So far this year there have been at least two trip reports covering the Northern Traverse. Consider mine an extension of those.
I've done the Glacier National Park northern traverse route once before. That time I went from east to west, starting at Chief Mountain Customs and ending at Kintla Lake. This time I traveled eastward from Kintla to Chief Mountain.
Logistics
The northern traverse route covers going from one side of the park to the other. The starting trailhead is about 65 miles away from the ending trailhead. By road the two sides are probably about 200 miles apart. So one needs to figure out travel logistics beforehand. I was lucky this year since I knew people (Tina's group) coming from the east on the same route I was on going eastward. So I exchanged cars and keys with Jen (a former chatter and member of Tina's group). This all happened the day before the trip.
It should be noted that I was originally signed up to go with Tina's group. Many of the folks in her group were friends of mine whom I hiked with before. I did the northern traverse with Tim in fact. In the end I decided I wanted to have a little more solitude, I knew hiking with a group of nine people has benefits but it also can limit the experience in some ways.
August 1, 2018
On the previous day, Jen and Tina met me in East Glacier to exchange cars. I was very happy that Jen's car was not as crappy as my rental car. Day one started by driving Jen's car from East Glacier to the Kintla lake trailhead. I started early since I was worried about not having a parking space at the Kintla lake trailhead.
I got to Polebridge around about 9:30 am and the ranger at the station said the reports say there are 2 spots available.
OK... good to go!
So I started on my way into the park toward Kintla Lake. As I got to the intersection of the Bowman Lake road with the Kintla Lake road there were 3 guys with backpacks waving at me. They were headed to Kintla lake and had been waiting over 2 hours for a ride so I offered to take them up to Kintla with me. They were very grateful and it turns out that my good deed brought good karma within the hour.
At about 2 miles from the trailhead we came around a turn in the road. I was driving slow enough that my vehicle did not scare away the wildlife (at least not this wildlife). Around the turn I could see two animals on road. It took me a second or two and then I said to the guys "Wolves!". I brought the car to a stop about 50-75 away from them. We watched them for about a minute until they wandered away up the road. I slowly drove the car forward we saw them again as they hopped into the woods. As we passed the spot in the woods, one of the wolves had stopped and was still visible looking curiously back at us.
I didn't have my camera available but one of the guys managed to snap a photo from the backseat with his iphone
I've been hiking in the park for 20 years and I've never seen wolves. I was really happy and I thought I would consider this trip a success no matter whatever else happens. I also told the guys they were very lucky to have seen these wolves on their first trip to the park.
My first night was at Kintla lake camp, I never camped there before but I've seen it on my travels to the upper lake. I would have much preferred staying at Upper Kintla lake which is one of my favorite sites to camp. The three guys were camping at Upper Kintla that night. I would have hiked with them but I needed to get some gear in order before leaving. The hike to Kintla lake head is about 6 miles and is fairly easy hiking except for a few hills when the trail veers away from the lakeshore. Even though I was carrying seven days of food in pack the hike went very fast and I made it to camp by lunchtime.
I lucked out and found that the only good camp site at this campground was available when I arrived. Most of the 6 sites are away from the water at this camp and only 1 site is really nice and close to the shore line. So when I saw that it was open I quickly snagged it.
After setting up my tent, I went over to the food prep area and had some lunch. The three back packers whom I drove up with were eating lunch down by the shore.
After lunch I decided to go for a swim in the lake. It was really nice and peaceful, even though there were tents setup in camp I didn't see anyone around in camp. After swimming I decided to take a walk down to the head of the lake. I was wearing my camp shoes which were wet from the swim. After getting to the head of lake I decided to continue up the trail since I had so much time on my hands I might as well go for a longer walk. I should have realized that my wet camp shoes were probably not a good thing to wear. Also I had my bear spray but it was in my pack and not easily accessible. (I usually don't do this)
This shows an image from the trail. The river is the water coming from the upper lake to the lower lake.
I kept walking for one or two miles until I got to the clearing between the two lakes. This area is very open and you can look up the grassy slopes and shoots to the higher peaks. I always think I'm going to see a bear in the distance around here. In the center of the clearing is a stream which flows down from the mountains. (I think one of them is called Knife Edge). Anyway, I stopped at the stream and notice a couple of hikers. It was a very young couple and they came up to excited telling me about the 2 bears they just saw on the trail I was on. I guess I must have walked right by the bears without noticing them. I was making noise so maybe I scared them off.
Not long after the couple left toward our camp, I heard them yelling in the distance... Bear Bear Bear! They then came running back to show me the bear on the trail. This time I did not miss the bear!
They were saying this was Grizzly bear, however I think it was a black bear. Any opinions based on the pictures?
After watching the bear for a bit, we decided to head back down the trail to camp. They hiked pretty fast but I decided to stay with them even though I was wearing wet camp shoes. Not a good idea!
My camp mates included a father and son who were very nice. The father was probably my age and the son was in his early thirties maybe. Both were ex-marines. The young couple were camped up on the hill. A family of three canoed in from the foot of the lake. They brought their own table and cooler! But they seemed really nice. There was also a man and a woman. It turned out the woman was a former under secretary of the Navy. Pretty cool! And the guy was some kind of army ranger. He made a fire faster than I ever saw anyone make a fire. It was pretty interesting listening to their stories.
It was pretty good first day of my trip. I saw 2 wolves, a bear and ended the evening with a nice sunset.
In the middle of night I was woken up by a very bright light shining into my tent. It was coming straight into my tent from the direction of the mountains across the lake. The light was really low in the sky. At first, I thought is that the moon? but then I realized my tent was facing mountains across the lake. How could the moon be shining into my tent from the direction of the mountains. Then I realized in the morning it must have been the reflection of the moon from the lake that was shining into my tent. I really wish I had gotten up to take a look at it. It was have been beautiful and a great photo opportunity.