Cricket’s dog “Chip” scared the crap out of me last night.  I heard something sniffing around just outside my tent around midnight. I was immediately wide awake and thinking Bear!!! I grabbed my bear spray and then looked through the mesh near my head and saw 4 gray legs – right next to my face. I then thought “Racoon”!  About then this little dog snout sticks itself onto the vent material right into my face and I finally realized who it was. Poor little guy almost got a snoot full of pepper spray!

I got a late start today, although I still managed to get going before Mav.  After leaving Warren Lake the trail goes over a small hump and then descends 1000 feet along a small unnamed creek. Apparently Mav passed me during this section while I was off the trail taking care of business. I didn’t realize he was in front of me until much later. I hung out with Cricket and Gaucho a little, but otherwise saw nobody else.  It appears the bubble is in front of me and I won’t be catching up with them.  They are just moving too fast for me and I need to go at my own speed.

The trail ascended 1500 feet by following Fishtrap Creek to Rainbow Lake and then up and over Rainbow Pass. This was a steep climb, but I’m feeling pretty strong these days and the views were awesome so I didn’t mind. Coming down the other side the trail reached Johnson Lake which is a big milestone for thru-hikers. It is the end of the Northern Montana map on Guthooks! I spent some time here just enjoying the solitude and loading the new Idaho-South Montana map into the Guthooks app. Fortunately I had pre-downloaded it because there is no cell service here.

The trail climbed to a high ridge and just before the top I encountered a grouse and her chicks hiding in a log that had fallen over the trail. The mom put on quite a show, pretending she was wounded and fluttering around. She eventually jumped up on the log and spread her tail feathers out to try to distract me from the chicks which were running all over the place under the branches.

Mav was supposed to camp at Mystic Lake tonight. I got to the trail junction and realized Mystic Lake was a half mile down the ridge I was on. Did Mav really mean all the way down there or up here by the junction? I really wanted to camp with him so I decided to head on down to try to find him. When I got there it was all burned out. It was getting late and I didn’t want to camp down here in all the dead trees so I decided to abort this mission and return to the ridge. 

I continued down the ridge still looking for Mav, but eventually it just got too dark. Unfortunately there was no water where Guthooks said there was and the trail is now on a high ridge that goes on for miles.  In desperation I noticed a ribbon tied to a bush and followed a very faint trail to a marshy area where I managed to obtain some tannin-stained water.  I am currently camped on a flat spot on the ridge by myself about a mile past the trail down to Mystic Lake.  I have no idea where the others ended up.

I took two wrong turns today for a total of 1.5 miles of wasted effort. The Pintlers are beautiful in their own way – not as spectacular as Glacier, but there are many beautiful cirques and meadows and it is much more remote.