Crystal lakes, alpine meadows, towering mountains, waterfalls; nine days on the "Crown of the Continent" to wrap up a summer spent backpacking.
the lowdown: Glacier is truly a hiker's paradise; over 700 miles of trail wind through soaring peaks and mountain meadows, past glaciers and alpine lakes and into waterfall filled valleys. The park's 1 million acres are bisected by the Continental Divide atop the Lewis and Clark Mountain range. The peaks that today rise ten thousand feet above sea level were conceived hundreds of millions of years ago as layers of sediment deposited on the floor of an ancient sea. About 60 million years geological pressure built to the breaking point and these layers of sedimentary rock were compressed, folded and bent, then finally forced west up and over softer rock, raising the Lewis and Clark Range. More recently, glaciers carved the mountains, creating the deep cirques, hanging valleys and horned peaks and saw toothed aretes of the alpine paradise found today.
The Continental Divide bisecting the park marks the eastern end of the moist maritime climate of the Pacific Northwest. On this side of the park lush mixed conifer forest dominates the sub-alpine region. Some areas, such as the Nyack/Coal Creek area are home to stands of giant cedar and hemlock. On the drier, eastern side of the park aspen and lodgepole pine parkland is found at lower elevation as the mountains run out towards the Great Plains. Fir-spruce forest is found at higher elevation on this side. Above treeline, both sides of the divide are characterized by grassy, mossy tundra.
Glacier is populated by a wide variety of wildlife; from grizzly and black bear, elk and moose down to pika, marmots and shrews. The mascot of the park is the mountain goat, and i was fortunate to have one visit my camp on my final morning to wish me off.
Fishing is excellent throughout the park; cutthroat and rainbow and brook trout were the most common, at least at the end of my line. Non-native lake trout, grayling and kokane are also present.
Dave's Hike
dates: 7/25-8/2
mileage, elevation +/-, pinnacle: 85mi, +/- 35000', 9375' (Mt James)
conditions: Well maintained trails through the valleys and up to tree line. Exposed scrambles over talus and scree to summits. Patchy snow at high altitudes and on north facing slopes, no tools required.
weather: Sunny to partly cloudy most days, a few storms, none too severe or prolonged. Daytime temps were low 70's in the valleys to low 50's at altitude, 20 degrees cooler at night.
highlights: The most jaw dropping scenery of the summer. Azure alpine lakes in steep walled cirques. Witnessing the sculpting power of water and ice in glacially carved mountains and seeing the process ongoing all around in waterfalls, creeks and streams. marmot fights!
the hike:
I began this hike late afternoon on the 25th, at the West Glacier trailhead. I hiked up the Middle Fork of the Flathead River (which forms the southwest border of park) for 5-6 miles, then turned east deeper into the park to my 1st night's camp at Harrison lake.
Middle Fork of the Flathead and Harrison Lake
I spent the next 2 days at low elevation in the Nyack/Coal Creek primitive area located in the southwest corner of the park. This area is characterized by towering forests of cedar and hemlock, some over 500 yrs old. The trail cuts through dense understory, surrounded by huckleberry bushes that were just ripening as I passed through. This is prime grizzly territory, so I refrained from picking the berries as I had negotiated an agreement with the bears; I don't eat their food and they don't eat mine (or me.)
Of course, I couldn't be sure that all bears got that memo, so to be on the safe side, I made plenty of noise as I passed through this area. I found the whole "hey bear, hey bear" refrain to be a little repetitive, so I improvised as I hiked. In this clip you can hear me (in my best Brooklyn accent) threatening the bears with pepper spray "hotter than fra diavlo."
I also did a few good Hans and Frans (early 90's Saturday Night Live) improv bits.
I made my way along the banks of Nyack Creek, travelling northeasterly towards the headwaters of the creek, up towards the mountains. I spent my 2nd night at the Lower Nyack campsite and my 3rd at the Upper Nyack site. As I gained very little elevation on my first 3 days on trail there were no scenic vistas on this portion of the trip, but the creekside flowers and cascades provided a beautiful backdrop to the hike.
Nyack Creek
The morning of my 4th day out (July 28th) I awoke to this view of the mountains that I would be ascending later in the day. By this point I had hiked about 30 miles in the valley and was ready to climb!
From the Nyack Creek valley I began my climb up into the mountains, towards the Continental Divide at Cut Bank Pass, 3000' above. I stopped for lunch about halfway up and was joined by an unexpected guest.
I reached Cut Bank Pass in the early afternoon and took a side trip to the top of Mt Morgan (8781'.) The climb was an exposed scramble over talus and scree.
Looking north into Cut Bank valley
a nice panorama from Mt Morgan summit showing many glacially carved features
After (carefully) descending Mt Morgan, I returned to Cut Bank Pass, continuing my descent past Pitamakan Lake and into the Cut Bank Creek valley. I traveled north about 5 miles further to the confluence of Atlantic Creek where I made camp for the night.
The next day, my 5th on trail, I followed Atlantic Creek back up into the mountains, towards Triple Divide Peak. As you may know, water falling on the Continental Divide will drain into either the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. However, at the Triple Divide precipitation has the additional option of draining into the Hudson Bay, so a rain drop that fell exactly on Triple Divide Peak would find its droplets headed to 3 different watersheds.
From Triple Divide Pass I made an incredible side trip to the summit of Mt James (9375') the pinnacle (literally and figuratively) of my Glacier trip. Like Mt Morgan, this ascent required exposed scrambling over talus.
looking to the northwest from Mt James summit
a panoramic view from the summit,
After descending, I continued north in the Hudson Bay Creek valley to my camp at Red Eagle Lake, where i spent the night in the company of 6 park naturalist on their last night of a research expedition.
the view looking south from Red Eagle, Mt James on the left
Over the first 5 days I had covered over 50 miles and had climbed a lot. As a result, I was eating a bit more than I had planned and realized that I probably didn't have enough food for the next 4 days. So on the morning of the 6th day (July 30th) I made the decision to hike out to the town of St Mary and restock. This added a few miles to the trip, which I was able to recover by taking the hiker's shuttle to the Jackson Glacier Overlook trailhead, further west along Going to the Sun Road. That night I shared the Reynold's Creek campsite with a young couple from Boston.
The next day I headed west up the valley of the St Mary River, with time for a side trip to Florence Falls.
Florence Falls
From the falls I passed through a profusion of wildflowers on my way up to Gunsight Pass.
Gunsight Pass is bracketed by two simply gorgeous lakes; on the east by Gunsight Lake Lake Ellen Wilson on the west. I spent the night at the foot of Gunsight Lake, where I had an unsettling experience. To backtrack a bit; while sleeping in grizzly country I ensured that my pepper spray, glasses and headlamp were all within easy reach, should I have an unwelcome nocturnal visitor. That night I was in my tent, drifting off to sleep when something came crashing within a few feet of my tent. Sure that I was about to be mauled, I put on my glasses and headlamp in a hurry, and removed the safety from the spray. Leading with the "bear mace" I stuck my head out of the tent, ready to spray the enormous brown mass of animal less than a yard from me. It was only at the very last moment that I realized the intruder was a young female deer. So basically, I almost pepper sprayed Bambi...
Gunsight Lake, with the pass in the background, from camp
On the morning of my 8th day (a cold and windy one) I climbed to Gunsight Pass, where I ran into a marmot enjoying the blustery view of Lake Ellen Wilson.
I descended from the pass and continued along the shores of Lake Ellen Wilson towards the Sperry Glacier.
Lake Ellen Wilson
Lake Ellen Wilson
Once again I was running low on food (my metabolism was really humming after 3 months of hiking,) and I was contemplating cutting my trip short by a day and heading out. However, I was really looking forward to hiking up to nearby Sperry Glacier and Comeau Pass the following day and had heard rumors of food for sale at the Sperry Chalet.
Sperry Chalet is one of the 2 remaining backcountry chalets that were built in the early days of the park to offer modest backcountry accommodations for those who weren't into sleeping on the ground and carrying their own food. These chalets have bunk beds and cold running water, but more importantly, kitchens that provide meals to those staying in the chalets. And more importantly still, a small concession business that sells candy, pie and other fantastic things that are devoured by famished hikers such as yours truly.
While I ate 3 candy bars and a slice of pie (w/coffee!) I was told that there was an open spot at the dinner table that night and I was welcome to join them. Of course I was glad to accept. So I took advantage of the cold running water to clean up as best as I could for dinner---backcountry grooming note--in a pinch, Dermatone or Blistex can apparently double as hair pommade. That evening I enjoyed a great meal with about twenty guests of the chaltet, from all over the country and globe.
I returned to my tent, less than half a mile away, and slept very well on a very full belly that final evening on trail on this grand trip.
The next morning had some overcast skies and melancholy tones to match my final morning in camp. However a visitor (below) lightened my mood.
I set off for the long climb up to Comeau Pass and Gunsight Mtn summit, with a quick detour back to the chalet to fuel up on coffee and Almond Joys. Not my 1st choice in candy, but I had supplemented desert the previous night with a few more candy bars and had pretty much depleted their stocks until the next pack train came through to resupply them.
View of Comeau Pass from the chalet
Comeau Pass overlooks the Sperry Galcier and the climb up passes an incredible number of waterfalls and crosses a number of alpine meadows filled with snow lilly and marmots duking it out over territory.
some of the falls on the approach to the pass
Once I crossed the pass, I continued on to Gunsight summit for an incredible view of the Sperry Glacier and tarn.
I was in for one final surprise and treat when I found and opened the summit cannister; the chalet employees had hiked up the weekend before and left a Snickers bar for the next person to summit. I still had a ten mile hike out, down a few thousand feet, with no food left, so you can imagine how I happy was to find that little treat. Come to think of it, Mars & Co supplied at least half of my calories over the last 36 hrs on trail.
The hike back down to the trailhead was uneventful and relatively easy, so I had plenty of time to savor my last few miles on trail. After reaching the Lake McDonald trailhead (my mother's maiden name, surely a good omen,) I took the hiker's shuttle to my car and was off to chase rumors of a pizza joint 30 miles away in Whitefish that was allegedly run by NY expatriates.
I found the place, which had the NYC pizza place decor exactly; Italian tricolore color scheme, photos of the NYC skyline and landmarks, right down to the Godfather and Goodfellas stills.
The pie was good enough; they'd survive next to a subway stop in NYC, but wouldn't make the Time Out list. Maybe it was because the guys were actually from New Jersey...
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