A hike in the spirit of Bob Marshall

In 1928, at the age of 28, Bob Marshall hiked from the Jewel Basin through what is now the Bob Marshall Wilderness and into the Mission Mountain Wilderness from Aug. 28 to Sept. 4.

He covered at least 30 miles a day. His longest day was a 42-mile jaunt through the Missions and down to the Seeley Lake Post Office.

I thought it would be fun to recreate at least some of the journey done 86 years ago, although certainly not at the pace of 30 to 40 miles a day. Bob Marshall was a cross-country runner. I am cross-country walker, and on a good day about half as fast as Marshall.

My route would also be different but still with a backcountry and wilderness theme. On the first day, Marshall spent most of his time wandering around the Jewel Basin before dropping down to the road near Crater Lake and hiking to the Spotted Bear Ranger Station.

Much has changed since 1928. For one, there is a Hungry Horse Reservoir. Gone is the river Marshall walked along. I had no desire to walk the West-Side Reservoir Road to Spotted Bear, so the first leg of my journey began at Bunker Creek and followed the Swan Crest north to the Jewel Basin. The hike was 48 miles and included a couple of bushwhacks where the trail just simply vanished in the brush or snow.

Most of my route followed Alpine Trail No. 7, which is a good trail for the most part. The Forest Service allows motorcycle travel on parts of Alpine 7, but I never ran into one. I suspect snow was a limiting factor.

Numerous sections were still covered under sizable drifts. Most of the drifts posed no problems, but a big drift under Tom Tom and Broken Leg mountains, just outside the Jewel Basin, covered several key switchbacks on the last leg of the journey. It took a couple of hours of wandering around to re-find the route. If this trip was in August, the snow would have been gone and the route an easy walk.

My route did have some road travel, just like Marshall’s. Alpine 7 is not continuous and has a break near Hall Lake. I had to drop down to the Quintonkin Creek Road and then hike back up to Alpine 7 again at the head of the drainage. The trails down to Quintonkin and back up to Alpine 7 were in pretty good shape, considering they don’t see much use.

In fact, the whole southern part of the Swan Crest doesn’t have much traffic. I saw four people total outside of the Jewel Basin Hiking Area.

Perhaps bugs played a role. The flies were awful, the mosquitoes slightly worse.

Smoke from Washington wildfires didn’t help the photography, particularly in the Jewel Basin leg of the trip. Oh well, it gives one an excuse to go back.

The next leg of the journey will be through the Bob Marshall itself in late August and September.

The Mission routes Marshall took are largely trail-less today, so I suspect there will be a lot of bushwhacks and wanderings. Such is life in the wilderness.