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
Thanks so much for your update, Ben. As usual, really well-written and inspiring to read. I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on the hiking and the techniques that you used. And, I'm glad that you got to spend some quality time with your cousin. Maybe someday you can write an article on what it means to leave the comforts of civilization for the outdoors, like how food, drink, and personal hygiene are dealt with in a natural environment. Even campgrounds can have some accommodations, but not "real" nature, like you experienced; it must be really interesting and challenging in itself at times.
ReplyDeleteI'm really proud of all that you have accomplished on this trip, and the challenges that you faced and overcame. You should be proud of yourself, too; it's OK to be. :-)
Looking forward to seeing you soon!
Love,
-Dad