tibber wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 9:46 pm
In Nov 2010, my friends and I were gathered at the bar above the Grand Canyon South Rim and one of our fellow backpackers had just joined us before taking off her pack. She said someone had just asked her if her water tube was for oxygen
. She told a much better story as you can see from the reaction in the picture.
Ha! That's one I've never heard before. I looked at the picture and was trying to place the location before I read your comment. I had a beer at that bar with my pack after finishing my R2R, while waiting for my room to be ready - but I don't remember getting asked any interesting questions.
Jay w wrote: ↑Mon Nov 07, 2022 6:58 am
-Early in the season, instead of crossing the Iceberg outlet stream, (with Pete) we hiked along Ptarmegan wall (other side of the small lake) and then along the lake to get to the "normal" lake spot. I've waded across that stream in June and it moves fast! It was a stupid thing to do, but I was able to jump across going up but could jump far enough to jump across going home.
That's what I did on my first visit to the lake, because there was a well-worn path over the snow in that direction - the actual trail was harder to find because so many people were avoiding the outlet stream. Eventually, the rangers staked the correct route. Of course, I warned visitors asking about Iceberg Lake that the seasonal bridge wasn't in, route finding necessary, be prepared to wade, etc., etc.
Oh - that reminded me - before the seasonal bridge was in right before Bullhead Lake, people were using the bridge WIRES to cross the stream there. I overheard guests telling people "Oh, it's so cool, there is a WIRE "rope" bridge you cross to get to the lake."
So many people were doing this, the rangers had to TAKE DOWN the wires!
Ear Mountain wrote: ↑Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:12 am
I hiked from the Saint Mary Falls trailhead around the lake, past Virginia Falls and all the way to Saint Mary this past summer. The trail had been cleared but there were many brushy spots as Jay w noted. I too wanted to enjoy lunch on Silver Dollar beach as it is a beautiful spot. I've never been there but saw some photos of a wedding there once. Unfortunately the trail passes fairly high above the beach and the brush was so thick with downfall below the trail that I wasn't inclined to fight it to reach the beach. Maybe I missed something there, don't know. In any case I think the trail on the south side of Saint Mary Lark is quite nice. There are numerous open sections which provide a unique view of the Saint Mary Valley and up into the valleys on the north side of the lake. If I learn any more about a decent way to access to Silver Dollar Beach other than by boat I will do the hike again.
I am interested in the different perspective across the lake, and seeing if there are closer views of the seasonal waterfalls. If there's not an obvious trail to the beach, I'd probably give it a pass, too.
paul wrote: ↑Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:44 pm
Large sections of the trail backpacking from Mokawannis lake drainage to Waterton Lake were completely overgrown. I had to push vegetation away as I hiked and got lots of scratches on my arms to show for it. I couldn't stop feeling like I was going walk straight into a bear at some point. There were quite a few bear scat droppings along the way as well. I think the park service has been neglecting the trail clearing this summer because of funding.
I did see trail clearing on some popular trails this summer (they did a lot of work on Swiftcurrent - which was getting pretty overgrown - and Iceberg). But perhaps they didn't make it to more remote trails.