Wall map courtesy Beth Tulanowski of CSU
Last week an old college friend donated her time to create this massive wall map of the Bitterroot hike. As the print scrolled out of the printer, the scope of this trip finally became obvious to me. At a scale of roughly 1” = 1 mile, the map is nearly an arm-span across, but an average day of hiking will only cover a hand-span of trail.
In the front range of Colorado, a combination of high trailheads and shallow mountain ranges means that it’s possible to cross the divide on foot in a day. In the Selway river valley, especially early in the season, it will take nearly a week just to reach the divide.
On Dave’s trip, a mishap with his campfire burned most of his map early in the trip. Although route-finding was easy enough because this hike is all on-trail, it was still a bold move on his part. Stepping into the unknown is a luxury that most of us do not appreciate in this era of gps and satellite imagery. Still… I think I’ll bring a map on this trip.
Besides custom map printing, certain other advances in technology make planning easier now than in the 70’s. For example, there is an automated weather station near the Twin Lakes trailhead at the eastern terminus of the hike. This weather station broadcasts temperature, wind, and the amount of snow on the ground for anyone to see. Its spooky to think about that lonely little weather robot sitting up on the divide, surrounded by snow and wind and the long winter nights. I’ll be there soon.
For more details about planning for this first hike, see the Hike > Bitterroot Mtns page.