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.