This year I was lucky enough to get a permit in early September for the Northern Traverse east to west. The permit was for 7 nights and the itinerary was:
Cosley Lake,
Mokanwanis Junction,
Mokawanis Junction,
Waterton River,
Lake Francis,
Boulder Pass,
and Bowman Lake.
I was joined by friends Tim and Jason and Jason's friend Micheal, Jason and Tim are members of this chat page although I don't know if they still login anymore.
Day 1 - August 30
Jason and Micheal flew in from Houston and I flew in from Boston. Tim recently moved to Montana so he picked us up at the airport. We all came on the same 2nd fight from Denver so it was easy to meetup.
The logistics of this trip were the toughest part. Anytime, you do the Northern Traverse the logistics are difficult because you start on one end of the park and end up at the other. This year logistics were even harder because the rental car rates were so high we decided to try to not use rentals. It would have cost us something like $2500 - $3000 to rent a car for week.
After picking us up at the airport Tim drove us to Hungry Horse where we had lunch. Then we headed over to a house in Columbia Falls where Jason arranged to pick up a Turo vehicle which he rented for a day. He worked it out with the owner to rent the car for a day and leave it at Chief Mountain Customs. The owner would pick it up there. This was a really good deal since most rental companies would never do this or they would charge excessive fees for it.
After this we headed over to East Glacier. Tim has a friends in East Glacier that allowed us to stay at their home. I ended up getting a motel room for two nights but Tim, Jason and Micheal stayed there.
Day 2 - August 31
First order of business on Day 2 was to pickup the permit. We wanted to change our permit and switch MOK with MOL on nights 2 and 3 and switch Waterton River with Kootnei on day 4. Finally we wanted to switch Bowman lake with Upper Kintla lake for the last night.
Tim and I headed over to the Two medicine back country office and tried to get there when it opened at 7:30am. I usually find if you get there 10 minutes before it opens you usually don't have many people ahead of you. However, we were not lucky this day. When we got there, a line of about 12-15 people were ahead of us. It was probably about 5 or 6 different groups. It turned out that a whole bunch of CDT hikers were just getting to the park at this time. It if it wasn't for them there would be only 2 parties in front of us.
What made matters worse was the ranger doing the permits was not very good at processing people very quickly. He didn't seem to realize that time was important factor for people to get available options since you have 4 other permitting locations in the park who are processing walkin permits simultaneously. Most BC rangers kind of get that better and try not waste time when people aren't sure what they want to do. They usually process different groups simultaneously if they can.
So me and Tim waited and anguished as the people ahead of us were slowly processed. Finally an hour and half later it was our turn. That hour and half delay pretty much ruined our chances of getting the changes that we wanted. We were however able to change the last night to Upper Kintla Lake. Both of us left the office a bit dejected though since going into the day we figured we would probably get all of our changes.
After having breakfast in East Glacier, the next order of business was getting Tim's car dropped off at Kintla Lake parking lot. Tim arranged for woman to follow us up to Kintla from East Glacier and then give us a ride back. This was for a fee of course.
Meanwhile, Jason and Michael took the Turo vehicle to Many Glacier for day hiking. Michael had never been to the park so it was a good introduction for him.
We all met back up for Dinner at East Glacier in the evening.
Day 3 - Sept 1- The hike begins
I left all my belongings that I wasn't hiking with in Tim's car at Kintla. So there was no way for me to know if I was getting calls or texts in the morning. I left my motel room a little late and hiked over with my pack to Tim's Friend's house in East Glacier. The guys were pretty ready to go. Jason was reducing his food weight. I filled up my water bladder with tab water and then tested the nozzle. Ut Oh! it didn't work! Everyone was ready to go and it looked like I needed different hydration option for hiking. So we decided to check a couple of hiking stores along the way. First was East Glacier, then Browning (the hardware store was supposed to have hiking bladders) and then St. Mary. Michael also needed some blister treatment stuff. After trying 3 or 4 places with no luck, I figured I could use the clip from my gravity filter while hiking. It was decent work around although not perfect.
We arrived at Chief Mountain Customs trailhead sometime around 10:30am. We left with Turo vehicle there to be picked up by it's owners. Off we went down the trail. The packs are at the heaviest on the first day because you have all food for the entire trip on your back. Each meal you eat makes the pack lighter. My main concern was my achiles tendon which had been bothering me all summer long. it was particularly bad with week before when I took a test run with backpack fully weighted down with gear. So I started my hike trying not to push myself too hard.
The others guys slowly hiked farther away from me. I think they stopped a few times to wait up for me but I told them don't worry about me. We all had a can bear spray so we were well equipped to handle that type of encounter.
The Belly River suspension bridge is always fun.
Jason crossing the bridge
Tim Crossing the bridge
Near the Belly River ranger station
Yours truely not far from Cosley lake.
We got to camp at different times, I think Tim was first. I thought I was second since I passed Jason and Micheal by the Gross Ventre Falls but those sneaky guys took a short cut along the Cosley lake shore line and ended up sitting there waiting for me at the food prep area.
All the camps in Cosley Lake are large with plenty of room for our three tents. We got camp three. Two other sites were taken and fourth camp at the lake was still open at that point.
Cosley lake is beautiful and we hung out on the beach the rest of the afternoon. I took a short swim, Jason and Michael fished. Tim read his book.
Not all the pictures are mine, this one is from Jason. I think most of the best pictures came from Jason's pixel 5 phone.
One of the people in camp was a guy named Ed from the midwest. He was new to backpacking and had just retired. He seemed a bit nervous about his trip which was for 6 days. More on this in a bit.
Just before dinner time a couple of elderly hikers came into camp and took the last site.
Day 4 - Sept 2 - Cosley Lake to Mokawannis Lake
The next morning I got up just before sunrise to see if I could get some nice photos. In September the Sun comes up after 6:30 so it really wasn't very early.
Later I headed over to food prep area breakfast. Jason and Tim were talking to Ed who was packing up is pack. Ed had decided that he was hiking out that morning instead of going on to his next camp at Mokawannis lake. He said he had trouble sleeping and he didn't feel up to continuing on his trip. I felt bad for him and I think he was making a mistake. It was only his second day and it was short day to MOL plus everyone has a tough time sleeping on the first night. Anyway, Ed graciously gave us permission to use his site and we were very grateful! Ah no Mokawannis Junction camp today!
I noticed that one of food bags at the prep area was hanging very low. I could easily grab it with my hands, it wasn't more than 6 ft from the ground if that. It was the elderly couples food bag and must have been like that all night. A bear could have easily gotten that bag. As we packing up our stuff at around 8:30am I guess we were getting a little loud with the joking and we heard the elderly lady yelling at us to keep quiet. I guess they were still in their tent sleeping. Well, we quietly packed up the rest of our gear from then on. I sure hope they stop hanging their food so low.
Next stop Mokawannis Lake, actually I was last in the order of hiking and I came across Tim, Jason and Mike sitting in the Glens Lake Head food prep area. After a brief stop we headed over to the Lake and our second camp.
After setting up camp at the lake we had some lunch and later hiked up to Margaret Lake. The trail up with lake is getting more overgrown every time I do it. This time the dry stream bed was almost fully covered by shrubs.
Mike by the falls
Jason and Michael both jumped into Margaret lake.
Heading back from the lake
I took a detour to checkout the outlet of the lake.
Our camp at MOL, my tent is the Nemo. Mike is the photographer here.
Once we got back to camp we started talking about the plan for the next day. Originally the plan was to day hike up to the Sue bench. The guys started talking about what time we should leave and the details and in back of my mind I'm thinking my achiles is killing me and there's no way I will be able to do an off trail hike tomorrow and then a 15 mile backpack with next day. So, I told them you guys can go up there tomorrow but I'm going to just take it easy in camp and try to rest my foot for the day. I can hang out here and just swim and do nothing all day. So then everyone else says you know what that sounds a lot better that busting our butts going up there tomorrow. We can all just hang out here at the lake. So all of our plans changed, Day 3 would be a lazy day it the lake.
The evening came and we got more pictures.
Tim and I having philosophical conversations
Every picture that is really good, is Jason's
The master and his camera