First of all, I would like to address a major mistake I have made on this blog concerning Montana. I have called traveling to a destination in the wilderness without a trail bushwagoning. It actually is spelled bushwhacking. As a person who can't hear well, I confused "whacking" for "wagoning".

I also have received more pictures from my cousin that I would like to share with you all. They are of very good quality and show some details of the hike to Monitor Peak.

Fish Lake, where we camped.

The campsite. The yellow tent is where we slept and the grove of trees to the left of the tent (with the fallen tree) is where we hung our food.

The hike down from Monitor Peak

The ridgeline from Alpha-Monitor that we hiked

Now, for the conclusion.

A lot of people ask me why I like the outdoors and hiking, and I never really knew exactly how to answer that question besides "Oh, it's a pretty place, I like nature tbh."

I asked my cousin why she liked the outdoors and hiking and when she told me, I realized that her reasons were mine too.

A busy day for me is doing my homework after getting home exhausted from biking and while doing that work, I am trying to read my email and catch up on social media, maybe receive a call or text that I can't put off. For may people, the workplace is just a repeating cycle of boring processes, with occasional attempts to make it more entertaining.

Hiking and outdoor activity is an escape from that. It is an escape from the thoughts of the outside world, emails, calls, paperwork, etc. And the more off-the-grid you go, the more these thoughts slip away. Emails turn to water, calls to food, paperwork to shelter. Out in the wilderness where you have to make your own shelter and purify your own water and make your own food from what you have (in my case, instant mashed potatoes and oatmeal), you are not concerned with your work (in my case, two long essays on summer reading texts).

 Now that I am in the Bozeman airport writing this, I am trying to write, listen for announcements about my flight, making sure I don't miss the boarding time, trying to focus on just writing and not be distracted by the conversation of passengers around me. This, by the way, is why I'm liking videos more and more. Maybe someday I will have just videos, hopefully captioned.

Out there, I am more worried about getting to the top of the ridge to Monitor Peak. I am worried about making sure I don't slip on the rocks and that I am hydrated and that I don't lose half my blood to mosquitoes and making sure I have the air in my lungs to continue. This situation sounds absolutely terrifying to most. But why? Probably because you're not used to it. We are used to modern challenges, making money and then relaxing. I can almost guarantee that the people who are afraid of this situation are the ones who

a. Haven't tried it (vast majority)

b. Tried it but had a bad experience

Back to wilderness. How can anyone expect people to embrace the wilderness if it seems like a scary place? I'm not going to tell you that survival is easy, nor that it is all fun and games. I will tell you though that it is worth a shot.

When I wanted to go to Mexico, my parents gave me an outright no. When I wanted to go to Montana, we originally planned on it being a vacation for the whole family. Instead, I got to go by myself and try new things like whitewater rafting and backpacking and bushwhacking. All those things were things that I hadn't thought about trying until I was given that opportunity. When the opportunity arose, I grabbed it.

Grab it. Make your choice and take that leap of faith. In work, you don't decide if you get paid, your boss controls that. In the wilderness, your boss doesn't decide if you survive, you do.

I decided. I chose to survive. I took that risk, and boy, did I survive.

Sorry for ending so abruptly, I have to board my plane now. It's up to the pilot to get me to my destination, can't be late.

Thank you all for reading. Goodbye,
Ben

Days 6+7: The Backpacking Trip to Monitor Peak

Hello from big sky country,

For the past two days, I had been on a backpacking trip. We started at a parking lot, which was five miles from our first destination, Fish Lake. My cousin is a berry expert. She can
identify all the edible berries in the region, and get the tastiest ones too. My new favourite berry, thanks to her, is thimbleberry. Thimbleberry is similar in colour and shape to a raspberry, but is much softer and has a sharply sweeter flavour.


Each of the five miles was marked by something. Mile 1 continued until we got to a steep open slope. Mile 2 was a marshland and river crossing, as seen in the photo below.







Mile 3 was marked by a trail junction, where multiple trails meet.

Mile 4 was marked by Knox/Castle Lake, seen in the photo to the right. Finally, Mile 5 was our destination, Fish Lake, seen below. At Fish Lake, we set up our camp, and hung our 

food in a tree about 100 feet away, so that bears couldn't get to it.

 Once we had fully set up camp, we got our daypack on. A daypack carries the essential items you need: some food, water, jacket, and first aid. The goal is to travel light so that you can go quicker to your destination.

We decided to go up the mountain in a zig-zag trail. On the right is the trail we took up. We bushwagoned the trail: meaning that we did it without there being an official trail there. As seen in the photo, we followed the grassy slope, starting at the pine trees, where the photo was taken. We then went to the further grove of pine trees and did a rock and forest scramble to the midway point. From there, we followed the grassy slope up to the top of the ridge.  

A cliff face from our bushwagon
up to the ridge

Fish Lake as seen from the beginning of the ridge. The ridge hike was a mile long of cliff on one side and steep rocky grass on the other. While it was difficult at times to traverse, it ended up being my favourite part of the whole hike. 

The view from the midway point on the ridge

Another picture from the midway point.
This is looking back on where we hiked.
The rocky meadow is the bushwagon we
took up to the ridge.

Monitor Peak from
the midway point

 

The following two photos are taken from small peaks leading up to Monitor. These small peaks have no names, so I came up with my own naming system. Basically, you have the main peak, in this case, Monitor Peak. You then name each peak in order up to Monitor Peak using the Greek alphabet. We had three peaks up to Monitor, the first being the one we initially got to at the beginning of the ridge, then the midway point, and a peak at the 2/3 point. The first one is called Alpha-Monitor, the second Beta-Monitor, and the third Gamma-Monitor.

The rock-climb
pass between
Alpha and Beta
Monitor.

View from Beta-Monitor 

View from Beta-Monitor,
looking at Gamma-Monitor

The picture above is the farthest me and my cousin got, the peak of Gamma-Monitor. Below are two photos of Monitor Peak from Gamma-Monitor

I went up to base of the rocky pillar that is the top of Monitor Peak. Me and my cousin thought that it was possible to make the ascent, but not with the time we had left. The sun was about to set. Luckily, we found a valley and small stretch of forest to go down, and we ended up right next to our base camp. In fact, the route was so quick and easy that when I attempt Monitor Peak again sometime in the future, I will take that route up.

Nighttime from our base camp

After a surprisingly good night's sleep in our tent, we packed our framepacks, and set out for home.

Though I never made it to the top, Monitor Peak was the best hike I've ever been on. It was off the grid and part bushwagoning. It also gave me a real taste of true hiking, when I relied on me, myself, and I. And my cousin, I must thank her for all the help she gave me. Another thing that made this hike so great is that it was actually really hard for me to do.

Back in Massachusetts, I'm a very fast hiker, but here in Montana, I was not so fast and was puzzled by the terrain at times. The altitude made it so that one breath at the base camp was equal to three at Alpha-Monitor. Coming from a part of Massachusetts less than 500 feet above sea level, climbing a 10,000 foot mountain was hard on my lungs and mind. In fact, I sometimes caught myself losing my concentration on the way up. Luckily, I combated that by counting from 1 to 100 in English, then Spanish in order to maintain my concentration. It worked really well, and whenever I felt woozy, I just counted.

A love for hiking and the outdoors was probably the greatest reason for liking Monitor. I will talk about what hiking means to me tomorrow, in my conclusion.

I will have to return to Monitor Peak someday and make it to the top. To be so close but not exactly there was not a great feeling. Monitor Peak is now on my list of mountains to conquer.

I will be writing my conclusion to Montana tomorrow, or the day after if I can't write it in between my flights home.

Whenever the conclusion is, see you then,

Ben 

Day 5: Whitewater Rafting and Backpacking Practice

Good day,

Today I did the surprise: whitewater rafting. Amazingly, my cochlear implant stayed on. First, I put a waterproof casing on, then secured it with two headbands - one soft, and one elastic. Next, I attached a clip from the casing to my shirt. Finally, I put it all under my helmet, and we were off.

Going whitewater rafting was the best dumb decision I have ever made. There were a few times when I thought I was going to fall out the boat, but I didn't, luckily. Whitewater rafting is a lot like lead rock climbing to me. You get to each rapid, just like you get to each carabiner, and there's always that feeling of doubt: Am I going to make it? How do I do this?

My job was highsiding - You sit in the front and lean forward when the boat goes up so that the weight is more shifted towards the front. That way, the boat doesn't flip over. Even though it probably didn't make a difference, I felt like I was doing something, which was great. The photos are courtesy of my cousin.

After whitewater rafting and a quick bite at a nearby restaurant, we prepared for the backpacking trip I will be doing Friday and Saturday. We did bushwagoning for practice, and while it was a lot of fun, it was pretty hard. The main mistake I made was over-packing. I am going to pack extra for the overnight trip (as if I learned nothing) only because I have never done it before and I want to make sure I am prepared. Although, I will take lightweight packing to heart on familiar hikes, such as Mt. Washington. For that trip, I will practice minimalist packing. I also learned that Montana has a lot of annoying scratchy plants, so I will be wearing long but lanky and airy pants. Doing the practice run was definitely worth it.

Two last things- I am writing this late at night, so the quality of this post isn't too great. Also, I will not be writing for the next day, maybe two.

Till next time,

Ben

Day 4: Beartooth Highway

Hello!

I went on the Beartooth Highway, a highway that goes from Montana into Wyoming. It is honestly the most spectacular 11 hour road trip I have been on. I am writing this quite late, with much to do, so I don't have time to write much. However, I have many videos and pictures to show you all. I will present this post as kind of like a timeline.

First, we went to the small town of Red Lodge. All the way there, it's just road and beautiful views.

Then, we got on the Beartooth Highway. It was absolutely spectacular. I kept talking about bushwagoning the mountains. Bushwagoning is when you go off the trail and make your own trail to a destination, usually due to lack of a trail. Some people say it's totally crazy to bushwagon these mountains, some give it a shot. We stopped and did a short bushwagoning trail, about forty minutes there and back for me.

We stopped in Cooke City for a bathroom break, then went to Yellowstone National Park. It was pretty nice, but compared to other landscapes I've seen on the trip, it wasn't my favourite. This is probably due to the fact that we were driving through woods for a chunk of the time. However, we did see many bison and a beaver. The bison were not afraid to walk up close to cars or in front of them.

 

 

 















Finally, we got to Jardine, where my aunt's daughter (cousin-ish) lives. In the morning, I will have more pictures of Jardine. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to my aunt and cousin playing "This Land is Your Land". Never has that song felt so true.

By the way, tomorrow is the surprise.

Also, I would like to say that I haven't been replying to comments as often due to lack of time. I also owe thanks to you all for reading this blog, and if you have anyone who you think would enjoy this blog, please do spread the word. Thank you.


See you all later,
Ben