To Helena Day 4 in this section: Ups and downs, a gear shop and a rainbow

I’m starting this day at mile 289. I’m ending it at mile 314. Another tough day. 

The day began climbing big mountains again but they seemed a little less steep. They were really pretty at first. Rounded and green with great views. Later they were mostly invisible. Up and down in living and burned forest and no real sense what or why I was climbing. 

We aimed for a spring at Fletchers Pass, a highway, about 13 miles away. We got there with many ups and downs around lunch. 

Our next goal was another spring about 10 miles away. When we got there, again after many ups and downs, there were a lot of biting black flies. So nobody wanted to camp there. They all took off running for the outfitter. 

We finally arrived at the outfitters to camp around it at about 7:30. I spent a lot of time trying to set up my tent in a huge gust of wind. It just doesn’t work in high wind. The wind died down and it began to rain and I hoped the wind would not come back. 

Eventually I got it set up and it rained in earnest. There was a golden sunset and a sunset double rainbow. We all got out of our tents to look. 

Mango and FastCash were with us. I struggled to keep up. The hiking is hard, all the steep hills. I don’t think this is the Scapegoat Wilderness anymore. We followed logging roads and snowmobile trails.