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A Map of David Thomson's Route across the Bitterroot Wilderness
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.
In Which We Quit Our Jobs...
One of the aspects of “In the Shining Mountains” that I find interesting is that Dave doesn't really discuss his daily life much. We don't learn about his family, or his friends, or his work - with the exception of quitting his jobs, which is a recurring theme.
It is a shame that it's necessary to quit one's employment in order to undertake any real adventuring in this world. This restriction encourages people to spend years working without taking time off to enjoy and explore the world around them. Luckily, Dave did not have this reluctance and kept his eye clearly on his goal - get enough of a bankroll to enable his further adventures.
In fact, by the second page of the book Dave has already quit one job - at a seedy motel on Colfax in Denver.
"[The manager] stayed on my back, and I started to get mad. Finally, about the fifth time, he came down a little in his tone and told me gently that he thought I had a problem with my attitude and wondered what it was. I told him that his motel made me feel like puking. He told me I was fired.
I was happy. That was the way any good mountain man would have handled it." (pb 4)
After the motel he moves on to a night shift doing paperwork at the hospital, another pouring concrete for bridge foundations, and one building swimming pools for "rich people in the suburbs" back in Minnesota. Each one of these positions follows a trajectory ending in quitting when the siren song of the wilderness or his own tolerance for bullshit outweighs the benefits of one more paycheck.
"One bright spring morning at the pits, I looked around and noticed that the snow was almost all melted, the birds were singing in full, and the sun was shining down out of a big blue sky full of warmth and freedom. I put my hammer down, walked up to the boss's younger brother, and told him I thought he was full of shit. I had been carrying that for five months. He didn't say anything, he just stared. The birds were singing away. I picked up my tools and walked off the job." (pb 32)
In keeping with this theme, last week I submitted my resignation and will be done on this Friday, January 18th. The logistics of this are complicated and uninteresting but the catharsis will be recognizable by all. I held this job for six years and made many friends that I will miss, so I did not tell anyone they made me feel like puking on my way out. Not quite how a mountain man would handle it.
Here's to future adventures!
It all begins…
I read “In the Shining Mountains” for the first time in 2012, and ever since I have been captivated by Dave’s book and his story. As a Colorado dweller since 2007, I identify all too well with his feeling of disillusionment with the juxtaposition of the classical "wild western mountains" with the region's current status as the fastest growing area in the country.
This year I plan to repeat each of the hikes that Dave did - in the Bitterroot Mountains, in the Swans, and finally in the Crows. One of the defining characteristics of "In the Shining Mountains" is Dave's mountain-man alter ego "Old Gabe", who Dave uses as inspiration and companion during his travels. For my part I will turn to Dave himself for my companionship - attempting to faithfully follow his hiking philosophy and routes as best I can determine them.
This website will serve as a repository of my research on Dave, on his book, and on the current state of the mountains that he explored.