4: Getting to Know the Bushes
The day started off on a high note, with a fast and fun 2000’ descent down trail recently cleared of brush by the Flathead Area Mountain Bikers trail crew. (I was curious what kind of implement might be used to clear the teeming brush: it turns out, a weed walker equipped with a circular saw blade at its end!)
Climbing back up from the valley floor proved a slow affair, primarily on account of the tremendous quantity of distracting thimble berries and huckleberries along the route and my utter inability to keep myself from stopping constantly to graze.
The Broken Leg segment of Alpine #7 was definitely less ridable than the northern portion—a circumstance not helped by traveling north to south. The last half mile was more grown over than anything I’d encountered to that point—though it turns out just a warmup for Posey Creek.
The last mile or so of climbing up Posey Creek to Alpine #7 really showed the full force of the Flathead’s brushy fecundity. The description I had read described this section as “passable” and indeed it was, though at a desultory pace of more than an hour to travel a mile. Regaining Alpine #7 (which is also overgrown in places, but at least gets regular use) was quite the relief.
This evening I observed several raptors hunting—one carrying a squirrel, and another successfully fishing any flying across the lake where I’m camped with a 6” fish clutched in its talons.
