Book 1 Chapter 1 – Two Medicine to Going to the Sun Road

Glacier National Park 1, Smokebeard 0.

Well, maybe it’s a tie so far.

Animals seen: bighorn sheep, Canada geese, heard a loon, bald eagle, elk, deer, grizzly bear.

Day 1 – Dawson Pass and Pitamakan Pass

I met up with Frizz and Pedi at Luna’s and they put me on their permit. Later, we ran into a guy named Sean who wanted to go the same way, so they added him as well.  To update the permit you have to go to a ranger station in person, so we slack-packed ( only food and raingear) from East glacier to Two Medicine to talk to the ranger there. It was about 10 miles of good terrain and some decent climbing. A good warm-up hike.  The ranger there was bureaucratically correct but not super helpful. In the end, we got added properly.

Back at Luna’s, we met a guy named Danny who worked for the CDTC.  Pedi asked him if he had pack tags for us, these little white plastic tags that everyone carries with them.  He did not, but he said he would come back the next day with some. Pedi managed to convince him to give us a ride back to Two Medicine in the morning so we could start our hike.

This other hiker named Autopilot told us about an alternate route to the first pass we would climb. It added two extra miles and went over a second pass, but he said the view was awesome. Frizz said she wanted to do it, and none of us disagreed. They all quickly passed me like I was walking backwards, of course, so I hiked alone. I remembered to shout “hey Bear!” whenever the trail got closed in, or seemed bearish. I have no idea if I have any special ability to detect bears or not, but I felt like I did. In the end, I didn’t see any.

The pass was amazing with views for miles. It wasn’t as sketchy as the picture looks.

After a quick lunch, we made our way down the valley where the trail was still covered in snow. It was a wet few miles. A bald eagle soared overhead.

A few long miles later, I got to Atlantic Creek Camp, which was the first site on our permit. The mosquitoes were horrific, like, always wear your head net. There were several other hikers there, including a few that did not have a permit for that site. They had just run out of steam. In the end it didn’t matter because the campsite was not full.  We managed to cram 3 tents into one spot.

Day 2 – Triple Divide Pass

Again hiking alone.  A steady uphill grind.  The last few miles were pretty steep but the trail was perfectly graded.  Gorgeous views from the top.  I was happy to see that they had waited for me.  I’m clearly the charity case hiker.  How times have changed.  Since everyone had been there for a while, they were getting cold and quickly pushed on. I stayed and enjoyed the place to myself.  King of the world, but not in a Steely Dan way.  I even smiled a few times.   Shortly after, a group of lady hikers arrived, cursing colorfully and laughing about the steady uphill to the pass.

Down the other side was again more perfectly graded trail with many switchbacks. There were a few snow fields to cross so I ended up with wet feet but the day was pretty warm and it didn’t matter. Eventually the trees went away and I entered a large old burn area where there were few tall trees remaining most of them charred sticks. Lots of brushy undergrowth, so again I was shouting “hey Bear”, whenever it felt right.

It was getting to be around noon.  I put up the umbrella to keep the worst of the sun off me, but it was getting really hot. I ran into the other guys at a big suspension bridge over a river. Frizz and I hiked the last mile or so to the campground on Red Eagle Lake.  She found us some wild strawberries that somehow the mice and the bears had not found.  Tiny, but SO good.

In camp by 3:30, hot and bored.  The lake was freezing, so no swimming.  Weather was forecast to be bad on Friday, so I went to bed early.

Day 3 – Going To The Sun Road

I got up at 4:30 and was on the trail by 5:30.  I had the whole valley to myself and the elk. And maybe the bears, which I still did not see.  Trail was easy downhill and steady going.  After crossing another big suspension bridge and a short climb, the trail dipped down and ran along Saint Mary Lake.  I was able to get internet access on my phone and an updated weather forecast. It did not look good. Winter storm warning.  18 inches of snow and 45 mph winds up high.  I can’t repel firepower of that magnitude.

From that point, it was 8 miles of relatively easy trail to this big waterfall tourist attraction. While I had lunch there at 10:30, the rest of the game caught up to me.

Since the weather was getting worse and it was now raining, we decided to push on to our permitted campsite and then another mile and a half up to the road.  Our plan was to come into St. Mary, and take a day to let the weather pass. The rangers (thank you Todd!!!) in St. Mary were able to redo our permits so that we kept the same schedule but just slipped it two whole days. It’s still a crap shoot because we won’t know how much snow is up there now, but this gives us a lot of time and some better weather to hike in.

Some folks wanted to go the next day, and I told them I was not going.  I’ll probably never be in Glacier National Park again, so I want to see the passes in all their glory.  I am also way slower than they are, so hiking in bad weather is a little bit more dangerous.  If it takes you an hour of snow hiking, it’s not nearly as bad as two.  Plus old, out of shape, and a bum ankle.  I also have some more time flexibility because I am not doing the whole trail.

We went to the pizza place where I spent too much money on too much food. Then we went back to the campground here where about eight other tents had popped up like mushrooms in the rain. Everyone, it seemed, was riding out the storm.  One guy had done 31 miles, squeezing two days into one. Had he not done this he would have been camping in the snow storm.

There’s another kid out here named Delta. He has become somewhat of a legend. He has never backpacked, and much of his gear is the wrong stuff, and he gets lost, and he’s wearing jeans, and he falls in the river while doing fords because he didn’t know about the bridges, but somehow, he gets to camp every night.  I can’t tell if he’s doing this well BECAUSE OF, or IN SPITE OF the fact he’s stoned much of the time.  Either way, he has one of the best attitudes I’ve ever seen out here. Just living everything to the fullest.  A year off from medical school to go hiking. 

Day 4 & 5 – St. Mary

Around 7:00 while I was getting ready in the campground, I look up and a medium-sized grizzly bear is strolling through the campground like he owned the place.  When he saw me and I shouted, “Hey Bear”, he turned around.  Since he was walking away from me, I grabbed my phone for a picture. Possibly not the safest thing, since it is a wild animal that could EASILY eat you. But he seemed in no hurry to do anything other than wander around.  A few other people shouted too, and he accelerated into the bushes.  Talking to the park staff, who seemed actually pretty alarmed, I feel like I could have handled that better.

So here we sit, idling in St Mary for 2 days. First stop was the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet.  The nice woman gave us to go boxes in case we wanted to take some pastries for the road. For the price, I won’t be going again, but it sure was nice to eat lots of fruit and yogurt and drink coffee.

The weather here, at least is cool and windy and almost sunny.  I am choosing to believe that is a good sign for the bigger stuff.

There is not much elegant or outdoorsy sitting at a picnic table outside a grocery store while your phone charges, but there is a certain hobo romance to the whole thing.

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Montana is a funny place. There are posters on the wall in the pizza joint of rodeo superstars. As in, people know their names, the way New Englanders know the Red Sox. They have rodeo sports on the tv.  Think ESPN, but for bull riding and calf wrangling.  People drive pretty beefy vehicles out here. Since we are outside the National Park and on the Blackfeet Indian reservation, you can’t buy alcohol before 5:00 p.m. Just a lot of funny little things that tell you you are not in Kansas anymore.