Day 44: Two Medicine Creek to Marias Pass

It is amazing the lengths one will go to avoid fording an icy creek on a cold morning. Several of the creeks already had rocks or logs for crossing, including a log precariously balanced on a rock that acted like a teeter totter. But at another creek we actually hauled nearby stones into the creek to step on. 

Now that we have exited the Bob Marshall Wilderness, we were not surprised to find ourselves bushwhacking again. We blindly pushed through dense overgrowth, with deadfall and stray branches lying across the trail camouflaged like tripwires under the brush. Plant stalks grasped our ankles with the tenacity of a predator locking onto its prey.

After seeing no one all day yesterday, I was surprised to hear a man's voice coming from a clump of bushes. "Sorry, I'm answering the call of nature," he explained apologetically. "But you see so few people out here, I couldn't let you pass without saying hello."  

Gusts of wind whistled through the bare trees of the burned forest. At times the wind sounded like the echoes of distant cries. 

We reached Marias Pass by mid-afternoon. My father met us there and took us to East Glacier, where we were able to get cleaned up at Brownie's Hostel. Then we enjoyed a delicious Mexican dinner at Serrano's, followed by yummy vanilla salted caramel truffle ice cream back at Brownie's.