Anyway . . . my brain is doing it to me again . . . that led me to think about Glacier, which led me to think about our beloved mountains, which led me to think about hiking the mountain trails, which led me to think about all the stories I can tell about them. Did you follow that? Not sure that I did. But that's what I mean. Isn't it marvelous. I can thank a bit of uncomfortably high humidity for a blog idea. In any case, I came right in and sat down to write this blog about stories from or about Glacier mountains and their trails. Now there are a number of books of stories about Glacier, but these are just some of my own stories with pictures of mountains that I know well.
 |
| The evening light on Mt. Brown from our camp. |
After the Reynold's Creek Fire started it was difficult to get to one of the most popular hiking areas of the park - Many Glacier. I was making rounds one evening when two young women expressed their disappointment and said that there vacation was ruined because there were no good trails on the west side. I took the challenge.
If you enlarge the picture to the left you will see a fire tower just a few feet short of the summit. That's where I sent them. (I'm not really sadistic.) The trailhead is called the Sperry Trail and is across the road from the McDonald Lake Lodge. This trailhead climbs 1,300 feet in the first 1.97 miles. Once there you have four choices. The first choice is the Mt. Brown Overlook - the fire tower. From the trailhead to the overlook is a 1,260 meter elevation increase (4,200 feet) in around 5 miles. I emphasized that they take plenty of water. The last time I was up there I had found a man suffering from dehydration. I also encouraged bear spray and warned them about the Mountain Goat billy that has been chasing hikers. They looked at each other and grinned.
The next evening, while making rounds, I saw the two young women sitting by their campfire. They looked like they had just been mugged. "You went up Mt Brown, didn't you?" I laughed. Two tired and bedraggled young women looked back at me with the biggest smiles you've ever seen. "Yes, and it was awesome."
That's the normal response when I send people up this seldom climbed trail, and I've sent a lot of young enthusiastic hikers and a few more my age on this trail. But I always make sure that they have the endurance and the skills. It is not for the faint-hearted.
 |
| The cirque containing Iceberg Lake |
Iceberg Lake is the remains of a glacier and so it is rarely less than 50% frozen. As the caption says on the picture below, the picture was taken the last week of July.
 |
| Iceberg Lake at the end of July. |
An Interp Ranger (=interpretive) actually mis-identified the bear as a Black bear. That's really extremely easy to do. He had told people to keep moving and returned to his station. As we got near the bear we were able to clearly see the face, hump and the claws. There was no doubt it was a Grizzly but it was intent upon feeding on the mountain side and totally ignored those of us passing by on the trail a short distance below.
When we reached the lake there were a couple of groups of hikers already there. Like them, we took off our boots and socks and waded momentarily in the frigid water just to say we had done it. Some young people tried to see how long they could stand in the water. The winner lasted just over 20 seconds.
I've seen Mountain Goat kids butting heads on cliffs with an 800 foot drop, and a Black Bear sow have to chase her two cubs up a tree to keep them out of trouble, but only homo sapiens seem to do such things at all ages. There was a woman floating in a rubber kayak on the super-cold water. She was wearing a wet suit, but there isn't a wet suit made that would protect her from that water. Like I tell my friends and children - I may be adventuresome but I'm not foolhardy. I'm just glad that she made it because there was no one on shore who was going in that water to rescue her.
We weren't in uniform but our hiking hats have the National Park Service Volunteer logo on them. A lady tapped me on the shoulder and asked if the small black dot moving along a snowfield high up the mountain was a Mountain Goat. I got out my binoculars. No. It was just another silly human climbing around on the ice alone and without any climbing equipment nevertheless proper climbing gear.
 |
| Stanton Mt. with Mt. Vaught just behind it. |
I was sitting at our campsite at Sprague Creek when a young camper approached. He asked me if I was able to call the park dispatch. I told him that I had a radio and asked the purpose. "I'm just supposed to tell them when I get back." I obviously looked puzzled and so he shared his story.
The young man had decided to hike to the summit of Stanton Mt. Climber's trails are notorious for not being easy to follow and having a lot of branches where people decided that a different way was better, easier or more fun. Somehow he had wandered away from the trail. One would think that it is pretty easy to get off a mountain . . . just go down. But it isn't always that easy and you can find yourself in serious trouble. By some stroke of luck his cell phone got a signal and he ended up talking to Glacier Dispatch who put a Ranger on the line who knows the mountain well. The young man followed the Ranger's instructions and ran into a group going to the summit. He ended up climbing to the summit with them and was just returning.
"Glacier Dispatch. 219-Vance." "Go ahead 219." "The young man who was lost on Stanton this afternoon is safely back at the campground." "Thank you 219." "219-Vance clear."
 |
| Reynolds Mountain |
Just a few weeks after the young man on Stanton Mountain I had a similar experience on the Hidden Lake trail.
A big part of my job patrolling the trails out of Logan Pass is to keep people out of the "closures". These are meadows and other areas of sub-alpine vegetation that are very fragile and therefore legally closed to all human foot traffic. As I was hiking down from the Hidden Lake overlook I spotted three hikers well out in the closure. I hiked back to the closest place on the trail to them and hailed them. As they drew near they were all talking at once. They were all apologizing for being in the closure. It turned out that they knew better but they had just climbed to the summit of Reynolds Mountain and missed the trail coming down. They finally found a safe way off the mountain which happened to lead right into the closure.
 |
| Mt. Oberlin from Logan Pass - the side we climbed. |
 |
| Looking east from Oberlin at about 7,300 feet. |
 |
| Mt Oberlin - from the north The side we didn't climb! |
http://oldconservationist.blogspot.com/2015/08/because-its-there.html
To give a brief summary . . . it was our day off but I carry the park radio with me even on my day off. On that trip we were part of a search and rescue for a person who evidently made their way off the mountain under their own steam without telling us, had the dubious distinction of being the first to see a forest fire, and came within feet of reaching the summit of Mt Oberlin. We turned around because we were afraid that we didn't have enough time before we had to be back at Logan Pass. What we didn't know is that Logan Pass would be totally isolated for almost four hours.
 |
| Reynolds Fire from Mt. Oberlin |
 |
| Bearhat Mtn, with Fusillade and Gun-sight Mts in the distance. |
 |
| North end of Hidden Lake where it flows into Hidden Creek. |
 |
| Cliffs of Clements Mtn - Mountain Goat country. |
People are a bit surprised that I suggest these two trails first when they ask where to go to see wildlife. Actually I preface my response with "you can see wildlife everywhere in Glacier but if you want to improve your odds . . ."
The Mountain Goats hang around the Hidden Lake Overlook. It is a high rocky promontory right on the Continental Divide and nestled in between the high cliffs of Clements and Reynolds. The Big Horn Sheep - which tend to hang around the Oberlin meadow and similar areas - are not as much a high altitude climber as the Mountain Goat. Mountain Goats do not get far away from the safety of high, sheer cliffs like the ones in the picture. This is their defense.
 |
| Clements Mtn from near the start of the Hidden Lake Trail. |
Early in May we had two Canadian Rangers camping with us at Sprague Creek. As usual I recommended Avalanche Trail. They returned laughing at the silly tourist they overheard saying "there're no bears here. They just want to sell bear spray." The next day hikers were treated to one Grizzly and 4 Black Bears on the 2.5 mile Avalanche Creek Trail.
 |
| Avalanche Lake. In May of a normal year you can sit here and hear 3-4 avalanches every hour. |
 |
| Avalanche Creek. |
Visitors are often seen trying to walk on trails in flip-flops, and go out without water or bear spray despite the large red warning signs. I have seen women wearing wedding dresses and men in tuxedos to get pictures at Hidden Lake. Some have put their children on the backs of a Mountain Goat for a picture or tried to get a selfie with a bear.
But I don't want to waste time telling stories on homo sapiens. However, I am going to end with a story that starts out with a story about homo sapiens.
The Garden Wall is a knife edge formation that was created by glaciers on both sides. The Continental Divide runs across the top. It is a magnificent natural structure and is especially beautiful framed by the mountains on either side of the McDonald Valley as in this picture.
 |
| The Garden Wall. |
The Going-to-the-Sun Road runs along its flanks as it rises from 3,200 feet at McDonald Creek to 6,686 feet at Logan Pass. In the picture to the right, the road is just below the snow-line. The Highline Trail is about a third of the way up from the bottom of the snow-line.
I believe it was three years ago some newly-weds visited Glacier for their honeymoon. One day they hiked a trail that went up the side of the Garden Wall. It is a very steep trail. Only the young bride came out. To make a long story short - she pushed her new husband off the mountain. At first she said she had no idea where he fell, but as it appeared that searchers weren't going to find the body, she suddenly was able to show them exactly where he went over. She had to make sure they found the body because, if she didn't, she wouldn't get his insurance. (Nice lady!)
One day last June the crews made their daily trip up the side of the Garden Wall to clear the snow from the Going-to-the-Sun Road. When Pamela and I were talking to one of the crew later that day they told us that the found a Grizzly bear dead on the road after they had passed. An autopsy showed that the bear had not be shot or poisoned. It just fell . . . . to which I couldn't help but comment "he must have been on his honeymoon."
With that I must end. These are just a few of the many mountain, trails and tales at Glacier National Park. I do hope that you will come and visit Glacier and enjoy these magnificent mountains and the trails on them and write your own story.
You are invited to follow me on
FaceBook at The Old Conservationist
or visit my website at
No comments:
Post a Comment