Glacier National Park
September 2010
They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys
unto the place which thou hast founded for them. Psalm 104:8
Having failed to successful complete the three previous backpacking trips, we set out once again with aggressive plans to see the backcountry of
Backcountry camping permits for Glacier are awarded by an
initial lottery in April. We had
submitted a couple of entries: a seven-day
hike and two three-day hikes. Due to the
limited size of the campgrounds, we ended up with only one of the two three-day
hikes initially. Later we were able to
obtain an additional reservation for a three-day hike, so our planned schedule
was to travel on Saturday 9/11, do the first hike from Sunday to Tuesday, stay
at a hotel Tuesday night, do a day hike (sigh) on Wednesday, stay at a
campground Wednesday night, and then do the second three-day hike getting off
the trail on Saturday and leaving for home on Sunday.
The ulterior motive of some of our group was to successfully
finish the entire week as planned, thus enabling us to pin the blame on Bruce
for the failure to complete our three previous trips. We felt this would be a much better test than
the casting of lots used by the shipmates of Jonah (Jonah 1:7). Not to be outdone, Bruce claimed to be
praying for bad weather to keep us from our sinister purpose. All this would call into question the
spiritual maturity (or just regular maturity) of some within our group. So let me assure you that this was all done
in jest. Kind of. We did not have the slightest intent to ban
anyone from any future trip. However, it
would have been more clear who, if anyone, was causing the problem if
everything had gone wonderfully. On the other
hand, trips that go just as planned make for very boring stories.
We arrived in Kalispell ,
MT Yellowstone being the
other) in the continental US that have grizzlies. Bear spray is a pepper spray that comes in
what looks like a very small fire extinguisher that can be attached to your
belt or backpack and is recommended as the best way to stop a charging
bear. Actually the best way to stop a
charging bear is with a firearm, but that is not recommended even though it is
now legal. I know this because as a part
of our permit acquisition we had to sit through a 15 minute film that seemed to
dwell disproportionately on the subject of avoiding bear disasters. Having researched this topic thoroughly prior
to the trip, much of the film was a repeat of my studies. Basically, to avoid attacks you should make a
lot of noise so as not to surprise the bear, as surprising bears is generally
thought to be a bad idea. However, if
you do come across a bear, you are to quit making noise and slowly back up to
give the bear a chance to get away.
Personally, I would be more concerned with me getting away rather than
the bear, but as long as one of us got away, it would be a good outcome. They also said that grizzlies do not climb
trees, so if you have the opportunity to do so, you may want to do that. Tom, however, had read that you needed to be
able to climb 30 feet up the tree. While I am not sure I could do that if I was
being chased by a bear, especially with a 35 pound backpack on, few of the
trees that we saw were conducive to climbing, so that was not a very good option. The other option is to fall to the ground and
put your hands behind your head to shield your neck and head. The bear then thinks you are dead and will go
away (Ha!). While the experts proclaim
what a good method this is, they also discussed making sure the bear is not
able to roll you over and that if the bear continues to attack, you need to try
a different tactic. Which all makes
sense. After all, if I am lying on my
stomach with my hands behind my head and the bear is still trying to eat me, I better
try something else pronto. Interestingly
enough, the film did not end with the caution that most of the expert opinions
that I had read contained. That is that
bears are unpredictable and all these tactics may or may not work depending on
the individual bear. Basically you need
to guess, or be a part of a large enough group that chances are the bear will
attack someone else, or pack some heat.
Since we didn’t have any heat we brought bear spray. Well, at least most of us did. Bear spray is $60 for a canister, and you
can’t take in on the plane. We were
fortunate enough to scrounge up 3 canisters for free left by previous hikers
who did not have to use it. Byron, being
the junior member, did not realize that Christian self-sacrificing love does
not extend to bear spray and was a little slow to claim one of the
canisters. As a result, “Bear-Bait”
Byron would have had to try one of the other techniques had we encountered a
charging grizzly. In reality, he would
have been better off than the rest of us who were naively hiking along as if we
would have actually been able to spot the bear, decide whether it was charging,
find our canister, pull it from the holster, disengage the safety, aim it at
the bear and pull the trigger before the bear devoured us. But I still felt safer carrying it anyway..
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| Going To The Sun Road |
Sunday was about as perfect a hiking day as you could ask for: sunny and 60 degrees. Our first trip was from the Lake McDonald Lodge to Going-To-The-Sun Road (GTTSR) at the Jackson Glacier Overlook. GTTSR, the only road through the park, is one of the most scenic roads in the
As we entered the park, we saw our first bear. With amazing speed we all concluded that this
bear was not charging so there was no need for bear spray. No, this bear was frantically trying to get
off the road so our SUV would not hit it.
We were also able to identify this as a black bear, not a grizzly. There are several attributes to consider in
determining whether a bear is a black bears or a grizzly. Surprisingly enough, color is not one of
them. Black bears can be brown and
grizzlies can be black. The easiest to
recognize are the physical features, especially the shape of the head, ears,
and shoulders. If you come across the
trail of a bear, you can also identify it by the scat. Scat is a term with which I was not familiar
prior to my hiking experiences. On the
farm we call it manure, but using outdoorsman terms like “scat” makes one sound
more rugged and outdoorsy, so I always make it a practice to sprinkle such
terms throughout our trips. The scat for
grizzlies is different from that of the black bear although I’m not sure I
could tell the difference. One common
joke is that if there are bear bells in the scat it is from a grizzly. According to the literature, bears are
basically shy creatures and will move away if they hear you coming. By the same logic, humans are also shy
creatures as they will also move away if they hear a bear coming. Throughout the trip we were plagued with the
conflicting desires to see a bear in its natural habitat, but yet in a
controlled and safe way. Now that I am
safely in my home in Illinois
After a brief stop at Logan
Pass , we proceeded to the parking area
at Jackson Glacier Overlook where we were met by Charles, the driver who took
up back to Lake McDonald Nancy
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| Peak near Logan Pass |
At the Lake
McDonald
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| Sperry Chalet |
At the Sperry Campground, there were four sites, three of
which were occupied. The fourth, which
we took, was rather small for two two-man tents. Fortunately there was no rain as our rain
flies were poorly situated. What the
site lacked in space, it made up for in views.
We had a tremendous view of the sunset.
Each campground was equipped with a water source, which was
usually a pond or lake, a privy, a “kitchen” area for food preparation and a
food bag hanging area. The campsites
were some distance away under the notion that separating food from the sleeping
area would minimize bear incidents. The
Sperry Campground was a small campground and had a rather wimpy food bag
area. It was obvious to us that this was
not a bear area as any respectable bear could have leaned against one of the
trees holding up the cable and soon had a smorgasbord of trail mix, granola
bars and beef jerky. One of the trees
was dead and the other was wobbly as well.
All food and scented items such as toothpaste needed to go into a bag
that would be hung from the cable that was stretched between the two trees. It took us quite a while to hang our
bag. The entire operation would have
taken no time at all had found the 10 foot steel pole BEFORE we hung the bags.
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| Great Poo Pickup Helicopter |
After such a thrilling start to the morning, we broke camp
and began our second day. It was
comfortable hiking weather with no sign of rain, although it was cloudy. We immediately ascended the ridge over to
Lake Ellen Wilson, which was quite scenic.
We skirted around the lake and ascended to Gunsight Pass Gunsight Pass Gunsight Lake
The passes tend to be rather windy places and
this one was typical. Had it not been
for the great views we would have looked for a better place to lunch. As we were hiking along the side of the
mountain, Byron commented to me that this was a strange hobby for someone who
dislikes heights as much as I do. Up
until the time of his observation I had been successfully NOT thinking about
the heights and how we were hiking just inches from certain death. In fact, a few times I had actually started
to look out over the valley rather than focus on the path immediately in front
of me. Soon after we came to a part of
the trail with a less abrupt drop-off and even had some bushes along that
side. Of course bushes in that
environment meant only one thing: bears.
Throughout much of the trip our leader would be making noise, especially
when rounding a blind bend or in areas with undergrowth. This was recommended by the ranger and the
video that we had seen. Fortunately for
us we had Rick to lead for most of the trip.
Talking constantly is his forte.
We tried singing some songs, but that didn’t last very long. Unfortunately the attempt lasted long enough
to get certain songs stuck in my head.
If anyone wants to know all the verses to “Rocky Top,” I can help you
out. At that point we were missing Mark
because we really wanted to sing the Backpack Tree song, but couldn’t remember
the words.
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| Steep trail |
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| From Gunsight Pass |
The Gunsight Lake Campground was beautiful. This was a campground where people commonly
rode horses. There was a hitching post,
a much more solid food hanging area made from steel poles, and TWO
privies. There were seven sleeping sites
and since we were the first ones there, we had our choice. As Tom and I went to explore them, we decided
the first ones were great compared to what we had the night before. But just in case, we investigated some of the
others and found them to be even better.
Then we looked at the last ones and found them to be the best yet. The ground was less rocky and we were
sheltered among the pine trees. It was
very private with only one other site being anywhere close. Soon after we chose it and started to set up
camp, two other hikers came by and selected that other site, of all places, so
we did have neighbors.
We soon learned
that while there were no mountain goats here as there had been at the other
site, there were plenty of deer. Several
white tail and mule deer hung around all evening. Although not as tame as the goats, it was
rather unnerving to look out into the darkness and see their eyes shining in
the light of our headlamps. We also
watched a small flock of geese fly back and forth and forth and back quite a
few times, certainly more than was necessary to find a place to put down for
the night. They would fly over the lake,
land for a little bit and then take off again.
One of the geese that was not leading was honking incessantly. While we couldn’t understand what was being
communicated, we imagined it was something like, “Why don’t we stop here?” “The last lake was better, why didn’t we stop
there?” “Are you sure you know where we
are going?” “We’ve passed over this
campground 10 times now.” “It’s getting
dark, anyplace will do.”
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| Looking toward Gunsight Pass |
On past trips I usually had difficulty sleeping. Part of it was due to the thin mattress pad,
but a lot of it was due to the temperature.
I tend to be cold anyway and my sleeping bag was just not doing the
trick. Before this trip I splurged on a
good down-filled bag that was rated down to 0 and was highly recommended by
Backpacker magazine. It was an
unbelievable difference. It was almost a
pound heavier than my other one, but it was most definitely worth it. Not only did I wake up toasty-warm each
morning, but I didn’t even have to cinch the hood shut. (This portion of the trip journal is brought
to you by the fine folks at Kelty, makers of the Kelty Light Year Down Zero bag.) Once again proving that the right equipment
makes all the difference in your experience.
That night we stayed in a “cabin” at Rising Sun, which was
like a very small motel room. After a
few nights on the trail, it felt pretty good just to shower, do laundry and
sleep in a bed. Some of us harbored just
a twinge of guilt in calling this a camping trip, but with great fortitude we
overcame our feelings. We ate at a place
called Two Sisters where the primary color of the décor is purple and the sign
on the roof proclaimed, “Aliens Welcome!”
In spite of that, the food was pretty good, especially since we didn’t
have to boil water and eat it out of a pouch.
We also did a load of laundry at the local KOA. As it began raining that evening we
congratulated ourselves that we had the foresight to get a cabin for the only
time that we had seen rain during our trip.
The next morning we rose early as we were planning an
aggressive schedule that involved hiking thirteen miles. As this was not a loop route, we employed a common
“slack packing” technique where Rick and Tom dropped us off at one end of the
Loop Trail and drove to Logan
After a brief lunch, from the chalet we took the Highline
Trail, a very popular relatively flat trail, which would lead us to Logan
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| Grinnell Glacier and Lake from Garden Wall Trail |
This portion of the hike revived my lens envy. We spotted a herd of Bighorn Sheep grazing
close enough to the trail that I could get a picture, but too far for that same
picture to capture the scene adequately.
A couple of them were butting the ground with their heads. The other guys actually saw them butting
heads with each other. We also saw
several marmots, a rodent similar to a ground hog. Soon after we met Tom and Rick coming from Logan
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| Bighorn Sheep |
While we saw other hikers periodically throughout our trip, the afternoon on Highline Trail was by far the most congested. We probably saw upwards of 60 people, quite a few who looked to be on the most difficult hike of their life. That wasn’t because the trail was that difficult, but based on their physique and attire, I doubt they were used to much of anything more strenuous than a trip to the refrigerator. This did little to change my general opinion of the dayhiking group.
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| Marmot |
On Thursday morning we awoke to less than optimal weather. We stopped at the ranger station at Two Medicine to pick up our second permit. The forecast looked bad with a 90% chance of rain for that day and 70% for Friday. In addition, 4-6 inches of snow were forecast for elevations over 5,000 feet. This could be a problem since our starting point at Two Medicine was that elevation and we would be going up from there. Since weather forecasts in this area can be unreliable, we asked the ranger to look at the current radar and see if it told a different story. When he did, his comment was, “Ha!” This was not what we were hoping for. Since our first day’s hike was a relatively short one, we decided to vacate our campsite and spend some time sightseeing before making a decision.
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| Glacier Park Lodge |
The permit was for a three day hike leaving from Two Medicine via Dawson Pass Trail to the campground at No Name Lake. This was a rather short hike of 6 miles with elevation gain around 800 feet. The following day we would continue on that trail up to
The sun actually came out for the first part of our hike cementing the wisdom we had shown in pursuing this course. However, about halfway to our destination, the weather took a turn for the worse, a typical tagline in the hiking journal. The wind picked up, the temperature dropped and it started raining. It was a lot like the day on Franconia Ridge in
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| Our Snow-covered Tents |
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| Melting snow for cooking |
So the question in some minds is why we keep doing this. What is it about hiking that is so attractive that we leave the safety of normal life to endure hardships and take risks? While the question of sanity is always appropriate, there seems to be a deeper call. Perhaps stripping ourselves of all the comforts of modern life and being exposed to the harsh realities of nature is in a way a form of worship. While I love the productive open prairies of
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