Scenes of The Bob
At just over 1 million acres, the Bob Marshall Wilderness is one of the largest wilderness areas in the continental US. Not only is “The Bob” huge and remote, it’s also surrounded by even more Wilderness. This includes the Scapegoat Wilderness and the Great Bear Wilderness. Together, this grouping of public lands, known as the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, spans over 1.5 million acres. It’s massive! It is managed by 5 separate Forest Service ranger districts across the Lolo, Helena-Lewis and Clark, and Flathead National Forests.
As a reminder, Wilderness areas are the most protected of all the kinds of public lands in the United States. This is where you go if you really like to experience the mountains in way that is fairly untouched by humans. You can’t have motorized equipment or even wheels in the wilderness. (Unless, of course, if you have an exception for a small grass airstrip, a special case we touch on briefly in our last post.)
The CDT has a lengthy section through The Bob, running for 177 miles without crossing a road. It took us nine days. That’s a lot of time to go without real town services, with the exception of a single package pickup (full of food!). When you are in The Bob, you are acutely aware of just how far it is to any services at all.
Rather than give you a history lesson or tell you stories about our time in The Bob, I’m just going to show you some cool pictures that show the different sides of this place.
Mountains, as far as the eye can see
Dean Lake with a reflection of Pentagon Peak (right)
Trilobite Peak with the trail visible in the valley below
If there was one special highlight of our time in The Bob, besides Molly’s awesome adventure from the last post, it would be the Chinese Wall, which is a 12-mile-long escarpment. The CDT follows along the base of the Chinese Wall for the majority of its length. We had really hyped this thing up in our minds as we prepared for the trail months ago.
You know when you go to a restaurant that you’ve been stoked about for months and it’s actually not that good? This wasn’t like that. This was awesome. Boy oh boy. It did not disappoint! We hiked along this thing for an entire morning, gawking in amazement at the scale and beauty of this rock feature. I am well aware that what follows is a gratuitous number of photos of the Chinese Wall. I don’t care. I love these photos. I loved walking underneath that rock feature.
Looking south along the Chinese Wall
From a saddle along the Wall
Looking north along nearly the full length of the Chinese Wall
Looking south from the halfway point at a saddle
Once we passed the Chinese wall, we weren’t done with the beauty of the Bob quite yet. Here are a few more photos of The Bob after the Chinese Wall.
Some well manicured trail as we got to the edges of the Bob – you can tell when you’re approaching a trailhead because the quality of trail increases dramatically.
Walking through a forest that burned in recent years – huge swaths of the Bob are affected by fire each year. More to come on this, since it has played a big part in our trip so far. This particular day was rainy and dreary, but not so much so that you couldn’t still get some interesting views.
More burn area with dead trees laid down by extreme winds and mountains extending off into the distance
A classic view of the Bob with the Chinese Wall just visible, far in the distance. This photo is best viewed on the biggest, widest screen you can find.
