Wilderness travel opening up

Backcountry travel in the Bob Marshall Wilderness is opening up for both hikers and livestock, Spotted Bear district ranger Deb Mucklow said last week.

The South Fork of the Flathead River is not fordable by stock or on foot, she said, but the White River has lowered and can be forded by both.

But travelers in the South Fork who have stock should carry an axe, a saw or both because dead trees continue to fall across trails in areas been burned by fires since 2000— and there are quite a few of these areas. Work crews have cleared main trails two or three times this summer already.

Up the Middle Fork of the Flathead in the Great Bear Wilderness, the river is too high to cross, but the smaller fords are passable by stock and by foot, including the ford over Morrison Creek en route to Schafer Meadow.