Glacier National Park, Montana.
18, 19 and 20 Jun 2015
The weather has been great lately so the odds of some high country adventure seemed good. Drove up to Glacier NP and walked into the back country permit office and was able to get the areas I wanted with no problem. Back country use doesn't ramp up till July so my early season timing was good. Hiked into the west side of Lake McDonald to a way underused campsite. The forest along that side of the lake was devastated by a major fire a few years ago but the scenery is still pretty good. Besides it is a wonderful lakeside camp area. Fireweed is in full bloom along this section of the lake, many of the stalks over 4 feet high and at least one was over 6 feet.
Awake with the sun after sleeping out under the stars I quickly packed up and headed for the Trout Lake trail. The climb starts quickly to gain the pass into the west lakes drainage but halfway up I ran into a wonderful patch of wild strawberries that were just getting ripe. Although the size of my small finger they have more flavor than a big berry. I spent 45 mins picking and eating them. There is no wild berry that taste better right from the vine, even fresh picked huckleberries come in second to this treat.
Reaching the pass between drainage's I decided to climb Mount Stanton, it didn't look all that high from where I was. Turns out I was looking at the false summit, when I got to it there was still another 800+ vertical feet up this ridge to the summit. It was a wonderful climb...
…and once at the top the views were great. Unfortunately the blue skies were quickly clouding and from the northwest side dark clouds were moving quickly towards me. The hit and miss storms were about to make a direct hit right where I was. One quick photo of the summit cairn and back down I went. Once near the false summit again thunder and lightning started along with cold rain. My position was pretty exposed so straight down the north side of the mountain towards some trees I went. That was really steep slippery war down. Made most of a 2,000 decent on 60 degree slopes. What should have taken only 1 hour for the climb down took just over 4 hours.
This Mountain Bluebird kept me company from a distance once the sun came back out. I like these better than the Western Bluebirds. Likely it is because of where they live.
Eventually the decent was done and I made it to Trout Lake. This lake played prominently in the book "Night of the Grizzlies" due to the fatal bear attack that occurred here in the late 60's. With miles still to go my break here to enjoy the view was short. The lake I was headed for is up the valley a ways.
After a wonderful nights sleep at Arrow Lake it was up the valley and past the end of the trail. The going was slow but so much fun. For me when the trail runs out isn't the fun and adventure go way up. I also know that fewer people get to experience these wilder areas.
The flowers are in full bloom and are so pretty. I took more pictures of flowers this trip than of the wonderful mountain views. If you look closely at the Showy Fleabane Daisy's below you can find more than one spider hanging out in them. I only saw one when I took the picture.
Don't know what this flower is yet. Not in any of my books for the area but it sure was pretty.
I often get asked if I saw any "bears". Not on this trip but I did see some Bear Grass in bloom...
…and this was some really fresh Bear Poop and the pile was a lot bigger than this picture makes it look. So there was a Griz around somewhere near...
No comments:
Post a Comment