Dave- we should be good to go w/ our Heliums (and maybe a few extra bits of clothing if need be) Just ordered some snowshoes for the wife-ouch!

I'll let Dave define reasonable fitness, but we should be covering roughly 9-10 miles/day w/ some decent elevation gains on snowshoes, so not a walk in the park, but not like running an ultra- somewhere in between :)

Mike

>Dave- could you expound on the "reasonable amount of fitness " thing. "Reasonable" has a huge >range depending on who is making the judgement. A clarification might help some of the fence >sitters.

Well, Being old and slow, I was thinking of giving myself a head start by starting a day or so early. That would increase the chances of getting to meet up with every one at either camp one or two. It's hard to predict what kind of conditions we'll encounter in March. No matter, If going forward exceeds my ability (or desire) I can always retreat back out the way I came up.

hmm....the downside is I could wind up breaking trail for the athletic types. Maybe it makes more sense to let em run on ahead?

Don't know my Montana geography or if anyone could help me with a ride...But I'm interested...

What are the chances of me being picked up Friday in Missoula and dropped back off on Tuesday?
Flights are reasonable; $250 round trip if I book something now. Could get in at ~1PM Friday with a return flight at ~1PM on Tuesday.
Of course this would likely mean staying over or camping somewhere else for the first and last nights also...

Doable or getting too complicated?

Craig- I'll be starting (and finishing) from Missoula (my wife is living in Missoula for awhile taking care of her Mom)- I'll have room in my truck for you. We'd probably leave early Saturday morning from Missoula (depending on what time we decide to start)- it's ~ 80 miles. Would head back to Missoula when we finish up on Monday. They are in a two room apartment, so unfortunately no room there to crash Friday and Monday night, but other than that doable :)

Mike

Dammit I wanna go. Seems like fun!

Can't make it due to lack of available vaca. :( I could drive... it'd be fun. Dammit!!

Awesome Mike, thanks for the offer.
More than happy to give gas $$$ to anyone I ride with.

I'm on a really tight budget and airfare/expenses alone are stretching it, let alone having to get a hotel room for two nights. Let me see what I can find online...

If anyone has cheap lodging suggestions (including camping out anywhere) for Friday night and Monday night, let me know.

If I can make the $$$ reasonable, this sounds like a good excuse to get out to Montana.

I'm old but fairly fit. I've never showshoed or skiied, but I do own snowshoes. I have camped in winter.

Can I come?

He's just tryin to get y'all to carry his stuff.

:)

>I'm old but fairly fit. I've never showshoed or skiied, but I do own snowshoes. I have >camped in winter.

>Can I come?

Is this supposed to be a riddle or something?
Of course you can come. and bring Craig with ya.

Edited by DavidAdair on 01/04/2013 21:48:05 MST.

There is camping at both trailheads, and at several places on the way between Ovando and Missoula. The later provide access to the Blackfoot which should be fairly ice free, and has many hard to catch trout.

I could easily pick folks up in Missoula Friday evening. We could get some beers and good food and go camp somewhere.

As for the fitness question: mileage will be reasonable, and the hiking and trail breaking could be quite easy or pretty hard. We'll have people to share the load, but in the worst case scenario of slushy snow that doesn't help a huge amount. In short, if you regularly do 15 miles miles a day on summer backpacks in the mountains this should be quite doable, though it might feel hard if conditions are difficult. Days will be longish by late March, so plenty of time to get it done.

This is looking more and more doable for me in terms of the dates.

I was checking out the route on my USFS map, and I will definitely be picking up the Cairn Carto map today.

Looking good. Thanks again for starting this Dave.

Food, beer, and camping the night before in Missoula sounds good.

I'm still looking at my spring vacation schedule and family budget...Should be able to commit (or not) within the next few days.

How hard is it to fly with a full pack? Never gotten on a plane to go backpacking before...
I'm assuming I'll load it, strap snowshoes, etc. to the outside, and then pack the entire thing in an xlarge duffel and check it....

Craig- that's what I did when my wife and I flew to NM- instead a duffel we used those eagle creek pack covers and bought TSA locks for them- they are approved by TSA as they can open them if need be, but keeps baggage handlers and the like out

Mike

Craig, I recommend carrying your gear on the plane, as opposed to checking it. Twice my friends have flown out here to hike with their gear ending up in Seattle. It sucks going to bed knowing that your hitting the road at 6am and one of you doesn't have his stuff. Luckily Seattle is close and it came in the early AM both times. You never know, though

a lot of packs won't make it as carry on, snowshoes w/ crampon style bindings might be frowned on, as well astrekking poles and a whole lot of other things that are TSA non-friendly

Craig, alternately you could mail me your non-carry on gear in advance.

Folks,

I won't know for another few weeks if I can come along as things are up in a heap at work at the moment
I was also hoping to get out for a practice snow shoe overnighter next weekend but all the snow within 3 hours of here has melted, damn :-(

Cheers,

Stephen

I'm still thinking about this, though not sure I can afford it yet. Airfare has come down a bit, so we'll see....

Craig- I'm seeing prices going up (both from Billings and Missoula to LAX or Ontario) for Joshua Tree- any secrets I'm not aware of?

Looks like Allegiant will be servicing LA, they're cheap, but they don't start that route till June :(

thanks

Mike

Can't make this. Too fat, too out of shape.

Too bad, sounds like a great time.