The Chinese Wall in the Bob Marshall Wilderness

Day 135

Date: 13.09.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 2'747.7

Miles hiked: 28.3 miles / 45.3 km

Elevation: 4'744 feet ascent (1'447 m Aufstieg) / 4'245 feet descent (Abstieg 1'295 m)

Camping at: 5'567 feet / 1'698 m

We managed to get up early and hike out at 7am, shortly after the day light kicked in. It is not too cold, but it ain't warm neither. Luckily everything is dry, which means we can save some time today by not drying out our gear at lunch. However, it is still smoky. Not as bad as yesterday though.

I am excited today. Firstly, we are now in the famous Bob Marshall Wilderness, a very remote roadless wilderness. One can find a mega fauna here: Grizzly bear, black bear, lynx, wolverine, deer, elk, gray wolf, moose, black bear, mountain lion, mountain goat, mountain sheep, bald eagle, osprey, pelicans and more roam about these rugged ridge tops, gently sloping alpine meadows, thickly forested river bottoms and open grass parks. Secondly, we get to see the famous Chinese Wall!

The first few miles were very easy hiking. But it is getting colder now. The views are nice in this valley, however it is still smoky or foggy. We can't see the sun, it is a very strange weather atmosphere. Is it foggy or smoky? We can't really tell.

Shortly later it started to drizzle, but as soon as we put on our rain gear it stopped again. We played this game all day long. A little rain for a few minutes, then dry again. But better than if it would rain heavily all day long!

As we start to approach the famous Chinese Wall (The Chinese Wall is a tall, lengthy escarpment located in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. It is arguably Montana’s most impressive landform, so hikers from all over come to see it, most opting for the twelve-mile long section that looms over the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), meaning water on the different sides of the wall flow into either the Atlantic Ocean (through the Gulf of Mexico) or the Pacific Ocean.) To get there, we have a big climb to master first. 2'700 feet of climbing, but the climb is so moderate and smoothly, one hardly notice it (not after what we have done in Colorado and Idaho/Montana!). And then it is there, the Chinese Wall. It is indeed very impressive. We hiked along the Chinese Wall for about 7 miles. Sadly, the weather wasn't the best today, but luckily it wasn't heavily raining or super smoky/foggy so we did get to see the wall at least. We stopped for lunch after 17 miles in, rather late in the day under some trees, as it started raining again. We took our time to enjoy the Chinese Wall. As there are no roads in the Bob's, one has to hike about 21 miles in to get to see the Wall and hence there are not many people here. In the afternoon, leaving the Wall behind us, we run into 'Last Boy Scout' and 'Greazy'. They are tenting next to a lake and having made a nice warm bonfire. We took this opportunity and warmed up at the fire before hiking on again. We left the official CDT and took the 'Spotted Bear Alternate', which is 15 miles shorter than official CDT route, but has more climb in it. That will might still bring us to town of East Glacier by late friday. The alternate starts off with very high and wet bushes and grass along the trail. Even though it stopped raining, the trail is super wet and easy to slip on, as due to all the bushes one can hardly see the trail. We had to put on the full raingear. It is getting late, but the trail is so overgrown, there is no single space to stop next to the trail. Finally we reached the bottom of the valley and cooked dinner shortly before 8pm at a pre-defined campsite, just before dark. There was a lot of big bear poop around. We hiked on in the pitch dark for another 0.3 miles to the next pre-designed site. But because it was so dark and the trail so overgrown, we first missed the this campsite and had to backtrack and search for it. The only chance to camp here are the pre-designed campsites which have been cleared from all the bushes. Finally we found a small path to the campspot and pitched tent. It has been a very long but epic day and we finally made it to bed shortly before 10pm!

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