Day 1: Two Medicine to No Name Lake
We drove the Suburban (with supplies to re-stock our packs half way through) to Many Glacier, drove in Jeff's rental car to pick up Dave and Brenna Dewey (René's brother-in-law and niece), and then back to East Glacier. We then took the shuttle to Two Medicine to start the hike.
John Thomas joined us for the first 50 miles. He hasn't backpacked since he was a little boy, so he was pretty excited.
We didn't get ferry tickets, so we hiked around Two Medicine Lake.
On the way to No Name Lake. It was shocking how prominent the mountains were. Like the Tetons, only more so.
John in camp, waiting to eat.
Dave and Brenna.
The Jeffs all brought chairs. I took Mom's chair, but it was having problems so I couldn't use it. (Reminds me; I have to fix it..)
Happy, after one day's hike.
Day 2: No Name to Morning Star Lake
Most of us, ready to take off.
Climbing towards Dawson Pass.
At the top.
John, exulting in the view.
Jack, not thinking of throwing rocks down the slope.
I was pretty tired when we finally hit the pass. But at least our climbing was over for the day?
We say about 14 sheep as we were approaching the saddle. At some point while we were resting, they all decided to move right past us to another spot. Cute babies.
Hammering Mom for some milk.
Jeff and René, climbing. Actually, we still needed to climb some before reaching our scary side-hill track along Flinsch Peak.
Blow this up big. If you look closely, you can see the side-hill trail along slope below Flinsch Peak. Then there's a ridge we followed, in the middle of the photo. Then, you can just see more side-hill trail to the left of that. The trail was narrow, and the slope was steep. People did not go fast.
After rounding Mt Morgan (in the background), we descended to Pitamakan Pass for lunch, and then hiked to Morning Star Lake.
After setting up camp, John came running in to the lounge area with his eyes wide saying he might have just seen a bear. Some of us went over, with our bear spray ready. We couldn't decide what it was, so Jack threw a rock at it, and it turned around. It was the biggest beaver we've ever seen.
Jack filtering water.
Day 3: Morning Star to Red Eagle Lake
Fired up to get going.
Huckleberries along the way.
We didn't count how many bridges we covered.
On the way to Triple Divide Pass.
Scenery on the way..
On the way up, we saw a couple who had been lunching for some time, and when the girl decided to hide in the bushed for a second, a cougar growled at her. They left quickly.
Triple Divide Pass is so named because it is the continental triple divide. Water from one face flows into the Pacific, from the next face to the atlantic, and from the third face into Hudson Bay.
We didn't see the cougar, but had to fend off aggressive marmots, looking for salt.
We piled all the walking sticks in one place to make them easier to guard.
John, chasing one, while singing I'm All Right... (why don't they just let me be), by Kenny Loggins.
By this time, it was getting hot. Nice waterfall with Dave and Brenna.
Running out of water. This was a 15-mile day.
There were tons of waterfalls.
On the long final stretch towards Red Eagle, we hit a 2006 burn, so all the trees were dead.
René was having heat exhaustion issues, so we waited for them to catch up. Mom, doing yoga stretches.
Jack passed out.
It was a long, hot day, so we were glad to finally get to camp, at about 6:30. Jeff in his illicit hammock site. We called him the Master of Chaos, because (well, there's a story).
Geese in a row.
Dave trying to help John extract a contact. (There's a story there too.)
Day 4: Red Eagle to Reynold's Creek
This was Dave and Brenna's last day with us. They had a car at St Mary, so they were going that way. We had another 15-mile day ahead of us, going a different way, and still 95° weather. At the advice of a helpful ranger, we decided to do something not strictly allowed. We decided to hike to St Mary with the Deweys, and then catch a shuttle to Jackson Glacier, with another mile or so hike to get to Reynold's Creek.
On the way out.
Jack, cooking off by dunking his shirt.
Even though this was a relatively flat hike, it was exhausting in the heat.
Hiking along ridge lines in the aspens. It was a long slog, even if it was only 8 miles.
After eating lunch and re-filling water at St Mary, we rode the shuttle.
Leaving the shuttle to hike to our "nothing special" (according to online reviews) campsite.
It was one of our favorite campsites. Reynolds flows over slabs of sandstone, with lots of chutes and pools. After a hot day, it was fantastic to stick your feet in and cool off.
Jack, swimming in a lower pool.
Jann and René relaxing.
Jack again.
John, taking a bath..
Jann, washing her hair.
This is the only campfire we had.
Day 5: Reynolds to Many Glacier campground
This was John's last day. We had the Suburban parked at the Cracker Lake trailhead at Many Glacier. In it, we had new clothes, more food, and other supplies for the second half of the trip. Our campsite was just one of the "back country" sites in the Swiftcurrent car camping place.
Heading off for our longest climb of the trip. (2,900 ft.)
After hiking back up to the road, Jeff and René decided to skip this day, and hitchhike to Many Glacier instead.
They had quite an adventure, never having hitched before. They had excellent luck, and saw bears, and got driven right to the campsite by helpful people.
We, on the other hand, continued climbing. This was my toughest day.
Most of the climb was in the forest, and it just never ended (it seemed). Here', Jann took a break with me while I got my heart rate under control. We're almost to the top of Piegan Pass, fortunately.
There was a snow field, which Jack and Jann slid down.
I simply didn't have the energy.
Resting..
A nice Park guide took our picture after lunch.
This was another long mileage day, so we're re-supplying the water.
Lots of waterfalls.
Snowfield.
Day 6: Many Glacier to Elizabeth Lake
We finally got into Many Glacier, and said goodbye to John, and hello to Jeff and René. We had supper and breakfast at Nell's at Swiftcurrent. Mark and Cassie, and Paul and Suzie met us for breakfast.
At Chief Mountain, about 200 yd from Canada.
We hiked down a gorgeous valley, but it was clear the smoke was getting worse. Turns out that there were three lightening-caused fires started Saturday close by.
Lunch at the Belly River Ranger Station.
Potty?
Cosley Ridge in the distance.
Ranger Rick was very nice, and gave us lots of tips. Like how to cook fish in grizzly country.
Leaving the pasture at Belly River.
Rock rainbow.
At some point along this trail, Jann and Jack saw a small mamma black bear and a cub run across the trail right in front of them. The rest of us didn't get to see them.
Dawn Mist Falls.
Elizabeth Lake had a whole beach full of skippable rocks.
Smoke from the fires.
Day 7: Elizabeth to Cosley Lake
Since we had a pretty good hike Sunday, this was our sabbath. The hike from Elizabeth to Cosley was only about 4 mi, and we rested a good bit once there. We sang hymns.
A fellow camper offered to take the group shot so I could be in it.
This hike included our only ford of the trip. Notice the cable.
Me, crossing.
Most of the sites had poles for stringing up food and smelly stuff. A couple only had a bear box. About half the time, we shared the camp with other groups of hikers.
Paul took his fly rod, but didn't have much luck. But he looked good.
Some of us took baths, but it was pretty chilly.
More skipping rocks.
We just hung out for most of the day. It was very nice to have a rest.
Nice suit.
More relaxing..
More smoke.
Day 8: Cosely to Stony Indian
Jack has one last skip, before heading out.
Off we go.
In a clearing at Glenns Lake, we saw two huge bull moose. It was kind of scary.
Mokowanis Cascade.
Lunch time.
Up, up, up.
Summit of Stony Indian Pass.
The campground at Stony Indian Lake was one of the highest rated, but it was really poorly planned. The food prep area was way too far from the camp sites, and was very small and crowded. The campsites were not that great.
For instance, our site had huge lumpy rocks that we couldn't avoid with the tent. And there was a throne, rather than an out house, that was visible from the food prep site. Mark was not happy that I waved to him while he was pooping.
This campsite also had deer roaming close in. They were looking for salt. Paul had some t-shirts hanging in trees, and the deer chewed them to pieces when we weren't looking.
Small area for enjoying the lake.
The cramped eating quarters.
René, pretending to be on the throne, as seen from the kitchen.
Jeff, hanging food bags.
Day 9: Stony to Fifty Mountain
This was another long, hard day. Especially since we had the descent first, and then the climb at the end. Somehow that seems to make it harder.
Jack, resting during the long climb. Not many pics for some reason.
Finally at the top. Remains of stone building to the right.
At some point, Mark decided to quit stowing his chair, so he could have ready access. He took some razzing, but remained firm.
Smoke making the sun look unreal. There was so much smoke at this point, that we re-named the place Five Mountain.
The infamous outhouse.
At the end of the day, four of use wandered down to the outhouse. None of us took bear spray. René went in first, and because of the view, left the door open. Susie, Jann and I stood around talking. At some point, Susie said "are those bears?" It was a mamma grizzly and a cub, about 50 yd away, loping along across country. If they knew we were there, they didn't care.
Day 10: Fifty to Granite Park
Starting out.
We had a good hearty climb out.
Mark switched the chair from on top, to out front. He put is bear spray in the resulting tray. (Of course, later, it tipped out, hit a rock, and started spraying everywhere. He threw a rock at it and it blew up.)
After the climb, we side-hilled it for a good long time.
We had two large snow fields we had to cross this day: Cattle Queen, and Ahern. Jeff was a little nervous about Ahern.
Cattle Queen.
The snow field was hollow, and getting thin in the roof, so some of it was collapsing. Jann and Jack explored walking through it.
Lunch at the Queen.
We decided to hike up around the top, rather than trying to go over it.
Bushwhacking back to the trail.
Ahern turned out to be a non-issue.
We took a wrong turn trying to find the campground, and decided to explore the Granite Park Chalet while we were there. It's kind of cool. Day hikers can sleep overnight there. No running water.
Water was about 100 yd from camp. Yikes.
Day 11: Granite to Many Glacier
They made me put my camera on a post and do the self timer, so I could be in it.
After a short climb, we had a huge descent down to the valley and back to Many. This is the first view of the lakes when we came over Swiftcurrent pass.
Waterfalls all over.
Finally back to the parking lot.
After showers.
A late lunch.
After this, we drove to East Glacier and stayed at the lodge there. Then drove the Jeffs to Kalispell and the airport.
It was an awesome trip. Kind of painful, especially that last, steep descent. Our feet are kind of swollen now.
Thanks Jeff for making us go.
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