Siyeh Pass - Awesome, Wet and Cold

Check out the photos here

I woke up today and didn't want a repeat of yesterday - sitting around all day because of bad weather. I decided I would hike or leave. After a quick look at the weather I decided I could probably get a hike in before it started raining again. (Remind me never to take a job as a meteorologist)

I drove up to St Mary checking out the clouds as I went. They did look threatening but I figured I could hike fast and beat them. When I got to the trailhead, the ranger led hike was grouping up. I thought I would pass them on the trail but I never did. Later I found out that they canceled the hike.

The hike up started along Siyeh Creek which was pretty and then went through forest. There were lots of flowers. Later it came out in a valley with views of the mountains around Logan Pass. I also passed by a glacier. There were several lakes at the base of Siyeh Mountain. They were different colors which I find odd. I went up and up and finally reached the pass. There I had some great views down three different valleys - the one I came through, one that angled north east and the one that I would walk out in. There was also a huge glacier. It was on the Going to the Sun Mountain (I think). This was certainly one of the best views I had of a glacier in the park until it was obscured by cloud. At this point I probably should have hightailed it out but I took my time taking photos of the valleys, glacier and sheep.

It soon started to rain accompanied by thunder and lightening. The rain was unrelenting and by the time I exited the trail I was very, very wet and cold. Unfortunately, the shuttle didn't come for quite a long time making things worse. Finally back in my car I cranked up the heat. My feet must have been really cold because they hurt as they warmed up.

On the way back to East Glacier I found new snow on the road.

I am going to head out in the morning. I am sad to leave Glacier National Park. I have had such a good time here and there are many more things I would like to do but I have a feeling that it is time to move on. I am glad that I got to do Siyeh Pass even though it was a bit uncomfortable.

Check out the photos here

Almost Beared Out AGAIN

From Granite - Flattop Backpack

Granite Park - Flattop Backpack Photos

I decided to do one last backpack before leaving the lovely Glacier. The plan was to head out the Highline Trail from Logan Pass to Granite Park and the next day to continue on the Highline Trail to Fifty Mountain then make a U turn and head to Flattop for the night and exit the following day at the Loop on the Going to the Sun Road.

My friend, Aaron, hiked the first seven miles with me to Granite Chalet. The Highline Trail is awesome with fantastic views of the surrounding mountains and Lake McDonald. The skies looked very threatening but no rain came. About a mile or two in we had a grizzly encounter.

There were seven people stopped on the trail in front of us. There was a grizzly sow and two cubs near the trail. We could see one of the cubs playing in a tree. We decided to try and pass them on the trail. Those of us with bear spray pulled it and removed the safety. As we got a bit closer the bears moved up on the trail and we retreated. They (the bears) were not aggressive but they were too close for comfort. Not for a couple of guys -- they didn't retreat far. Instead they took photos. The grizzly was big and beautiful. The cubs were small and black instead of brown with white facial marking. They were sooo cute. However, I focused on safety versus photos and didn't get any photos. For those of you on Facebook Aaron posted a photo of the grizzly and cubs on my profile.

This watching the bear and retreating went on for a few repetitions. What we needed to do was get off the trail and let the bear go by. However, more and more people were piling up and everyone had a different opinion of what to do. I climbed up to let the bear go by but others did not. This put me in a very bad position as the bear might see the people on the trail and come my way to avoid them so I was forced to return to the trail. We retreated further to the point the trail became quite narrow on the edge of a very steep cliff leaving no maneuvering room. There was no way that I was going to walk along that with a bear. By this time the group was even larger. It was chaos. The photo guys had not retreated as far and had gone off the trail where I wanted to. The bear went right by them like I said it would. However, it must have seen us and was now above us. We decided the best option was to move forward on the trail. It was a certainly a scary moment but we got by without incident. The bear didn't seem to care much about us one way or the other.

Farther up the trail we came across the guys who were ahead of us. One had accidently discharged his bear spray and was trying to clean it out of his eyes. It also got on his water bottle so he couldn't drink out of it.

The rest of the hike to Granite Park was uneventful. We did see some male big horn sheep. Once at Granite Park I set up my tent and had lunch with Aaron. He then headed down to the Loop as he wasn't spending the evening. I headed up to Swiftcurrent Lookout at the top of Swiftcurrent Mountian. It was about five miles round trip but very uphill and very, very windy. The payoff was incredible. The views at the top were fantastic. There were views of the many lakes of the Many Glacier area - Bullhead Lake, Fishercap Lake, Sherburne Lake and some that I don't know the names of. There were also views of Swiftcurrent Glacier. Because the top of the mountain was bald, it offered 360 degree views of all the surrounding mountains. This was certainly one of the best hikes that I have done in Glacier.

It was so windy on the way down that I was blown backwards a few times but I made it down safely. Although it was really, really windy, my tent was sheltered in the trees. The toilet at Granite Park was interesting. It had no flies because if its unique construction.

The next morning I headed out for a very, very long day. I walked the Highline Trail north of the Granite Park. It was a clear day with phenomenal views. The moon was still out as well which was pretty cool. The wildflowers flourished along the trail. I walked twelve miles to the Fifty Mountain area and took a long break there. Then I headed back along the Flattop Trail. This walk was through burned forest. It offered great views of where I had previously walked on the Highline Trail. For some reason I thought this would be all downhill. I was wrong. The last six miles seemed to go on forever. Also there was a conspicuous lack of water. I began to worry that there would be no water at the campground. Finally I got to the campground and found that there was water. I was pretty happy because I had decided to walk another five miles out if there was no water.

The next morning I walked six and a half miles out to the Loop shuttle stop. There were some pretty creeks along the way and lots of raspberries. I at them along the way slowing me down. I also noticed huge piles of bear scat with berries in it. I began calling out regularly to ensure that I didn't surprise any bears along the way. Luckily, I didn't see anymore bears. It began to rain lightly on my way out. I made it up to the shuttle stop and got a shuttle to the top. While in the shuttle is started pouring so I guess I got out just in time. Rising early and getting going often has many advantages.

Sorry No Posts for awhile

Sorry that there haven't been any recent posts. Between having friends in town and socialising lots and my computer refusing to connect to the wireless at Brownies, I was not able to get much done.

Here are a few things I missed posting about.

Triple Divide Day Hike (17 miles): I hiked from the Cutbank trailhead up to the Triple Divide Pass and then down to Medicine Grizzly lake with a few people who work at the Browning hospital. It was a pretty great day. (Click on the link to see the photos)

Painted Tipi (16 miles or so): I hiked up to Two Medicine Pass and then out a ridge to Painted Tipi Peak with Jane (from Sierra Vista) and a few of her friends from the East Glacier area. It was a great day. We had good views and it was awesome standing at the top of Painted Tipi. We also saw a herd of female big horn sheep on the way up.



Swiftcurrent Lookout Take 1 (16 miles or so): This was a very interesting hike in that I was almost "beared out" at the beginning when a bear heading the same way as I showed no concern that I was on the trail. I couldn't get by it. I was walking along with bear spray in one hand and a camera in the other. It finally moved off (SLOWLY) when a group of ten more people came on the trail. I had some great views of the Swiftcurrent Glacier on the way up. The hike was beautiful but by the time I got to Swiftcurrent Pass the mountain top was clouded in. I hike up to the Lookout anyway. It was a cold hike into the cloud but kind of cool in its own way. There were, of course, no views from the top. I had driven a group of Chinese girls out to hike Grinnell Glacier on a ranger led hike. When I got to the bottom, I found out that they no longer do that hike but the girls were okay. They did the hike on their own and had a fabulous time.

Avalanche Lake and Hidden Lake (8 miles)
The weather did not look good today. I ended up cancelling my hike (Siyeh Pass) and taking the Chinese girls to Avalanche Lake. It was good to hike it again when it wasn't raining. I finished the hike early and read my book while waiting for the Chinese girls. In the meantime, my friends from SLC (Matt, Yun and Arwyn) showed up and I had a chat with them before they headed up the same trail. When the Chinese girls finished I decided to try Logan Pass. Of course, there was no parking but at least it wasn't raining. I dropped the girls off to do Hidden Lake and drove down the road to the nearest pull out. I was waiting for parking there when a bunch of goats showed up. Then it was chaos as everyone pulled in to take photos of them. I was about to despair about getting a parking place when a flag girl for the construction held up the traffic so I could get the next parking space. Then I hoofed it up the road and on to the trail. I saw a deer eating some of the millions of wildflowers and soon caught up with the Chinese girls. It was good but short day.

Cobalt Lake (10 miles)
Watching the backcountry report I saw that one of the routes that I wanted to backpack was available so I got up early and went to Two Medicine Ranger station and got permits for two nights backcountry. Since I was there I hiked out to Cobalt Lake. There were so many ripe berries on the trail - huckleberries, service berries and whortle berries. On the way back I heard a noise and saw a moose. I watched it for quite awhile eating various plants and sucking up water. Pretty cool.

The Goat ate my flip flops

I just finished a fantastic backpack. Check out the photos here or view the slide show at the bottom of the blog post.

I left early Wednesday morning from Jackson Glacier Overlook. After returning to my car to retrieve a forgotten hiking pole (five minutes down the trail), I was off. The weather started out perfectly but as I neared Jackson Glacier it clouded up so I wasn't able to see it well. (Just an excuse to return as far as I am concerned)

As I approached Gunsight Lake I was disappointed to see the mountain covered by clouds. However, slowly it cleared. While having a snack and taking photos I met a couple of guys from Seattle. I walked over Gunsight Pass with them. It was very cloudy and there weren't views from the top. It also started raining but lucky for us there is a shelter at the top and we took a break there waiting for the storm to clear. A little while later the rain stopped but the clouds remained. We descended from the pass to Lake Ellen Wilson campground. The guys headed on from there and I set up camp. The campground was on the edge of the lake and surrounded by huge boulders. The cooking area was below a huge angled boulder. There were both goats and deer at the site. It was a very nice place to camp.

The next day I went over another pass to Sperry Chalet. It was a comparatively short day (3 miles). I then walked up the Sperry Glacier Trail to the bottom of Sperry Glacier. After going up, up, up, I came to the Comeau Pass which is a staircase blasted into rock. It was crazy. Overall the hike was fantastic - lots of waterfalls, pika, goats, snow, mountains, glaciers. It certainly was one of the best that I have done.

On the way back to the Chalet I saw a goat with two kids. This was kind of unusual because all the rest seemed to have one kid. The goat family was walking right down the trail. When they got to a trail crew working, the mother went off to the right and the kids went left. Then they started bleating for their mother. It was so funny. I talked a bit to the trail crew and they told me they had seen a female grizzly with two cubs on the trail in the morning. It came face to face with a goat. There was a confrontation and then the goat took off up the hill. The grizzly followed but was too slow. What an amazing thing to have seen!

Back at the campground I found that my flip flops had become a snack for the goats. They must not have liked them too much as they are still wearable. Below is a photo showing their nibbling on one shoe.

From Gunsight Sperry Backpack

Since for me backpacks are synonymous with rain, it rained cats and dogs during the night. I stayed dry but had to pack out my very wet tent. The trail was wide so I wasn't drenched by water off the vegetation on the way out. However, I was very nervous coming down a I found that I was following very recent bear tracks. I called out often and didn't encounter the bear which was good. The photo below compares the bear tracks to my foot.

From Gunsight Sperry Backpack