Days 3-6 [132km] - Badlands → POW strait

Once through the Badlands, the terrain became more serene.  I could navigate this region by simply setting a compass direction in the morning and then following it most the day.  Rivers were impossible to predict:  some “creeks” were fast flowing rivers that required backtracking to cross, while so-called rivers were sometimes dry or a trickle.  A lake marked on my topo maps turned out to be a wide, fast flowing river. 

Steep cliffs and snow-covered slopes surround the rivers.  I hiked along the rivers, but was frequently cut off by cliffs on one side and deep water channels on the other.  I crossed these rivers 20-25 times.  Hiking was fast on the plateaus at the tops of the gorges, where the ground was hard and dry, but I then needed to navigate down the steep slopes of loose rock, snow and mud.