A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by davidwayne »

Extremely grateful for the time it took you to put together this report! Kinda jealous of your adventures :)
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by al_in_al »

September 3 - Three Waterfalls Hike (from Sun Point) - 6.9 miles (617.6 total)

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September 2 - Highline to Swiftcurrent Lookout to Many Glacier - 18.5 miles (636.1 total)

I started on the 7am hiker shuttle at Swiftcurrent - not crowded at all today. We made it to the St. Mary Visitor Center in time to catch the first express shuttle with plenty of room for everyone waiting (today they were using the large bus for the first express). The bus arrived at Logan Pass at 8:37am. Parking lot appeared full, but I didn’t investigate.

It was smoky today - worst was to the west and north. Swiftcurrent Mountain seemed to stay in blue sky most of the day. You could still see distant mountains, but there was a distinct low-lying level of smoke. I hiked the Highline in 2015 with smoke so bad you couldn’t see Heaven’s Peak, and this was way better.

I’m not a big fan of September since everything is brown and crunchy, though there were still some monkey flowers blooming at Haystack. The greenery between Haystack and the chalet was nice, though.

Getting to the lookout is hard no matter what way you do it - I thought this might be easier than an out-and-back on the Swiftcurrent Pass trail, but it’s not really. The scenery is more interesting, though (since it’s new the whole way).


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September 3 - Grinnell Glacier - 12.6 miles (648.7 total)

Another smoky day on the east side - though, again, I hiked Grinnell Glacier in 2015 with way more smoke, and today was better. You could still see the surroundings pretty normally at Upper Grinnell Lake. Views down the valley were pretty hazy, though, and the color of Grinnell Lake was not as spectacular as it usually is. But the trail was gorgeous anyway.

No issues on the trail. The waterfall crossing still has water, but less than a month ago, I found it easy to cross.


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My goal today was to touch the glacier and I did. I'm not a fan of crossing the outlet stream to get over there, so I didn't do it on my first visit.

September 4 - Ptarmigan Lake - 10.0 miles (658.7 total)

It was a pretty smoky morning in Many Glacier. I ended up wearing a surgical mask while I hiked to block some of the smoke (wish I had taken an N95). I wanted to catch sunrise, but it was a non-event with the smoke. Still, there were nice views along the trail, and the skies were a little clearer up near the Ptarmigan Wall. I picked some huckleberries, but they were few and far between.

Smoke situation improved throughout the day.


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I was interested in checking out the boulder field behind the lake, so I did.

September 5 - Dragon’s Tail False Summit - 6.9 miles (665.6 total)

I was worried about the smoke in the forecast, but it was an absolutely GORGEOUS morning up at Logan Pass. If there was some haze, it was barely noticeable. Clouds moved in eventually, but I enjoyed watching their shadows race across the ground. It was windy in spots on the trail, but not consistent.

I arrived at the parking lot at 7:13am and found a spot, but I guess it probably filled up 5-10 minutes later with the number of cars heading in.


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September 7 - Swiftcurrent Lake Loop - 5.4 miles (671 total)

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Walked the lake loop to enjoy one last beer at Many Glacier Hotel, and to catch sunset on the walk home.

September 8 - Last walk down the Swiftcurrent Pass trail - 5.7 miles (676.7 total)

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September 9 - Huckleberry Lookout - 12.0 miles (688.7 total)

It snowed overnight/in the morning, but roads were still pretty warm, so there were no issues with driving, even at Logan Pass. Most of the precipitation (at least that morning) was on the east side, which was very cloudy. It started to clear up as soon as I got over the divide.
No issues on the trail - it’s a really nice trail to walk, pleasant for the first 4 miles, even with no views. The mountain lived up to its name and I was able to pick some huckleberries (better picking at higher elevations). The views from the lookout were just spectacular, and I’m glad I finally made it up there.


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I realized I really missed the west side of the park as I was wrapping up my Gunsight hike, but smoke kept me away until pretty much the last minute of my summer. Loved the lookout, and glad I made it a priority to get to before I left.

September 10 - Cracker Lake - 14.2 miles (702.9 total)

The trail was slightly muddy from recent rain and messy from horses for the first two miles, fine after that. Changes in the amount of daylight meant the lake wasn’t fully in the sun until after 12:30pm! However the morning reflections were really great, and watching the lake change color with the sun was neat.

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Made sure my last hike was to my favorite destination.

September 12

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Smoky "sunrise" as I was leaving the park to drive home.
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by al_in_al »

zozeppelin wrote: Sun Oct 09, 2022 11:03 am Not to diminish the epic summer, but when I first read 700 miles I thought you were going to say you hiked every trail in the park this season as I believe that is roughly the current count. Truly incredible considering you were working at the same time.
That would have been a fun goal! But there are lots of trail miles I'll never get to because I don't backpack. I knew going in that I would probably repeat a lot of miles in the Many Glacier area because it would be convenient - I truly never got tired of the miles I covered over and over.

Some notable hikes that I missed out on this summer:

Lee Ridge - hiked it in 2017 and really enjoyed it, except for the 4 straight miles of spider webs I walked through. I would have done this again (or possibly as a loop with the Belly River trail), but it was not on my priority list.

Triple Divide Pass - hiked it in 2018, and would love to get up there again. I think it didn't make it into my plans because I didn't want to drive the Cut Bank Road again. It's not really that bad, but I get nervous about my tires.

I still have not been to Bowman or Kintla Lakes because I am not sure what the roads are like, and don't want to take my small sedan. And I also would have had to try to get a vehicle pass. My employee badge got me on the GTTSR whenever I wanted, but not the North Fork.

Mt. Brown Lookout - the elevation profile has always scared me away in the past, but I really thought I would get to hike it this year. I blame the late opening of the GTTSR and gas prices. Next time I'm in the park, I'm doing this hike!

I was really interested in doing the South Shore St. Mary Lake hike (starting at the 1913 ranger station and shuttling back to the VC from St. Mary Falls), but never fit it in. Delayed start of the full shuttle schedule pushed it off my list in favor of "better" trails that kept opening up.

I also really wanted to hike the Carthew-Alderson trail in Waterton, and even booked a hotel and shuttle ticket. But the more I thought about it, the more I didn't want to rush due to the short border hours (Chief Mountain is still closed, and Carway was only open 8am-6pm each day), so I cancelled those plans. I assume I'll be back in the future when the border is a little more convenient to cross.
zozeppelin wrote: Sun Oct 09, 2022 11:03 am Maybe not a trip report, but would be interested in hearing about the work arrangement and day in day out perspective from an employee (vs a visitor).
I'll come back and add some details about work.
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by paul »

It sounds like you had a summer to remember! What a dream summer, really. Thanks so much for sharing this with us.
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by al_in_al »

The work arrangement is pretty normal - you work 5 days a week and get 2 days off in a row. Time basically doesn't exist in the park, so it doesn't matter if your weekend isn't actually on the weekend. No one ever has any idea what day it is. We were also allowed to take a vacation - I had no problem getting 4 days off in a row once over the summer. There can be opportunities to work overtime, but I was never asked to (I had indicated I wasn't there for the hours/money). Being understaffed (in my department) didn't mean anyone worked longer hours, we were just alone at the desk most of the time and not able to provide good customer service. It wasn't great.

I worked front desk and like the schedule - generally you have either an AM or PM shift, with nice blocks of time before or after to get out and do something. I personally thought the job was pretty easy, so I had energy to go hike on work days. And if it was particularly stressful, the cure was to get out in nature anyway.

When we were open full hours, shifts were 6-2 and 3-11, when we had enough people to cover a mid-shift. Not a fan of the mid-shift, but that was the day I did my laundry AND I was able to get out in time to go to the Native America Speaks talk at the amphitheater (one of my favorite parts of the summer was going to the evening programs). We always got our 2 day weekend, and I was never scheduled for a full 40 hour week the whole season (avg was 34 hrs/wk).

Swiftcurrent has probably the worst living situation for employees. Room was free this year, but I would probably be upset in the future to pay the same to live at Swift vs the other, better properties. Housing is in cabins - a few of the higher-level managers get private cabins with a private bathroom, lower-level managers get a single room in a multi-person cabin, and everyone else (like me!) has bunkbeds and 2-3 roommates - the 4 person cabins had next to no personal space - insanely small. The shared separate bathrooms were not as annoying as I thought they'd be - it's a short walk from the cabins, and I saw the milky way more times than I can count. Rec room is underground and floods and smelled moldy - I avoided it except to do laundry. No wifi in the cabins (only in dining and rec rooms). There isn't enough space for everyone in the cabins though, so some Swiftcurrent employees live at Many Glacier or in offsite housing, and shuttle in.

The employee dining room was good in some ways (we had people who knew how to cook), and disappointing in others - no ability to opt out, but I wouldn't have wanted to because it would be time consuming and expensive to have to feed yourself. Meals are served on a schedule, with some limited food available in-between. Worst was probably breakfast. There was never coffee. Are you kidding me? Who doesn't provide coffee for breakfast? Do kids these days not drink coffee? Also I wasn't able to get hot breakfast on days I had an early shift, which was lame. What was available off-hours was extremely inconsistent - and a lot of it disappeared in the evenings. I had to scrounge for hiking lunches. At the beginning of the season we couldn't even make PB&J because there was no PB for weeks because of the recall.

Otherwise, my off time was basically the same as being a tourist.
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by tibber »

Fascinating. Thanks again for sharing your summer with us. It was a pleasure to read and hike virtually with you. It takes a lot of work to keep a daily diary.
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by teapot57 »

Wow. I am really impressed with all the hiking you did this summer. Thanks for taking the time to share your write ups and photos with us.

I also enjoyed reading about your work experience. I was in the Swiftcurrent lobby many times this summer. There didn’t seem to be many front desk people, so I am pretty sure I saw you and can guess which one you are. :D

I am curious about this employee rec room. Is it in the basement of the restaurant/store building?

There were some weeks of summer when the Internet was for guests only, and other times when I was staying at the campground and could log on without being a hotel guest. Kinda sucked when I was staying at the campground and had to drive all the way up to Babb to send an “I am alive” message. I never asked, but would the front desk staff be open or have the ability to let people staying at the campground log onto the Internet for a brief message?!

So glad that despite it being understaffed, that you had the time and ability to hike as often as you did.
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by al_in_al »

teapot57 wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 10:39 pm I also enjoyed reading about your work experience. I was in the Swiftcurrent lobby many times this summer. There didn’t seem to be many front desk people, so I am pretty sure I saw you and can guess which one you are. :D
Assuming you were in some of the photos in your TR, you don't look familiar (which means if I saw you, you weren't a troublemaker!). I would have been one of the ones wearing a uniform (not a manager). Also probably the only one who stood up at the desk my whole shift.
teapot57 wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 10:39 pm I am curious about this employee rec room. Is it in the basement of the restaurant/store building?
Yes, directly below the restaurant part of the building.
teapot57 wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 10:39 pm There were some weeks of summer when the Internet was for guests only, and other times when I was staying at the campground and could log on without being a hotel guest. Kinda sucked when I was staying at the campground and had to drive all the way up to Babb to send an “I am alive” message. I never asked, but would the front desk staff be open or have the ability to let people staying at the campground log onto the Internet for a brief message?!
There was about a week where no password was needed - honestly, it was glorious as fielding internet questions was probably the least favorite part of my job. There was also about a 5 day stretch where internet did not work at all, which was also nice because I could just tell everyone that the internet wasn't working (the bad part was that it didn't work for employees either). There was also apparently an AT&T hotspot that just auto connected anyone with AT&T, which was nice for them, but confusing for everyone else (I don't have AT&T so I couldn't tell anyone how it worked).

The way internet access was set up at Swift, there was NO WAY for us to give you a password to use. No matter how nice you were or how convincing your story was, there was simply no password to give out. You needed a name and matching room number, no way around it. (Well, technically, I could have entered my personal employee details on your phone to share my access, but I'm not doing that. Sorry.)

There were some random-named networks, one called SWIFT popped up halfway through the summer. No idea what it was or who had access to it, but it was not me. I know guests did not believe me when I told them I didn't know what it was, but it was the truth. Believe me, I did not get paid enough to be a gatekeeper of the wifi signal!

I did try to help everyone struggling without internet when I could - my favorite was the woman who needed to print a campground reservation (for some reason they didn't believe that she had actually booked a site at MG) - so she gave me her recreation.gov password and I printed it for her.
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by teapot57 »

Thanks for the reply. I’m glad I never asked the front desk staff about internet access! I can pick up my Canadian carrier from Babb, so it wasn’t really a big deal, just something I was curious about since because access seemed inconsistent.
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

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teapot57 wrote: Sat Oct 29, 2022 10:20 am Thanks for the reply. I’m glad I never asked the front desk staff about internet access! I can pick up my Canadian carrier from Babb, so it wasn’t really a big deal, just something I was curious about since because access seemed inconsistent.
Inconsistent is to be expected. It's the middle of nowhere, and IT staff/equipment are far away. And there is the AccessParks middleman. Lots of points of failure. Even when wifi was "working" it didn't always work well, or constantly required re-logging in. Even for the staff.

People asking for a password and understanding when I said "Access is for checked-in guests only" weren't a problem AT ALL. It was the guests who constantly needed help connecting that took up a lot of our time (I'm not an IT person, once I verify that you are entering the same name/room as I have in the system, I can't help, but I got blamed if their phone didn't connect). Or the ones who wanted to argue with me/share their life story about why they were special and deserved access.
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by teapot57 »

Inconsistent is to be expected. It's the middle of nowhere, and IT staff/equipment are far away. And there is the AccessParks middleman. Lots of points of failure.
I totally get that. I meant access in terms of sometimes needing to be a hotel guest and sometimes not. And I also now understand that employees weren’t given much info on the how’s and why’s of it all.

It must have been something to witness the bear and moose incident at MG hotel.

I’m sure you’ve had some amusing comments/questions from visitors. Would love to hear some of your favorites. :D
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by al_in_al »

teapot57 wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 9:47 am I’m sure you’ve had some amusing comments/questions from visitors. Would love to hear some of your favorites. :D
About 50% of people think that Fishercap Lake is Fisher CAMP Lake.

A surprising number of people asked where the Many Glacier was. "The Many Glacier Hotel?" "No, the Many Glacier, I want to take a picture of it." "That's the name of this valley/area of the park. Did you mean Grinnell Glacier?" "No." ...

Some guys asking about water conditions on the northern loop, when I told them they'd need to ask a ranger: "We thought you were a ranger!" That explains a lot of the trail questions I got asked - at least when people got mad at me for not knowing things, especially about bear closures. (My favorite part of the job was talking about trails - except for "what's your favorite trail" - legit answered they are all my favorite, which no one wanted to hear).

People reading the sign we put up that says "Iceberg Trail is Closed", then looking at me: "Is Iceberg closed?"

Oh, and the name of the company that takes cash from the hotel is Grizzly Security - printed on their bulletproof vests - one day the guard was waiting to get the cash, and a guest walks up and started asking him about grizzly bear safety. He seemed really surprised - and I was like "oh, he's just the money guy". I'm honestly surprised I only saw that happen once.

People calling in on the phone to make a reservation for same or next day. Getting to the end of the process and asking, "Now, what hotel is this and where are you located?"

The woman who wanted to check in early, and I said "Let me check to see if any of the rooms are clean yet." - "Oh, that doesn't matter I have a cabin." (No, I didn't have a cabin ready, either).

My favorite was a group of women, filling up their water bottles, asking if there was a bathroom at the trailhead. "Which trailhead?" "Iceberg." "No, there's no toilet at that trailhead." They are visibly disappointed (which I didn't understand and was about to explain that the trailhead is really close by), "So, where's the nearest bathroom." Ah, "Well, you are in luck, you are literally blocking the door to the women's restroom right now."
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by tibber »

Those are great. Thanks for sharing. The Grizzly money guy being asked about bear safety was a good one... and like you said, surprised they weren't questioned more often.

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 :lol: . She told a much better story as you can see from the reaction in the picture.
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I'll always remember it and think of it from time to time when I take water from my water tube.
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by teapot57 »

Thanks for sharing! The one with the Grizzly Security guy has to be my favorite.

And tibber, that is HILARIOUS!
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Re: A Whole Summer in Glacier - 2022

Post by Jay w »

I finally finished the trip report. Well done and I enjoyed it. Just a couple comments.

-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.

-I was going to hike on the east side of St. Mary to Silver Dollar beach, I think that's the name. We started up near Virginia Falls and the vegetation was so high and thick that I couldn't see the trail. Also, a bear could be 3 feet away and you wouldn't see it. It spooked me so bad we didn't continue. We made it maybe a 1/2 mile. It looked as if the trail was originally quite wide which makes sense since it was a major trail. If you haven't hiked this trail, I'm not sure you missed much.

I've sat in the lobby of Swiftcurrent many times transferring photos off memory cards. I've heard the questions that people ask, and it's surprising how some don't really think much. I've also gotten asked about logging onto the internet because people assume I have connection. Frankly, it seems like it would be better just to eliminate wifi for guests.

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