A couple things we’ve learned. 1) South Dakota doesn’t like us (broken car, jumping cacti) 2) The trail to Beehive Basin doesn’t like us. We’ll be honest. We kind of got beat up by the outdoors. We were still adjusting to the elevation and hadn’t been hiking in about a year. It was difficult to get into the swing.
Amy had problems with her left knee about three miles in (ref. Amy’s knee, Glacier, 2002), so we had to set up camp for the night. On the side of a mountain.
The worst feat of all was having to hang up our food/toiletries in a tree from the bears. It was an area known for grizzlies, and the bag has to be hung 10 feet off the ground and 4 feet from the tree trunk. Having never hung this type of bear bag, (suspended between two trees with two ropes) the hour and a half it took to perfect the technique was nothing. Who knew the sun sets at 4:30 on the dark side of the mountain? (Amy learned this the hard way with April when the food was 10 feet from the ground but up against the trunk. Those raccoons enjoyed our chocolate fondue.)
Here’s a picture of Bryan’s hard-earned hung bear bag.
The sun sets early in the mountains and we had no sitting area outside of the tent. It was an early night and a much needed night of rest. (Amy was asleep in 3 minutes. The first night in the woods, Bryan usually spends an hour and a half having a heart to heart with Jesus about why bears should leave them alone for the night) Due to the incline we both woke in a heap at the foot of the tent…
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