Between Towns

Bob Marshall Wilderness

I made good progress this week, in large part because I walked to our neighborhood clubhouse and back on Thursday and got in almost 18,800 steps, the most I have managed in one day since January of last year (and probably a lot longer.)

I am still on a stretch between towns, a few days away from Ovando, Montana, but I made it to Salmon Lake State Park, and my current route goes along Highway 83 for a few miles, so it's not really so remote.

Look up Ovando on Google and it will tell you that the Bob Marshall Wilderness is nearby. I have never been there, but Lucas went there with Boy Scouts about a decade ago. I remember that the scout master said Bob Marshall was a special place, and the photo I found does look pretty cool. Also, I remember that, in order to help protect the area, there were rules in the Wilderness about having too many people travelling together, so the group had to split up. Lucas said that rangers enforced that rule.

The scouts hiked at least one hundred miles in a week or so. They had a tracker with them and an app we could log into and follow their progress, and I noticed as I checked in on them that they were moving really quickly when they were walking. When I mentioned that to Lucas afterward, he said, "Well Joel took the tracker and took off first, and the rest of us caught up to him by the end of the day." Joel was one of the parents, and Joel was in really good shape, not the sort of person you would want to challenge to an athletic contest. So, at least Joel was moving really quickly. But the boys walked 20 miles a couple of different days, and I could tell from the app that were walking on difficult terrain, so they did well.

I am 8,000 steps behind my target pace, and I plan to make that up this week. That would put me at 1.5 million steps after 150 days. The last time I was on pace was October 1, day one of my walking project. By October 2, I was starting to fall behind. It will feel good to get back on track.