"Respect the Bob"--Carolan's 2-day 34-mile Commute to Work

At this very minute, my daughter Carolan is hiking 20 miles from Schafer Meadows, in the Great Bear Wilderness, to Strawberry Creek, in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Yesterday she completed part 1 of her long commute to work (her job is maintaining trails for the Montana Conservation Corps, the MCC, and AmeriCorps)--that was a 14-mile trek from the Morrison Creek trailhead to Schafer Meadows.

I hope Carolan is not hiking alone--but she might be. Whatever, she's probably chanting a song to warn bears of her approach: "Hey, Bear! O Bear!"--over and over along the trail. Last week Carolan saw here first Grizzly Bear--in the Strawberry Creek area, not far from the Continental Divide. Luckily the bear heard her coming and went the other way! In this great wilderness, the grizzly bears are not alone; there are black bears, lynx, mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, deer, elk, and many other smaller species of mammals and birds. This is their kingdom, one of the few places in the lower 48 states where all the original predators are present. The Bob Marshall Wilderness, and adjacent Glacier National Park, are the great treasures of the United States, North America, and indeed the world.

This evening Carolan will be back with her co-leader, Adam, and her 5-person crew, Carolan is coming laden with "civilized" goodies bought in Kalispell, items the crew members begged for.

Today I read a wonderful blog entry by one of Carolan's crew, Lemmy, that can be viewed at this site: http://mcckrew.blogspot.com/. The entry is dated Friday, July 16, 2010 and is entitled "It's called an 'Immersion Crew'"--by Lemmy Breault. Lemmy captures the feel of the work in the wilderness and the personalities of the crew. The blog entry also has photos of Sabido Cabin near Strawberry Creek and Buffalo Rock, as well as pictures of the crew members.

Carolan has mentioned a common phrase used by workers and visitors to the Bob Marshall Wilderness: "Respect the Bob." Of course I love this phrase because of my own first name. Still, it's worth saying again: Respect the Bob, Love the Bob, Thank God for the Bob!