From Before & After

The most difficult single day of backpacking to date. 18 miles and 3,400 ft of elevation gain in the last 2 miles. I would do it again for this unreal view. We camped near Polebridge, Montana the night before, woke up around 4:30am and began our hike in the darkness, illuminated by headlamp only. About two and a half hours in, the sun came over the mountains and warmed up our souls.. We ate a pre-dinner at the head of Upper Kintla Lake to relax and bring in more nutrients, which we needed. The ascent began, switchback and switchback in dense bushes, this lasted for hours. From the trailhead to Upper Kintla Lake, we were already 11.6 miles in with an easy elevation gain of 851ft. But again, that was the easy part. We then began the ascent. This section of trail was steep, and felt like it took forever. Thankfully, not after long, we were close to Boulder Pass and the flowers were abundant, the surrounding views came into view and the hiking got easier because of this. When we made it to the campsite to unload our pack and set up the tent we had hiked 17.1 miles with an elevation gain of 3,796. It was an ass kicker. In total mileage with our meandering, it came out to be just over 18 miles total for the hike. We arrived at Boulder Pass Campsite just an hour before sunset. This took approximately 13 hours. This view was unreal, the Larch trees were just beginning their transition to yellow, the flowers were abundant and the views of Kintla Mountain and Kintla Glacier were amazing. Also viewing the valley we just hiked through was a great reward in itself. The setting sun came too fast. We hadn't had time to really take in the view yet. But I guess that is what sunrise is for. Boulder Pass Trail, Backpacking. 2020