Day 5 -
Itinerary: Kootenai Lake to Hole in the Wall
Mileage: 13.5
Gain: 2440
Elevation Loss: 460
Bear locker: no, pole hang
This was the day I anticipated the most coming in, and later the day I had the most anxiety about regarding whether the trail would be closed or not. Day started fast as we flew to Goat Haunt, which was kindof eerie being empty. From there it was up up and up to brown pass and then onto Hole in the Wall. We planned on eating lunch at Lake Francis, as it had good reviews for a campsite. Waterton River campsite right after Goat Haunt was closed due to bear activity. We passed a black bear on the side of the trail, not realizing until we were even with him. Then he crossed the trail behind us, appearing indifferent. Janet looked pretty boring (rock pile). Francis was deceiving because you really drop in there quite a bit to get to the campsite, we decided we were at the point of no return and just kept going down, but it was worth it once we got to the lake. The eating area is still quite a distance up from the lake. When we arrived the lake, there was a group of 3 guys fishing and cooking, they were a little suspicious of us, presumably they shouldn't have been cooking there and maybe not fishing there (?). Brown pass wasn't too bad, some nice views along the way, ran out of water near the top and figured could make it to HOL no problem. I didn't realize how far HOL was away, including the camp being a descent jaunt off the trail. Thankfully going from brown pass towards boulder pass was mostly down. We went a bit slower in that section trying to stay together and make noise as it is tight quarters and all of the bear sightings / scat.
The day was overcast so pictures didn't turn out that great, not being a good photographer doesn't help. Camp ended up being full. Two couples came up from Bowman. One (the lake washers) came up from Kootenai with us. One of the couples was celebrating the husbands birthday, Bowman to Boulder was one of the last trails he had yet to hike in Glacier - pretty amazing. Then the wife said she works with Passman.
HOL is nice no doubt, maybe expectations were too high based on the hype, but I wouldn't put it that much ahead of MOL, ELF, GLH, FIF, STO, GRN, GUN, ELL. Maybe I'm just a sucker for lakes.
The stream and plunge pool past the kitchen was nice and taken advantage of. Bathroom is #1 in Glacier, no questioning that. I'll definitely have to come here again though to fully appreciate, as it was a bit of sensory overload on the approach.
Goat Haunt
Porcupine - instant favorite
Bear
Lake (?) Janet Campground
Lake Janet
Nice color contrast
Looking east from Francis
Francis waterfall
Thunderbird lake + mountain?
Up to Brown Pass, looking way back east
Brown Pass saddle (I think)
Brown Pass looking forward west
Bowman Lake
Campground
Thunderbird Peak? + Flowers
Thunderbird Peak? + Sunset