Oh my, after nearly a year, I finally got around to putting together videos of the last two days of our trip last year. I was motivated to finally do this because…we’re going to Baxter again this year, in about a week and a half! And I couldn’t go on this year’s trip before posting these videos.
Ted’s last post ended on a cliffhanger: “It started snowing soon after we got back. At the time, we had no idea that this was the beginning of a 48-hour winter storm and two days of trail breaking that made the trailbreaking today seem like we were getting towed by a snowmobile.”
Indeed, it snowed about two feet over the next two days of our trip. We skied back to the car through the deep snow and as the blizzard was still blizzarding, though it probably would have been wiser to stay put and wait for the ranger to come up on a snowmobile to break the trail for us. (He did eventually come to break the trail for us about halfway through day five.) Perhaps we’ll be smarter next time. But for now, enjoy some embarrassing videos of us whining about how difficult it is to ski through a lot of heavy snow.
Day 4, March 14: Russell Pond Bunkhouse to South Branch Pond Bunkhouse (9.79 miles)
Day 5, March 15: South Branch Pond Bunkhouse to Matagamon Parking Lot (11.14 miles)
We will try to be better about documenting our trip in a timely fashion this year!
panniers and granny gears 
Adventures of Ted and Dani! What a great way to start my day. Thanks!! ❤️👍🏾
Sent from my iPhone
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Haha, thanks for faithfully reading our inconsistently updated blog!
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I always enjoy your posts even if they are almost a year behind. I pray you enjoy your trip and have patience to wait for the ranger if needed this year. Love and miss you very much!
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Thanks, aunt Lisa! I’m glad you enjoy the posts, and I hope to see you guys soon. Love you!
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What would your weather friend in Montana say about not knowing about that storm that hit?? 🙂 On your phone go to https://mobile.weather.gov/ It will ask you to type in a location. Use as many locations as you want in there, you can switch back and forth and remove them. Then go save the link to your home screen as a widget. Ad-free weather forecasts from the National Weather Service. It’s not real fancy, but it gives you what you need. And, the best radar app imho is Radarscope. It costs $9.99, but it’s exactly how we see the data in the forecast offices.
It’s nice hearing from you all again. I was out for surgery last summer and ended up binge reading the blog of the couple that was killed in Tajikistan. It was so beautifully written and I was horrified that their blog and Instagram just ends…
It did make me happy knowing there were people like you two and them who love the world enough to explore it. Stay happy and healthy! I’m about to freeze to death in Eastern MT. 😉
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Hi Tanja!
It makes us feel so happy that you still read our blog (when we are actually able to post, that is)!
The storm caught us by surprise in large part because we had no cell phone service in the park. I was tracking the weather leading up to the week we were actually skiing. As of the morning of our departure the storm was predicted to track south of Baxter State Park and only drop a few inches on us. Then after we left service, the storm both shifted direction AND intensified, leading to us getting 20+inches when we were expecting 5 at most.
I’ve been trying to learn how to read/understand the National Weather Service’s forecast discussion section, so I’m better able to understand the possibilities when we’re about to head out into the backcountry without service, but I’m mostly crossing my fingers that this year the weather will just behave and do what it is predicted to do!
Thanks for reading, and stay warm!!
Ted
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