Day 1

Sofia wrote: Jarvis lake float plane! Weaving between the mighty Ida and other ominous peaks. Jagged— you can envision the tectonic shifts. Moody skies and a turquoise lake. Cabin with unsettling note about two lost GDR hikers. Bushwhacked our way up to a lake below Monias. Took us about 5 hours to cover three miles. Gourmet bison chili.

The Day before, I drove into Missoula and crashed at my daughter’s empty apartment. She was scheduled to finish up a rafting trip, break down, clean out and drive 4 hours from Clarkston, WA to Missoula, MT. She was supposed to arrive around midnight so around 2am I became worried. We had a 6am flight. Around 4am she entered the apartment to pack for the trip. She had hit a deer in a thunder storm that night and had slept in her car to not disturb my supposed sleep. All packed up, we headed to the airport on 1 or 2 hours of sleep, but excited to be finally(after three years of planning!) on our grand adventure.

Our mundane life schedules left us a very limited time for our total travel.. To fly in via float plane or helicopter, check local park restrictions. Not everybody can fly in on a whim. Without private pilot connections and special licenses, or without wanting or able to spend big bucks on a helicopter--and if you have the extra day or three(depending on whether you come from the east or west and how much distance you can travel in a day), you can hike in. We signed into the cabin log book and began, excitedly in the early afternoon.

We lost the trail quickly after leaving Jarvis Lakes. This was slow paced and treacherous. it became quite clear how a bad fall or twisted ankle could complicate things quickly. In retrospect, we believe we were slightly North of the "trail." As we began to ascend up toward Monias Pass at the burn, pretty much any way up looked about the same and though we were ascending, we were moving faster. Huckleberries abounded and every stop offered us instant snacks. Once on top and just before the pass we found a fairly flat, dry spot near GDR 9.1.

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