SUMMARY:  We were about to eat our hot lunch (I was “cooking in the trail” since we were sitting on a steep mountainside) when along came 3 college student guys. So we ate and we all talked. They told us “The Pintlers are beautiful, but they are tough—all big ups and downs one right after the other. (Yeah—that’s for sure!) Then in the Bobs (Bob Marshall Wilderness) there are some big passes, but they’re spaced a ways apart, so you get a break. And Glacier is bit ups and downs again.”

OK—we had our last “big up” today around 4:00pm, when we reached Goat Flats and turned off the CDT to start the Anaconda Cut-Off route, which goes over another pass, down to Storm Lake, and out to the highway. The Cut-Off route is very pretty.  Down by Storm Lake we opted to walk out on a dirt road rather than a trail route suggested by Ley.  We’ve camped about 6 miles from the highway, then it’s 14 miles of roadwalk to Anaconda. And it sure is nice to walk on a basically FLAT road.

DETAILS:  Well, we had no bear critters come by last night, even though we were camped by a lake and in a spot where obviously someone had camped before.  Wow, was it cold, though, as we expected.  We hit the trail along LaMarche Creek canyon, still heading for Cutaway Pass.

Down in the creek canyon there were lots of springs and side creeks running across the trail, and lots of undergrowth.  It actually felt sort of like being in a jungle, and there were swampy areas, too–BUT somebody had done a lot of work putting in “boardwalks” to get through the swampy stuff.  Nice!  We didn’t have to pick our way through the mud.  We finally reached the big climb to Cutaway Pass and had our morning snack break at the top. The only bummer was that there were so many trees up top, you could not see any views, which I’m sure would have been awesome.

But it turned out to be OK–on the descent from the Pass, we did get views, and we talked about the mountains.  “Looks like at least some of this is volcanic,” I said.  “Look at those peaks with craters.”  The trail did a big long traverse below the mountainsides, and finally began to climb up to Rainbow Pass.  Partway up, we stopped for lunch.  There was no place to set up my tiny stove, except for right in the trail itself.  We haven’t seen anybody for days, so we figured that would be no problem.

But I’d just finished cooking, and we were starting to eat, when along came THREE hikers, southbound.  They were just college guys out backpacking for a few days, and they stopped to talk a bit.  So while we ate, they told us some good info: 1) In the Pintlers, hikers have to do big ups and big downs, one right after another  2) In “The Bobs” (Bob Marshall Wilderness) you have big ups and big downs, but lots of easy stuff in between.  3) In Glacier NP, it’s back to big ups and big downs one after another.

Well, no kidding about the unrelenting big ups and downs in the Pintlers–my knees are not very happy about it.  But on the other hand, the Pintlers really are gorgeous, and there has been a lot of really great trail engineering, some of it obviously recent.  Way to go, trail crew!

The three guys told us that the climb up to Goat Flats was “pretty tough” and they were right, but the scenery was amazing.  Again, this is a place worth coming back to when we don’t need to worry about making miles.  Up at the top, I hoped maybe we would see some mountain goats, but no luck.  Now we were really looking hard for the turnoff to Storm Lake.  The CDT trail had become very faint and hard to follow.  We got to the point where (by the maps) it sure looked like we ought to turn off, but there was no sign, no trail, no nothing.  BUT, hooray!  Off to the side in the distance, I spotted 2 hikers heading out on what might possibly be the cutoff route.  Fixit is WAY faster than I am, so I said, “Quick!  You could catch up with those guys and find out if this is the cutoff.  I’ll follow you as best I can.”

So Fixit took off and I followed.  He soon caught up with the two hikers and confirmed that yes, this was the way down to Storm Lake.  Whew.  I was so glad to know that for sure!  Soon the route became a trail and down we went toward the lake.  The views were beautiful, and also showed us that if we took Ley’s suggested trail route from the lake down to the highway, we would have to climb over another ridge.  “Forget that!” we said.  “Let’s walk the road out.  It’s all downhill.”  (We found out later from other hikers that Ley’s route was awful.  It basically disappeared, and they had to do a lot of bushwhacking.  Wow, are we glad we chose the road!)

The trail took us along the lake shore, and at the other end there was a campground, with 3 guys there.  I always like to know for sure which way to go, and it was a bit unclear at that point which dirt road was the right one.  So I went to the campsite to ask.  Not only did they point out which road was the right one, but they even gave us a cold drink and we hung out with them for a little bit to talk. They are all from Anaconda, and it was fun to hear from them.  We are really liking these Montana folks!  And, they also said they’d seen several other CDT hikers today, so it looks like we are not the only ones headed for Anaconda.

We had time to walk another 3 miles down the road before we needed to call it a day.  We had not eaten any dinner yet, so we set up the tent, ate some dinner and went to bed.  I think we have about 6 more miles on this road, then 14 to Anaconda.  We are done with the Pintler Challenge.  But I will join the chorus and say, “The Pintlers are amazing!”