Woo Hoo!

Gary and Dona's Outrageously Wonderful 2011 Pack Trip to the

North Fork of the Sun River, the Chinese Wall, and Prairie Reef

September - October 2011

Part 3: Day Trip to the Continental Divide and the Chinese Wall

We had a layover day planned for My Lake, primarily because it is close to the Chinese Wall and we could hike to the wall and back on a day excursion. My Lake is located in a somewhat secluded basin and unfortunately you can't see much from the lake area. But it is up high and you can hike to some wonderful views. After a liesurely morning, we hiked the couple of miles over to the Wall. Wow! It's a spectacular hunk of rock.

As we hiked over the hill to reveal the Wall, we came to an area where almost all of the trees were down. At first I thought it was the result of an avalanche, a fairly common thing to see. Then I noticed there was no obvious avalanche chute nearby, and the trees were lying in different directions depending on where they were. That's when I realized it was the result of a microbusrt. Or at least that's what I think it was...

Our first view of the Chinese Wall
Chinese Wall
Dona up on a log to get a better photo The aftermath of a microburst
Dona getting a better photo angle Aftermath of a Microburst

We hiked up to Larch Hill Pass, a break in the wall, and had lunch on the other side lying in a meadow looking across at Silvertip Peak. The eastern part of the Bob is an impressive series of steep uplifted cliffs, all lying parallel to each other, marching from east to west. The east-facing walls of these cliffs are all steep uplifts; they have been pushed up from the land to their east, and their west slopes are more gently sloping. The Chinese Wall marks the Continental Divide and is (I think) the westernmost of these uplifts. It's not even close to the westernmost ridge of mountains, but the mountains to its west are formed by some process other than faulting; maybe "scrunching," where they get squeezed up from forces both east and west, if that could be a geological term. But I'm no geologist, so somebody please straighten me out if I'm wrong on this... Everything on the East side of the Chinese Wall flows into the Missouri, then the Mississippi, and on to the Gulf of Mexico. Everything on the West side flows into the Flathead or the Blackfoot, then the Clark Fork, and eventually on to the Columbia and the Pacific. So we ate lunch a few feet into the Pacific watershed looking at a basin that drained there, and then hiked home in the Atlantic watershed.

Chinese Wall Chinese Wall Chinese Wall
Chinese Wall Chinese Wall
Photo by Dona
Silvertip Silvertip
White River Valley and Silvertip from Larch Hill Pass

On the way up to the pass I had noticed a break in the wall to the south, and a trail that led to the saddle at the break. It looked like once you got to the saddle, you could easily climb the short ridge to get to the top of the wall. So after lunch, I headed over that way while Dona hung out down below. Whoooeeee! The view from on top was great. The wind was blowing pretty steadily, and there were clouds rolling in. I started to worry what the next few days might bring in terms of weather.

Chinese Wall Trail Up to Top of Chinese Wall
Chinese Wall
uplifted cliffs
Trail Up to the Top of the Chinese Wall
White River Valley
White River Valley from the Saddle
"scrunched" mountains,
very different from the Chinese Wall (far right of photo)
Chinese Wall White River Valley and Silvertip
Chinese Wall from on Top, looking South
Note gentle western slopes on back side of the wall (right of photo)
and steep cliffs on their east face
White River Valley and Silvertip from on Top, looking North
Note gentle western slopes on back side of the wall (right of photo)
Gary on the Chinese Wall Gary on the Chinese Wall
Gary on Top of the Chinese Wall
Photo by Dona
Gary on Top of the Chinese Wall
Photo by Dona

We headed back to camp. As My Lake came into sight, we saw a small bunch or horses picketed at the far end of the lake. Some hunters had come in and made camp. They were in clear violation of the closure to stock within 500 feet of the lake; who knows what else they were up to. I went over to talk to them after we got back. It was a man and his two sons from Missoula. They said they had been hunting on the other side of White River Pass, and said they were going to head over Spotted Bear Pass to hunt the next day. They had come up along the wall, rather than up White River Valley, and were going out down the North Fork of the Sun. I have difficulty believing if you are on a legal hunting trip that you would spend all the time they had in an area where you weren't allowed to hunt, just popping over the divide occasionally to do some hunting.

Evening at My Lake Illegal Hunting Camp
Evening at My Lake Illegal Hunting Camp

When we got back to camp and I turned the horses out to graze, I discovered Scheba had lost a shoe. Fortunately she had lost it while picketed, and I found it without too much trouble. We had a long day coming up and we wanted to get a reasonably early start, so I used the last of the evening light to reset Scheba's shoe. That took most of the extra horseshoe nails we had with us, so I tightened the rest of the horses' shoes all around and asked the horse gods to be kind.